Diop, Boubacar Boris 1946-

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Diop, Boubacar Boris 1946-

PERSONAL:

Born October 26, 1946, in Dakar, Senegal. Education: Earned a degree.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dakar, Senegal.

CAREER:

Has worked as a teacher in a grammar school in Saint Louis, Senegal, and as a technical advisor to Senagal's Ministry of Culture; freelance journalist, beginning 1991; currently full-time writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Prix du Bureau Sénégalais du Droit d'Auteur, 1981, for Le temps de Tamango: suivi de Thiaroye Terre Rouge; Grand Prix de la République du Sénégal pour les Lettres, 1990, for Les tambours de la mémoire.

WRITINGS:

Le temps de Tamango: suivi de Thiaroye Terre Rouge, L'Harmattan (Paris, France), 1981.

Les tambours de la mémoire, L'Harmattan (Paris, France), 1990.

Reubeuss! Ou, l'expérience de la foi, privately printed, 1990.

Les traces de la meute (novel), L'Harmattan (Paris, France), 1993.

Le cavalier et son ombre (novel), Stock (Paris, France), 1997.

(Editor, with Hélène Bezençon) Saison d'amour et de colère: poèmes et nouvelles du Sahel, Les Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénegal (Dakar, Senegal), 1998.

Murambi: Le livre des ossements (novel), Stock (Paris, France), 2000, translation by Fiona McLaughlin published as Murambi: The Book of Bones, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2006.

Un amour d'enfant (screenplay), Les Productions du Lion Rouge, 2004.

(With Odile Tobner and François-Xavier Verschave) Négrophobie, Arènes (Paris, France), 2005.

(With Chaíbou Dan-Inna and Vieux Savané) Portraits de journalistes et de cinéastes africaines, Institut Panos Afrique de l'Ouest (Dakar, Senegal), 2005.

Kaveena (novel), P. Rey (Paris, France), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Neue Zucker Zeitung and Afrique, perspectives et réalités.

SIDELIGHTS:

Boubacar Boris Diop was born October 26, 1946, in Dakar, Senegal. He studied in French schools, where he developed an early interest in writing, as well as a sensitivity to the racism that he met with on a daily basis. Prior to leaving school, he finished a novel addressing the racist situation, though the work has never been published. Following graduation, Diop went on to earn degrees in literature and philosophy, then taught grammar school in the northern Senegal town of Saint Louis. Still aware of the cultural and racial divisions all around him, he was heavily influenced by his readings of Marxist philosophy. He founded a club, the purpose of which was to protest colonialism by organizing various events, such as dances, where attendees were also treated to political speeches. Eventually, Diop became a journalist, writing for various newspapers as well as for the radio. He also produced plays, poetry, scripts, and essays. His first novel, Le temps de Tamango: suivi de Thiaroye Terre Rouge, was published in 1981 in France. The book earned Diop the Prix du Bureau Sénégalais du Droit d'Auteur. His second book, Lestambours de la mémoire, was also an award winner, earning the Grand Prix de la République du Sénégal pour les Lettres.

In 1998 Diop spent several months in Rwanda as part of a group effort of a number of artists to reflect on the country's 1994 genocide. The project was known as "Rwanda, écrire par devoir de mémoire," which means "Rwanda, writing lest we forget." After spending time with survivors and learning of the atrocities, Diop wrote a book based on what he learned—Murambi: The Book of Bones. The book became his best-known work to date and has been translated widely. Couched as a novel, though it is based heavily on fact, it tells the story of Hutu-Tutsi Cornelius Uvimana, an exile who returns to Rwanda following the massacre only to learn of the terrible fate of his family. While outsiders look upon the events as having been based on a history of hate, Cornelius is too emotionally close to the events and the country, despite having spent many years living elsewhere, to admit to himself the truth behind the upheaval. Michele Levy acknowledged in World Literature Today that "the text ultimately exposes both views as dangerous oversimplifications and bares instead the complex tangle of issues." Harper's critic John Leonard likened Diop's honest, brutal account to "a knife whose incisions are so sharp and swift, parts of us are gone before we are conscious of being stroked."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1998, review of Le cavalier et son ombre, p. 314.

French Review, December, 2001, Claire L. Dehon, review of Murambi: Le livre des ossements, p. 388.

Harper's, July, 2006, John Leonard, "New Books," review of Murambi: The Book of Bones, p. 81.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, summer, 2006, Jeanne Koopman, review of Murambi.

Research in African Literatures, summer, 1990, Fredric Michelman, "From Tamango to Thiaroye—The Revolution Back on Course?," review of Le temps de Tamango: suivi de Thiaroye Terre Rouge,

Third World Quarterly, June, 2007, "Rwanda's Speaking Subjects: The Inescapable Affiliations of Boubacar Boris Diop's Murambi," p. 655.

World Literature Today, spring, 1998, Adele King, review of Le cavalier et son ombre; May 1, 2007, Michele Levy, review of Murambi, p. 67.