 Fatou Diome (2015) | |
| Born | 1968 Niodior, Senegal |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Nationality | Senegalese, French |
| Period | 2001–present |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
Fatou Diome (born 1968 in Niodior) is a French-Senegalese writer known for her best-selling novel The Belly of the Atlantic, which was published in 2001. [ citation needed ] Her work explores immigrant life in France, and the relationship between France and Africa. Fatou Diome lives in Strasbourg, France.[ citation needed ]
Fatou Diome was born in Niodior on the island of the same name in the Sine-Saloum Delta. She was raised by her grandmother and went to school and became passionate about French literature. At the age of 13 she left Niodior and continued her education in M'Bour. Later she moved to Dakar to study at the university, supporting herself by working as a housekeeper.[ citation needed ]
In 1990, she married a Frenchman and moved to France. Rejected by her traditional Serer family and by his family, she divorced two years later.[ citation needed ] In 1994 Diome moved to Strasbourg to study at the University of Strasbourg. The title of her Ph.D. thesis was Le Voyage, les échanges et la formation dans l'œuvre littéraire et cinématographique de Ousmane Sembène (Voyage, Exchanges, and Education in the Literary and Cinematographic Work of Ousmane Sembène).[ citation needed ]
From 2002 to 2003, Diome was a part-time lecturer at Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg, and at the Institute of Pedagogy of Karlsruhe (Germany). [1] From September 2004 to November 2006, she presented the cultural and literary television program Nuit Blanche (Sleepless night) on the French channel France 3 Alsace. [1]
Diome published a collection of short stories, La Préférence nationale, in 2001. Her first novel, The Belly of the Atlantic (French : Le Ventre de l'Atlantique) became a bestseller in France and is published in English by Serpent's Tail. [ citation needed ] Her first novel was partly autobiographical and is about Salie, a Senegalese immigrant living in Strasbourg, and her younger brother Madicke, who stayed behind in Senegal. After years of struggle Salie has finally arrived and settled in France. Her younger brother dreams of following her to France and becoming a successful football player. The Belly of the Atlantic was translated into English, German and Spanish. Her second novel, Kétala, was published in 2006 in France.[ citation needed ]
Diome's work explores France and Senegal, and the relationship between the two countries. Her style is influenced by the traditional oral literature of Africa. Her language is authentic and vivid, and it traces a portrait of the difficulties of integrating in France as an immigrant, mixed with nostalgia and memories of a childhood in Senegal.[ citation needed ]
Fatou Diome rebels against intolerant people, she defends the role of the school and Republicanism.
Faced with the rise of populism, Fatou Diome is regularly invited to share her point of view on political and social issues on television media or press. In particular, she takes a strong position against the rise of populism in France with the “Rassemblement National”. As a writer, in her books, she wishes to remind people of the importance of republican and human values because she believes that “when facing people who are obsessed with national identity, we must no longer remain silent”. [2]
Diome pursues the subject of debt and neoliberalization in "Le ventre de l'Atlantique" (2003) and "Celles qui attendent" (2010). In both works, debt is used to defend austerity measures and drive immigrants to pursue jobs in other countries under precarious conditions. [3]
Diome also runs messages for a more egalitarian cooperation between Europe and Africa. She believes that, at the moment, Europe is controlling an unequal cooperation where Africa has no control on its assets. She also defends the idea that the former colonial power relationship remains persistent on each African and European people, which prevents this cooperation from being more egalitarian. She thinks that everyone, regardless of their origin, “should feel human being when facing another human being”. [4] Therefore, without placing more responsibility on one continent than on the other, Fatou Diome proclaims the need for Africans to free themselves from their victim status and for Europeans to give up their dominant position in order to put an end to exploiting/exploited, donor/recipient schemes. Finally, the author specifies that helping people means helping them not to need you any longer, denouncing the development aid set up by Western countries in Africa among others.[ citation needed ]
Mariama Bâ was a Senegalese author and feminist, whose two French-language novels were both translated into more than a dozen languages. Born in Dakar, Senegal, she was raised a Muslim.
Le Ventre de Paris (1873) is the third novel in French writer Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. It is set in and around Les Halles, the enormous, busy central market of 19th-century Paris. Les Halles, rebuilt in cast iron and glass during the Second Empire was a landmark of modernity in the city, the wholesale and retail center of a thriving food industry. Le Ventre de Paris is Zola's first novel entirely on the working class.
Ousmane Sembène, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The Los Angeles Times considered him one of the greatest authors of Africa and he has often been called the "father of African film".
Cinema of Africa covers both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary cinematic technology in use. As there are more than 50 countries with audiovisual traditions, there is no one single 'African cinema'. Both historically and culturally, there are major regional differences between North African and sub-Saharan cinemas, and between the cinemas of different countries.
Aminata Sow Fall is a Senegalese-born author. While her native language is Wolof, her books are written in French. She is considered "the first published woman novelist from francophone Black Africa".
The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years. Senegal is the capital of African cinema and the most important place of African film production after its independence from France in 1960.
Senegalese literature is written or literary work which has been produced by writers born in the West African state. Senegalese literary works are mostly written in French, the language of the colonial administration. However, there are many instances of works being written in Arabic and the native languages of Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Diola, Soninke and Serer. Oral traditions, in the form of Griot storytellers, constitute a historical element of the Senegalese canon and have persisted as cultural custodians throughout the nation's history. A form of proto-Senegalese literature arose during the mid 19th century with the works of David Abbé Boilat, who produced written ethnographic literature which supported French Colonial rule. This genre of Senegalese literature continued to expand during the 1920s with the works of Bakary Diallo and Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne. Earlier literary examples exist in the form of Qur’anic texts which led to the growth of a form African linguistic expressionism using the Arabic alphabet, known as Ajami. Poets of this genre include Ahmad Ayan Sih and Dhu al-nun.
Mahama Johnson Traoré (1942–2010) was a Senegalese film director, writer, and co-founder of the Ouagadougou-based Pan-African Cinema Festival (FESPACO).
Women in Senegal have a traditional social status as shaped by local custom and religion. According to 2005 survey, the female genital mutilation prevalence rate stands at 28% of all women in Senegal aged between 15 and 49.
The Point of Sangomar is a sand spit located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Saloum Delta, which marks the end of the Petite Côte west of Senegal.
Aïssatou Diamanka-Besland is a Senegalese writer. She writes about immigration in France and Africa. She is a French-Senegalese citizen and she was born in 1972 in Pikine, Senegal. At the age of 12 to 13 she begins to write her first texts and she begins to be very passionate about literature.
Ros Schwartz is an English literary translator, who translates Francophone literature into English. In 2009 she was awarded the Chevalier d’Honneur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her services to French literature.
Fatou Kiné Camara is a Senegalese lawyer and women's rights campaigner. The daughter of a magistrate and government minister, Camara has a doctorate in law and works as a lecturer and researcher. She has supported campaigns for reform in many areas of the law and is particularly involved in attempting to increase the availability of abortions and free legal advice.
Mame Seck Mbacké was a Senegalese writer. She wrote in French and in Wolof.
Fatou Sow is a Senegalese feminist sociologist specialising in sociology of gender.
Mariam Kaba is a French-Guinean actress.
Younousse Sèye is a Senegalese artist and actress. Considered Senegal's first woman painter, she is best known for her mixed-media works incorporating cowrie shells. Having no formal training in either visual art or acting, she achieved success in the post-independence Dakar art scene and appeared in several major films by the Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène.
The Belly of the Atlantic, published in 2003 by Anne Carrière, is Senegalese writer Fatou Diome's debut novel. It depicts the dreams of emigration of young Senegalese people to France.
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