VOLTAIQUE/LA NOIRE DE...

by Ousmane Sembène

Recueil de nouvelles. Ces textes sont écrits comme on aime, comme on souffre, au plus près de soi. Certains, comme " Lettres de France ", "La Noire de. ", "Le Voltaïque", sont inoubliables. Il est rare que la parole se fasse si proche, et acquiert du même coup, en cet accueil si simple, une telle exactitude. Le cœur, ici, oblige à la rigueur, à la bonne rigueur, celle qui est éprise de justice et de vérité. Selon cette voie, Sembène Ousmane dénonce donc, dans ces belles nouvelles, un monde inhumain dans lequel les âmes et les corps de ses frères et de ses sœurs d'Afrique ont souffert de tant de blessures et témoigné de tant de fierté.

Genres: Senegal, Short Stories, Fiction, Africa, France, Western Africa, African Literature

215 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Ousmane Sembène often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The Los Angeles Times considered him one of the greatest authors of Africa and has often been called the "Father of African film."

Reviews

[Ferris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is deceptively simple at first glance. Ousmane Sembene, clearly drawing from his own life experience in both Senegal and France, paints a poignant portrait of the isolation and destructive nature of colonialism. The stories look at the distortion of dreams and the destruction of culture in a variety of instances. Sembene also writes about gender issues in Africa. I think he is creating a parallel vision of women submitting to men and Senegal submitting to France, and the demeaning situation which insinuates itself into the very fiber of the people and the culture.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by the late and great father of African film, these short stories are good reads and I can't help but notice his use of words to evoke visual images.

[Katrinak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good short stories that reveal much of the history, culture, society and religion of Senegal.

[Nico Battersby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of short anti-colonial stories. First novel I read in French, as the engaging stories are simply written

[Kovalsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rilettura

In questi giorni avverto forte la necessità di un pezzetto di Senegal solo per me.
Anche leggere può essere una piccola consolazione. Per chi ha vissuto la comunità senegalese dall’interno, in questa raccolta di racconti non sarà difficile ritrovare tutte le luci e le ombre di una società che non riesce ancora a liberarsi dalle sue catene fisiche e morali.
Un retaggio culturale asfissiante e fortemente impregnato di ignoranza, moralismo religioso, maschilismo e patriarcato; ( si parla tanto del patriarcato bianco perché non si conosce quanto sia deleterio e pericoloso il patriarcato nero con la connivenza del matriarcato ad esso annesso ).
Le donne sono sempre vittime. In patria e all’estero. Sono sempre un trofeo degli uomini da esibire ed asservire.
La fede religiosa è vissuta e portata all’estremo diventando fanatismo, spogliandosi del senso più benefico della spiritualità per regredire a semplice legge brandita dagli uomini per giudicare, terrorizzare, controllare.
Le donne accettano tutto di buona lena ( si guardi ad esempio alla poligamia e a come funziona il divorzio in Senegal ), per abitudine, quieto vivere, convenzione sociale, per amore dei soldi e del profitto facile, rendendosi così complici e corresponsabili della loro condizione ancora retriva e sottomessa.
Il Senegal con i suoi profumi, i suoi odori, i suoi colori, il suo wolof, i suoi talibè, le sue nenie, i suoi quartieri, le sue bellezze e le sue difficoltà, qui dentro c’è tutto.
Ma sopratutto Ousmane Sembène ci invita a riflettere. Credo volesse spronare i suoi stessi connazionali a riflettere.
Molti intellettuali africani nel corso degli anni si sono chiesti: “ L’Afrique veut elle le développement”?
L’Africa vuole il progresso?
A ben pensarci forse non è sempre così, se non ci si vuole sforzare di mettere in discussione quei cardini dogmatici su cui poggiano molti stati di questo bellissimo e allo stesso tempo complicato continente

[Carrotcakie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this collection (with some very powerful stories (Her Three Days, The Promised Land, Tribal Scars or The Voltaique)). I’ll have to read/reflect on some of them again more closely (In the Face of History, The Community).

Some passages:
“They’re black outside - but inside they’re just like the colonialists” - A Matter of Conscience
“Each had been desired and spoilt for a time; then the man, like a gorged vulture, had left them on one side and the venom of chagrin at having been mere plaything had entered their hearts. They quite understood, it was all quite clear to them, that they could sink no lower; so they clung to what was left to them, that is to say, to saving what dignity remained to them by false words and gaining advantages at the expense of the other” - Her Three Days
“Let me tell you, my dear old friend, all the joys that your letters bring me - an intoxication of sunshine, heat that makes my body exude torrents, waves of pulsations which send the warm blood edged with foam that’s laced with bracing memories surging through my whole being (inside and out). I’ve never realized that memories are so necessary” …. “They keep alive the events of the past and chew them over, make a meal of them in the present” - Letters from France
“But perhaps he believed that dignity and the respect of his children could only be acquired at the cost of a certain kind of life” - Chaiba the Algerian
“Is there any young African who doesn’t long to go to France? Alas, the youngsters don’t know the difference between living in France and being a servant there” - The Promised land

[Carlo Bugni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Di fronte alla storia ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
Un amore della «Via Sabbiosa» ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Presa di coscienza ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
La madre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I suoi tre giorni ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
Lettere dalla Francia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Comunità ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Chaiba ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Mahmoud Fall ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Souleymane ⭐️⭐️⭐️
La Nera di… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
Nostalgia ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½
Il Voltaico ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grande regista senegalese, padre del cinema africano, Sembène si dimostra anche abile narratore. La sua poetica è sempre realista, di denuncia, senza possibilità di incomprensioni. Ad essere attaccato è ovviamente il colonialismo, ma c’è spazio anche per dure critiche alla poligamia, all’ipocrisia religiosa e alla misoginia. Racconti che esprimono il loro massimo potenziale nel bellissimo epistolario a senso unico Lettere dalla Francia.

[hannah rosenman · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Lentement, elle se noyait. Les larges horizons de naguère se limitaient à la couleur de sa peau qui soudain lui inspirait une terreur invincible. Sa peau. Sa noirceur. Craintivement, elle fuyait en elle-même."

J'ai commencé de lire cette collection d'histoires pour mon séminaire sur les relations formelles entre la France et l'Afrique de l'ouest. J'ai lui "Lettres de France", est c'est indomptable. J'ai écrit mon papier final sur deux générations des femmes et immigrantes. Les autres histoires sont intéressants aussi, en particulier "La Noire De..." (le même sujet du film de Sembène). Il y a des histoires que je ne comprenais pas trop (mais c'est justement à cause de mon niveau de la langue).

[Nora Rawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this glimpse of Senegal during colonialism and after, including the story that inspired one of his films. The title story was especially interesting as it's been rare in the West African literature I've read to have slavery addressed--though notably, it seems scarrification was practiced earlier even if in Ghana it may have spread more after raids expanded, so it still fits into a pattern of perhaps differentiation from, lack of connection with, those who were taken. Some vivid critiques of polyamory here in how it impacts women, as well of the corruption of the administrators who continued the de facto colonization.

[Camila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read only one of the stories titled "Tribal Scars and the Voltaique"

[April May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this when I was in 8th grade and this really widened my awareness and sight toward the black people. This was very educational.

[Bill Keefe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, in truth it probably wasn't ok. These stories are not particularly well written, the story lines are sloppily constructed, often simply dropping off, and the points, the messages, rarely clear to the reader (My less than stellar French could influence my judgement but I really don't think so.) "Why?" is the only thought to comes to mind after a handful of them.

So why 2 stars? Well, one star for being a book by an African author writing in the early '60s about life for Africans in Africa and as expatriates from their native countries. I think credit is due the authors who set the stage for the strong body of African literature that now exists.

The second star is for Sembene's feel for character, for emotion. There is a palpable truth in his characters and their experiences that is very much worth reading. Sembene lived through a dramatic period of change for Senegalese and Africans overall and he lived it fully. A Muslim who fought for the French, illegally emigrated to France, worked on docks for 10 years, and actively participated in the major political issues of the day, he gives us an important view into this period and, through his characters, a sense of what it was like to live through it.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good stretch for me--a genre I don't normally read, and an author from a completely different country and culture. Plenty to think about in each carefully woven short story, and a good glimpse of African thoughts and struggles. Obviously it is not a good idea to take a single book and turn it into a stereotype of a continent, but I was surprised at the many ways the characters drawn by this Senegalese author fit some of my preconceived ideas about African life.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story why certain African tribes had scars.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories about Senegal or Senegalese...
Informative... telling...
3 notable:
Lettres de France
Voltaique (Tribal Scars)
Her Three Days

[Annedroid · Rating 2 out of 5]

its good