Casting the New Côte d'Ivoire: Ethnic Assertion and West African Orature in Azo Vauguy's Zakwato

In 2009 Ivorian poet Azo Vauguy published the book-length poem Zakwato, a myth that Vauguy translated out of its oral keeping and ethnic language, Bété, into written French. Vauguy presents Zakwato at a defining political moment. Côte d'Ivoire's first civil war (2002–07) ended with a 2008 reconciliation agreement. Vauguy's note of dedication to then-president Laurent Gbagbo offers Zakwato in support of an ideological position. Gbagbo and his supporters promoted a rigid nationalism, defined by the concept Ivoirité, which determined "Ivorian-ness" by ethnic affiliation. While studies of African poetry tend to situate works within a broad postcolonial discourse, recognizing ethno-cultural specifics is necessary for understanding how Vauguy provides an affective contour to the political rhetoric. Referred to as a neo-oralist by peers, Vauguy revives an Afro-Francophone literary tradition that was robustly developed in Côte d'Ivoire in the 1980s. An analysis of Zakwato and its conditions of emergence provides a non-metropolitan view of postcoloniality, offering an example of the local, on-the-ground complications that decolonial efforts face when trying to reconcile historical colonial interference with contemporary political restructuring.