cameroon author wins top french literary prize
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Cameroon author wins top French literary prize

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Cameroon author wins top French literary prize

Paris - AFP

Cameroonian author Leonora Miano on Wednesday scooped France's Femina literary prize and used her acceptance speech to denounce racist insults directed at the French justice minister. "It's not only the minister who is insulted, but all black people who are reduced to being animals (by this)," Miano said, referring to two occasions in the past month when Christiane Taubira has been publicly compared to a monkey. Miano's "The Season of Darkness" ("La Saison de l'ombre") explores the loss of loved ones by sub-Saharan Africans during the slave trade. American author Richard Ford, meanwhile, won best foreign novel for "Canada" about a boy who has to fend for himself after his parents rob a bank. "I am very happy, for everyone who feels a little avenged today," Miano told the award ceremony in Paris. Earlier on Wednesday, Taubira made her first public comments about the racist taunts, warning of a rising tide of racism in France. "It is not about careless little slips of the tongue, it is much more serious than that," she said in an interview with left-wing daily Liberation. "Inhibitions are disappearing, dykes have been breached," she said. The first time Taubira was compared to a monkey was by a group of children whose parents had taken them on a protest against same-sex marriage. On the second occasion, the insult came from an electoral candidate of the far-right National Front who wrote on her Facebook page that she would prefer to see the minister "swinging from the branches rather than in government". "The Season of Darkness" is the seventh novel by Miano, 40, who has lived in France since 1991. "I work in my books on wounds that are deep rooted and universal, on what is not said, on questions that can be considered taboos," she said. "Some in the African diaspora have felt attacked by my literary offerings but I'm not here to pat anyone on the back," she said. The book follows the quest of a group of villagers to discover what has become of a dozen men who disappeared after an attack on their village. The word "slave", however, is never used because Miano said it did not make sense for the protagonists. "The majority of sub-Saharan Africans at the time were neither prisoners nor traffickers. They were simple people without the slightest power over events," she said. "I wanted to put the humanity of the characters at the forefront. Their emotions, their feelings. Anything that comes to mind when we look at images of bodies crammed together at the bottom of a ship or shackled captives," she added. The Femina Prize is awarded in three categories -- best French novel, best foreign novel and best essay -- by an all-woman jury. The best essay prize was awarded to Jean-Paul and Raphael Enthoven for a work entitled "Dictionnaire amoureux de Proust".

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

cameroon author wins top french literary prize cameroon author wins top french literary prize

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

cameroon author wins top french literary prize cameroon author wins top french literary prize

 



GMT 13:42 2015 Saturday ,04 April

Libyan warplane targets camp in Gharyan town

GMT 15:14 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

UN documents nearly 1,500 child soldiers in Yemen

GMT 07:24 2017 Sunday ,01 October

Mexico unlikely to find more quake survivors

GMT 16:15 2015 Wednesday ,11 November

German intelligence 'spied' on Fabius, FBI, UN bodies

GMT 01:32 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Russia's Putin earns about 157,000 USD in 2016

GMT 16:30 2017 Saturday ,15 July

Minister of planning gives priority

GMT 19:45 2017 Wednesday ,05 April

President of Senegal Meets Attorney General

GMT 05:18 2017 Thursday ,21 September

Over 80 missing after migrant boat sinks off Libya

GMT 19:22 2017 Saturday ,01 April

UN: Number of Syrian Refugees Tops 5 million

GMT 15:16 2016 Thursday ,29 September

FBI to put up database on police use of deadly force

GMT 05:06 2016 Friday ,30 September

Indian markets open flat
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday