The beginnings
The year 1962 was doubly important for French-speaking Chadian literature, as it saw the emergence of two texts that followed in the footsteps of the oral tradition but nevertheless marked a decisive turning point. The first was a play, La Dot, written by Palou Bebnoné, a cultural organizer and high school teacher, who presented it at the Concours Théâtral Interafricain (CTI) organized by RFI. He followed this up three years later with Kaltouma, although neither of these works was published, unlike the third, Mbang-Gaourang, published by DAEC coopération in 1974. The second well-known text is a collection of fourteen tales and legends which, however, was reprinted over and over again and remains in the catalog of Présence africaine. This collection, Au Tchad sous les étoiles, was the brainchild of Joseph Brahim Seid (1927-1980) - the future Minister of Justice - who wanted to ensure that his culture would be passed on to future generations. Unfortunately, this significant transition from orality to writing did not result in a rapid and abundant output, as the civil wars that raged in the country from 1972 onwards brought the process to a halt. Yet, without paradox, it was History, with a capital letter, that proved to be the fertile - albeit often acidic - ground from which the first generation of writers drew their inspiration. Antoine Bangui-Rombaye, born in Bodo in 1933, caused a sensation in 1980 with his account of his imprisonment between 1972 and 1975. Prisoner of Tombalbaye is now impossible to find, as is his 1983 novel Les Ombres de Koh. On the other hand, his third book - Tchad : élections sous contrôle (1996-1997) - is still available from L'Harmattan, for those interested in the story of this man who, despite everything, remained in the political arena and even ran for president in 1996.
In the same autobiographical vein, Tribulation d'un jeune Tchadien (Tribulation of a Young Chadian ) by Michel N'Gangbet Kosnaye (1938-1993) evokes the author's childhood in a colonized country, then his militancy for independence on his arrival in France. Khayar Oumar Defallah, six years his junior, describes a different kind of youth in Fils de nomade : les mémoires du dromadaire (L'Harmattan), a title that will not forget that the desert is omnipresent in Chad. For his part, Zakaria Fadoul Khidir (1946-2019) places himself at the intersection between life story and ethnology: in Les Moments difficiles : dans les prisons d'Hissène Habré en 1989 (Sépia), he shares his own experiences and those of his brothers, who died while in prison, while in Anthropologie des populations tchadiennes: les Béri du Tchad (L'Harmattan) or Violences et événements au Tchad (Les Impliqués) he takes a more distanced approach. The impetuosity to bear witness is followed by - or added to - the impetuosity to imagine, but fiction also feeds on reality, sometimes distorting it to better denounce it. Thus, Maoundé Naïndouba draws on the drama of apartheid in South Africa for his play L'Étudiant de Soweto, while Mahamat Baba Moustapha also heats up the stage with his own works(Le Commandant Chaka, Le Maître des Djinns), some of which evoke the dictatorship in no uncertain terms. Winner of the Grand Prix du CTI in 1979 with Makarie aux épines, he died an early death in Paris three years later, leaving behind Le Souffle de l'harmattan, a novel of friendship between a Muslim and a Christian set against the backdrop of civil war, which is still being published by Sépia.
Writing at all costs
It is in the novelistic vein that one of those to whom we owe the influence of Chad's literature on the international scene today also embarks. Noël Nétonon Ndjékéry, born on December 25, 1956, grew up in Moundou and later settled in Switzerland. After Sang de kola, published by L'Harmattan in 1999, he moved on to publishers in his adopted country, first Infolio with Chroniques tchadiennes in 2008 and Mosso in 2011, then Hélice Hélas with Au petit bonheur la brousse in 2019 and above all his magnum opus in 2022, Il n'y a pas d'arc-en-ciel au paradis. Published after ten years in the writing, this formidable novel oscillates between enchanting utopia and the abrupt reality of a country subjected to two hundred years of human exploitation, a skilful balancing act, to be read with eyes closed, which was crowned by the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire and the Prix Hors concours. On the women's side, this double impetus can be felt: Mariam Mahamat Nour, who works in politics, has published the first volume of her memoirs - Aljawhara : une fille du Sahel tchadien (L'Harmattan) -, while Marie-Christine Koundja combines her job as a diplomat with her appetite for fiction: with Kam-Ndjaha, la dévoreuse, published by Menaibuc, she became her country's first novelist at the dawn of the new millennium. An unrepentant nomad, by choice and by necessity, Koulsy Lamko is eclectic in his fields of research, moving from theater to literary creation, officiating at the University Arts Center of the National University of Rwanda as well as at the International Writers' Parliament in Mexico. His work is just like him, multiple and abundant, with plays published by Lansman(Tout bas... si bas, Comme des flèches) and several novels published by various publishers: Les Racines du yucca by Philippe Rey, La Phalène des collines by Serpent à plumes, Aurore by Bruit des autres... Finally, Nimrod Bena Djangrang, better known by his first name, is considered one of the spearheads of this resolutely emerging literature. Recipient of some of the most prestigious prizes - which honor the memory of Édouard Glissant, Apollinaire or Ahmadou-Kourouma - he is prolix and equally at ease in poetic art(L'Enfant n'est pas mort published by Doucey, Petit éloge de la lumière nature published by Obsidiane, etc.) and in longer formats(La Traversée de Montparnasse and Le Temps liquide published by Gallimard, Gens de brume published by Actes Sud, etc.)
After him comes an impressively large generation, and even if it's not always easy for these young authors to get published by publishers with a strong following, some of them nonetheless make their texts accessible throughout the world and, above all, allow them to explore all styles. These include multi-hatted artist Adji Moussa(DJ l'infiltré, L'Harmattan), Ahmat Zéïdane Bichara(Journal d'un réfugié politique, Au Bord de l'eau), children's author Abakar Adam Abaye(Contes d'Afrique, Planète rebelle), Djiddi Ali Sougoudi(Le Petit prince des sables de l'Ennedi, L'Harmattan), cartoonist Adjim Danngar(Djarabane, Delcourt) and playwright Hervé Madjirébaye(Déportation rémunérée, L'Harmattan). Authors born in the 90s are similarly numerous and promising, and will undoubtedly include Joslain Djéria, Youssouf Terri, Népidi Sonia Soulanoudjingar, Mona Kallimi Sougui, Baranang Ebert Don, Zina Abderahim, Abdelhamid Mahamat Saleh..
