Aza ou le Nègre (review)

Aza ou le Nègre, an unknown French literary fiction unearthed and introduced to us by Loïc Thommeret, certainly highlights what can be considered to be a revolution in the genre of eighteenth-century French colonial fiction advocating the abolition of slavery. Unique and original in many ways within its historical context, the novel Aza ou le Nègre was anonymously written and published in 1792, at a turning point during the French Revolution and at a time when political discussions regarding the abolition of slavery provoked major controversies. The anonymous novel tells the story of Aza, a young African man captured somewhere in Africa and enslaved by French slave traders who transport him to Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, where he will endure dreadful suffering for several years. One night, while a violent earthquake hits the island, Aza takes this opportunity to escape from the plantations where he has been forced to work for years to finally live as a free man with a community of other escapees called the Nègres marrons somewhere deep in the remote mountains of the island. Later, when the young man hears that his fellow Africans, still enslaved in the plantations, have decided to lead a rebellion for their freedom, Aza rushes forward to help them and bravely participates in the battle. But the rebellion is soon crushed by the slave owners and Aza is forced to become a slave again, witnessing and enduring more suffering than ever before. To avoid another uprising, the surviving rebels are separated and sent away from the island. This is how Aza embarks in a Spanish vessel full of enslaved Native Americans and surrounded by five hundred armed sailors. Manufacturing weapons in secrecy, Aza and his new comrades patiently plot an uprising against their torturers. One night, the rebellion finally strikes and the captives manage to take control of the ship. But this intoxicating taste of victory does not last long before the sailors plan a successful retaliation and crush the rebellion. Captured once more, Aza remembers all of the suffering he had endured in his life and willingly awaits his death. But all of a sudden, a young French officer among the sailors sets him free, giving him firearms and food before leading him to a life raft in order to let the young African man flee from the ship. Before disappearing into the dark, the officer tells Aza how much he admires his bravery. Alone on the open sea, Aza is carried away by the waves for six days and six nights before reaching the coasts of his homeland: Africa. Landing somewhere close to the Niger, Aza meets the Jalofe (Wolof) tribe and tells his story to the inhabitants. Moved to tears, the Jalofes invite the escapee to stay and live among them, but Aza's deepest inner desire is to go back to the place he was born. Therefore, the former slave finally decides to leave the Jalofes and walks across the African continent for fifty days to return home, where he meets the father that he thought had died in slavery long ago.

As Loïc Thommeret explains in his introduction, Aza ou le Nègre shows striking differences from other traditional French colonial fictions written in the eighteenth century supporting the abolition of slavery. To begin with, love stories often play an important role in this genre of fiction, and a happy ending in which the main character and his lover are reunited is a frequent element. To the contrary, Aza ou le Nègre shows that the greatest desire of the main character is to be reunited not with his lover Narina, who dies at the very beginning of the story, but rather with his home country, from which he has been brutally dragged away. Then, among the various characteristics that makes Aza ou le Nègre unique and therefore different from any other French colonial fiction of its time lies the fact that a significant voice is given...