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Research in African Literatures 34.3 (2003) 142-147



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Véronique Tadjo Speaks with Stephen Gray


In South Africa during the month of March writers are known to migrate to Durban for the annual "Time of the Writer" festival, where a meeting of anglophone and francophone African practitioners is generally an important theme. In 2002, as a spin-off event, the Alliance Française in Johannesburg organized a round-table discussion with several of the visitors from the French-speaking world, and included Véronique Tadjo, a previous guest at the Time of the Writer who recently became a resident of the city.

She was born in Paris in 1955, but she has lived most of her life and completed her studies in Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa, where she taught for some years in the National University in Abidjan. Further studies took her to the Sorbonne Paris IV and to Howard University in Washington, DC. Apart from the works for adults mentioned in the following interview, she has recently published an anthology of poems for children with her own illustrations, called Talking Drums (London: A. and C. Black, 2001), and her Mamy Wata and the Monster (in the original French version) has been listed as one of only four works for children chosen as among the best hundred African books of the twentieth century.

The following interchange took place at my home in Johannesburg on 15 March 2002, while preparations for the round-table were in progress.

Stephen Gray: At the round-table session with francophone writers of Africa, held in Johannesburg's Alliance Française, the issue is to be problems of identity. Would you summarize what you wish to say on that score and about how your seven-month stay in South Africa has affected your sense of self so far?

Véronique Tadjo: Well, I had always wanted to come to South Africa, and of course especially after those 1994 elections, because as you know we all celebrated—we celebrated something which was so amazing for all of us. So I will say I was happy when at last I was given the opportunity to come, because I must stress that I am absolutely sure that what I am getting here is transforming me and will transform me in many ways: in terms of ideas, debates, and so on, like that session itself at the Alliance Française. Because a lot of what is happening here in South Africa generally is very relevant to the rest of the continent. So I am here to look at how South Africans handle their big questions, try to find similarities with my particular country of Côte d'Ivoire, and try to understand where they're going and, if possible, how this may be applied to other places.

Stephen Gray: You're still staying "they" and "them," instead of "us."

Véronique Tadjo: Yes, but just because I'm so new here and it's only for the moment. I'm sure it will shortly shift to "we"! But also I don't want to presume and pretend I know so much, when in fact I have realized I know so little! There is the South Africa you dream of, when you're bored at [End Page 142] home, seeing it through certain images . . . while there is quite another South Africa that you get to know when you live here. But I didn't come here directly, you follow?

Stephen Gray: Yes, a long wandering route.

Véronique Tadjo: And I'm very happy it went that way, because . . . well, let's not discuss now my life in the United States, in France, and then for some years in Britain; but within Africa first when I lived out of Côte d'Ivoire I moved to Nigeria, then to Kenya; especially the latter prepared me for South Africa. But I don't want to give the impression I have problems with Côte d'Ivoire as I don't, and I go back there regularly. If...

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