Book Reviews

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Postcolonial Francophone Autobiographies: From Africa to the Antilles
(Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 2012) Njoya, Wandia Mwende
One of the postcolonial issues that cannot be skirted is that of the readership of writings by Africans in colonial languages. Ngugi wa Thiong’o famously addressed this issue in 1987, after which he shifted to writing in Gikuyu. Ngugi’s view on language created discomfort among many writers and critics and attracted accusations of isolationism. However, others have since adopted his view; for example, Boubacar Boris Diop turned to writing in Wolof. Edgar Sankara plunges into these choppy linguistic waters with his analysis of autobiographies written in French after the 1960s by writers from Africa and the Antilles. His book exhibits a transnational and transcontinental character in that it studies an impressive and diverse array of writers including Hampâté Bâ, the Malian who spent the latter part of his life in Côte d’Ivoire; Valentin Mudimbé, a Congolese professor resident in the United States; Kesso Barry, a woman born in Guinea Conakry and residing in France; the Martinicans Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant; and, lastly, Maryse Condé, the female Guadeloupian novelist now residing in the United States.