Le roman Swahili: la notion de "littérature mineure" à l'épreuve (review)

Xavier Garnier's Le roman Swahili is an heir of the tradition of French-speaking literary criticism, whose authors have contributed fundamental publications to the study of literatures written in African languages. Albert Gérard's Four African Literatures and African Language Literatures and Alain Ricard's Littératures d'Afrique noire and the English version Languages and Literatures of Africa, groundbreaking overviews of anglophone writing, and Garnier and Ricard's L'effet roman, a survey of the first novels published in African languages, are unique not only because of their impressive scope, but also because of their original conceptualizations of Afrophone works, illuminating the texts' philosophical, social, and political dimensions.

Garnier approaches Swahili literature employing Deleuze and Guattari's concept, borrowed from Franz Kafka, of "minor literature." This reading, underscoring the political aspects of Swahili novelistic writing, is then developed in the discussions of such prominent Swahili authors as Shaaban Robert, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Mohamed Suleiman, and Said Ahmed Mohamed, as well as in chapters dealing with specific genres or trends in Swahili fiction, such as the didactic novel and the ethnographic novel, literature inspired by the ideology of ujamaa, or popular literature such as the detective novel.

In addition to the overall theoretical orientation of his interpretation, Garnier introduces a new conceptual framework in virtually each one of the book's chapters. So, for example, the work of Mohamed Suleiman is analyzed by applying the terminology of French philosopher Clément Rosset, of "the real and its double" (145): the characters of Mohamed Suleiman's novels are rarely rooted in reality. They "thirst" for something that is not there. If they fail to reconcile their yearning with the givens of reality, they succumb to conflicts, contradictions, even destruction and death.

Very original also is the conceptualization of the works of Said Ahmed Mohamed. Here, Garnier employs the concept of "transforming the world into images" (205). The possibility of representing the world in images is a privilege accorded to the rich; the poor are left with the disconsolate reality full of conflicts and material want. Garnier manages to accommodate within this conceptual scheme even S. A. Mohamed's most complex novels, such as Babu Alipofufuka (2001; it would apply equally to Dunia Yao, 2006, although this recent novel has, comprehensibly, not been covered in Garnier's work). In Babu Alipofufuka, the reality beyond the representation in images is desertified, devastated by the exploitation by the rich: "The terrible political statement that Ahmed Said makes in this latest novel is that there is no other side to the image apart from the desert and the death" (220; my trans.). Yet it is precisely to this other side of the image that the main character, named K, is forced to return in order to reestablish contacts with his ancestors and to awaken his own grandchildren from the slumber that the seclusion within the destructive world of images brings.

Full of inspiring ideas, fresh perspectives, and creative reflections of Swahili literary texts, Garnier's work is a highly valuable contribution to Swahili literary studies.