Boubacar Boris Diop
Diop, Boubacar Boris (b. 1946). Senegalese writer. Among the most artistically and philosophically serious writers of his generation, Diop, journalist and co-founder of the Senegalese weekly Sud-hebdo, has published two novels and a play. Le Temps de Tamango (1981) is a re-creation of the historical events of 1968 in Senegal, viewed from a 21st-c. perspective in which the neo-colonial state has been replaced by communism. Diop is preoccupied not only with the incompetence of the present leadership but with the nature of revolutionary movements and the role of intellectuals in revolutionary activity. Tamango, though spiked with healthy scepticism and leaving no room for facile illusions, is written in a style which bubbles with energy and dry humour. At the formal level, the novel breaks with all the conventions of traditional Western narrative. Diop's second novel, Les Tambours de la mémoire (1987), less formally innovative, is also more sombre: the intellectual, no longer able to identify with urban radical movements, tries to join up with a peasant resistance organization in the forest, led by a legendary female figure. Both Diop's works have won prizes: Les Tambours was the first winner of the Abdou Diouf Literary Award in 1990. His play, Thiaroye terre rouge (1981), is a powerful forerunner of Sembene's film, Camp de Thiaroye. Diop is also actively involved in the national languages movement.
[Firinne Ni Chréach´in]
