what is Chadian literature?
Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa, spreading between the Saharan desert in the north, the belt of Sahel in the middle, and the savanna in the south. Its more famous natural feature is the lake Chad; also the wildlife of the national park of Zakouma contributes to the country's visibility, at least in National Geographic. Yet the cultural, let alone intellectual life never really flourished in this part of the globe. No important Islamic centres, no written tradition, just a scarce patrimony of tales, sometimes speaking about hunting. The country is characterised by an enormous diversity and fragmentation of ethnic and linguistic groups (some 200 of them); the most important ones, apart from Arabs, are Sara, Kanembu, Masalit, Toubou, Masa, Bidiyo, Bulala, Zaghawa; there is also a tiny percentage of Fula.
Chad had once been a flourishing country, but it was around the 7th millennium BC. Later on, things tended to get worse and worse. Nonetheless, around the 8th c. AD, the Arab geographers spoke of the long-lasting Kanem Empire that, as the Kingdom of Bornu, survived almost till the beginning of the 20th c. Also, in the 15th and 16th c., the terrains east from the lake Chad became the centre of an Islamic sultanate of Bagirmi; later on, in 16th-17th c., eastwards from Kanem-Bornu there was Wadai Empire. Those states controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes and actively participated in the slave trade. In 1900, the French established a Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad that in 1920 was included in French Equatorial Africa. But the scarcity of resources to explore contributed to the absenteeism of the colonizers and the sluggish pace of the modernisation of the country (cotton production was introduced). Finally, Chad became independent in 1960. Five years later, a revolt of the Muslims in the north started a civil war. The history of instability continues up to the present day.
Political instability and economic misery explain the scarcity of literature, written either in Arabic or French. One of the earliest Francophone authors were Joseph Brahim Seid (1927-1980) and a playwright Mahamat "Baba" Moustapha (1952-1982). Today, most Chadian writers live in exile in France, and very few of them achieve relative visibility. Only the most assiduous readers of Francophone literature may know such novels as Les jambes d'Alice, by Nimrod Bena Djangrang (2001), set in the middle of the civil war, in 1979, right before the invasion of Libyan troops. The hero, a teacher in N'Djamena, nurtures various sexual obsessions, including a fascination for extremely tall women and foot fetishism. So he abandons his wife and daughter to travel through the country in a car, together with an extremely leggy companion, Alice. And this is how a love affair fills the void created by the encroaching war.
Chad had once been a flourishing country, but it was around the 7th millennium BC. Later on, things tended to get worse and worse. Nonetheless, around the 8th c. AD, the Arab geographers spoke of the long-lasting Kanem Empire that, as the Kingdom of Bornu, survived almost till the beginning of the 20th c. Also, in the 15th and 16th c., the terrains east from the lake Chad became the centre of an Islamic sultanate of Bagirmi; later on, in 16th-17th c., eastwards from Kanem-Bornu there was Wadai Empire. Those states controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes and actively participated in the slave trade. In 1900, the French established a Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad that in 1920 was included in French Equatorial Africa. But the scarcity of resources to explore contributed to the absenteeism of the colonizers and the sluggish pace of the modernisation of the country (cotton production was introduced). Finally, Chad became independent in 1960. Five years later, a revolt of the Muslims in the north started a civil war. The history of instability continues up to the present day.
Political instability and economic misery explain the scarcity of literature, written either in Arabic or French. One of the earliest Francophone authors were Joseph Brahim Seid (1927-1980) and a playwright Mahamat "Baba" Moustapha (1952-1982). Today, most Chadian writers live in exile in France, and very few of them achieve relative visibility. Only the most assiduous readers of Francophone literature may know such novels as Les jambes d'Alice, by Nimrod Bena Djangrang (2001), set in the middle of the civil war, in 1979, right before the invasion of Libyan troops. The hero, a teacher in N'Djamena, nurtures various sexual obsessions, including a fascination for extremely tall women and foot fetishism. So he abandons his wife and daughter to travel through the country in a car, together with an extremely leggy companion, Alice. And this is how a love affair fills the void created by the encroaching war.
I have read... nothing ...
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I have written... nothing ...
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