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Passing Through

Photo: S. Mahinsha

Raconteur Alan Mabanckou creates characters with multiple facets and places them in multiple situations

Choosing each word carefully, Mabanckou says there is a child in him that the writer tries to cater to. A child who dedicates each book to his mother, Pauline Kengué, who inspired the raconteur in him. After debuting as a poet, Mabanckou wrote his first novel ‘Bleu-Blanc-Rouge.’ Author of six volumes of poetry and six novels, Mabanckou is a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches Francophone African literature.

Excerpts from an interview.

“My mother used to tell me fables and Africa is rich in those. I draw on those fables to tell stories. A writer should go back to his roots to express himself in words. It was a refashioning of one of the fables that won me the prestigious Prix Renaudot for the novel ‘Mémoire de Porc-épic’ (Memoirs of a Porcupine, 2006).

Although this is my first trip to India, I have long been an admirer of Rabindranth Tagore’s poetry.

As a child I used to see a lot of Indian films that were screened in our country. Hollywood was too expensive for us.

So I am a great admirer of Dara Singh. In fact, when I reached Mumbai, the first person I wanted to meet was Dara Singh.

I straddle three continents: born in Africa, write in French and now teach in the United States. I create characters with multiple facets and place them in multiple situations. Such multiple identities are commonplace in Africa where many worlds co-exist. For instance, even today, there are many who believe in spirits and ancestor worship. They live along side academics, scientists, teachers and doctors.

Creating literary worlds

While ‘Broken Glass’ narrated the story of a bar owner who finally goes to the river, perhaps to drown himself, ‘Memoirs of a Porcupine’ begins when his journal is found by a loyal worker in his bar. So, I create a world for my readers. My characters inhabit that world. Look at Marques’ ‘1000 days of Solitude.’ It covers many years, places, periods and characters…

A good writer is not bound by geographical, regional or linguistic boundaries. Of course, cultural perceptions matter and some of the nuances might be lost in translation. For instance, in ‘African Psycho,’ my protagonist’s name is Nakobomayo. A reader in Congo would immediately him as a killer or a would-be-assailant for his name in the Lingala language means ‘I am going to kill you.’ In Congo, names are supposed to reflect an individual’s character. That would be lost on a reader in any other country.

But translations help in reaching out to readers. My novels have been translated into 15 languages. Since, I don’t know many of the languages, I depend on the translators to be true to my images.

‘Broken Glass’ was staged as a play earlier. But I am adapting it for the stage now. It will be staged in Paris in December.

It is a tribute to James Baldwin, one of the greatest American writers. He chose to live in Paris and disappeared in 2007. His writings continue to inspire many writers by the way he dealt with issues like civil rights, his difficult childhood, struggle against American politics, homosexuality and so on… Twenty years later, in 2007, I tried to pay homage to the writer and trace his path as he evolved as author and activist.

Each of them throws light on a face of Africa. Africa is peopled by societies that are completely different in many respects. Writers like Ben Okri, Nadime Gordimer, Coetzee… each has a place on the literary map of the world.

I am working on a book that might take two more years to finish. It is about prostitution, a major problem in my country.

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