Négritude is beautiful, too
Black authors are giving French writing new voices
“WRITING is witchcraft,” says Marie-Sophie, Patrick Chamoiseau's West Indian heroine in “Texaco”, an epic saga of life in the slums of Fort-de-France in Martinique that won the Goncourt, the coveted French literary prize. The assertion has resonance. In pre-colonial times, the West Africans from whom Mr Chamoiseau is descended held words in awe, and admired and feared their griots, who were both minstrels and witch-doctors.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Négritude is beautiful, too”
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