Alain Mabanckou | |
|---|---|
 Mabanckou at theFrankfurt Book Fair 2017 | |
| Born | (1966-02-24)24 February 1966 (age 59) |
| Education | Marien Ngouabi University;Université Paris-Dauphine |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist, journalist, poet, and academic |
| Website | www |
Alain Mabanckou (born 24 February 1966) is anovelist,journalist,poet, and academic, a French citizen born in theRepublic of the Congo, he is currently aProfessor ofLiterature atUCLA. He is best known for his novels and non-fiction writing depicting the experience of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora in France, includingBroken Glass (2005) and the Prix Renaudot-winningMemoirs of a Porcupine (2006).[1] He is among the best known and most successful writers in theFrench language,[2] and one of the best known African writers in France. In some circles in Paris he is known as "theSamuel Beckett of Africa".[3]
Mabanckou is also controversial,[4] and has been criticized by some African and diaspora writers for stating that Africans bear responsibility for their own misfortune.[5] He has argued against the idea that African and Caribbean writers should focus on their local realities in order to serve and express their communities. He further contends that categories such as nation, race, and territory fall short of encapsulating reality, and urges writers to create works that deal with issues beyond these subjects.[6]
Alain Mabanckou was born inCongo-Brazzaville in 1966. He spent his childhood in the coastal city ofPointe-Noire,[5] where he received his baccalaureate in Letters and Philosophy at the Lycée Karl Marx. After preliminary law classes at theMarien Ngouabi University inBrazzaville, he received a scholarship to go to France at the age of 22. He already had several manuscripts to his name, mostly collections of poems, which he began publishing three years later.
After receiving a post-graduate Diploma in Law from theUniversité Paris-Dauphine, he worked for about ten years for the groupSuez-Lyonnaise des Eaux.
Mabanckou dedicated himself increasingly to writing after the publication of his first novel,Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (Blue-White-Red), which won him theGrand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 1999.[1] Since then he has continued to regularly publish prose as well as poetry. HisAfrican Psycho (2003) is a novel written from the point of view of Gregoire Nakobomayo, a fictional African serial killer.
Mabanckou is best known for his fiction, notablyVerre cassé (Broken Glass), a comic novel centred on a Congolese former teacher and life in the bar he now frequents.[7]Verre cassé has also been the subject of several theatrical adaptations. It was published in English translation asBroken Glass in 2009.
In 2006 he publishedMemoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), which won thePrix Renaudot, one of the highest distinctions in French literature. The book is amagic realism-inspired reworking of a folk tale into a psychological portrait of Kibandi, a young Congolese man's descent into violence.[1] The folk tale is an African legend: "All human beings have an animal double. Some doubles are benign, others wicked." This adage focuses on the value placed on twinhood in the African tradition. Just as the text uses the notion of doubles as a key idea in the development of its theme of power and sacrifice, African tribes believe twins to be harbingers of health and prosperity in a family. However, they can also bring the opposite in disaster, and misfortune. There also exists a power dynamic between twins in that the second-born undertakes the more subservient role of guide that introduces the firstborn to the world. These two notions of duality and power dynamics come through in the characters, and their doubles, in the novel. The novel is narrated by one of these doubles, a porcupine, who is telling a baobab tree of the years he spent with Kibandi, his "master," establishing his subservient role. On Kibandi's tenth birthday, his father makes him drinkmayamvumbi, a potion, that links Kibandi to his "harmful double," the porcupine, for life, an instance of twinhood bringing misfortune. After the two carry out a string of murders in their village, even once violating the basic principle of Congolese magic of never harming twins, given their sacred place in tradition, Kibandi dies and the porcupine remains alive, and turns to the baobab to tell his story. During his confessions, the porcupine makes frequent, often poignant remarks on humanity, such as the endangering relationship between humans and animals and the sometimes exploitative role of ethnographers, all while staying true to authentic African traditions of storytelling, and twinhood.
In 2007, Mabanckou's early poetry was re-published byPoints-Seuil under the titleTant que les arbres s'enracineront dans la terre, as well as a biography ofJames Baldwin,Lettre à Jimmy (Fayard), on the 20th anniversary of Baldwin's death.[1]
Mabanckou's 2009 novel,Black Bazar, is a dark comic story set in Jip's, a Paris Afro-Cuban bar once frequented by Mabanckou, portraying the lives of characters from the various African diasporas of France.[2]
Mabanckou's work has been translated and published in 15 languages,[2] including several books in English.
In 2002, Mabanckou went to teachFrancophone Literature at theUniversity of Michigan as an assistant professor. After three years there he was hired in 2006 by theUniversity of California Los Angeles, where he is now a full professor in the French Department.[8] He currently lives inSanta Monica, California.[1] He was appointed visiting professor at theCollège de France (Chair of Artistic Creation) for 2016.
Mabanckou was a judge of the2022 Booker Prize, together withNeil MacGregor (chair),Shahidha Bari,Helen Castor andM. John Harrison.[9]
Mabanckou is the founder of the musical project Black Bazar.[10]
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