Languages and literature
The fact that Mauritanian literature has not yet really taken off - unlike in countries as close as Mali and Senegal, for example, which are also former colonies - is explained by two reasons, according to some intellectuals. The first is that the writings of national authors are struggling to find their way into school textbooks. This problem, which raises questions on a broader continental scale, is now being addressed: at the end of the 20th century, journals specializing in emerging literature began to appear, and the curriculum at the University of Nouakchott has been revised. The second explanation lies in Mauritania's relationship with the languages, both written and spoken, of the various ethnic groups that make up its population. Thus, while Arabic (without specifying which language, even though classical Arabic, modern Arabic and hassanya are not necessarily inter-understandable) has been the official language since 1968, and French remained so until 1991 (but is still widely practiced and used), no status has been given to the languages spoken by the black Mauritanian community, which was concerned, even in 2022 with the adoption of a new law on elementary school education, that Arabic would be imposed on it. This debate - political and resulting in particular from the arbitrary geographical division during colonization - as well as unilingualism (more frequent in the north than in the south of the country) have undoubtedly also contributed to the lack of permeability and therefore to the invisibility of writers.
Nevertheless, a literature exists in Mauritania. Mostly written in French, it emerged - surprisingly - after decolonization, since it is generally accepted that the first contemporary work is Presque griffonnages ou la Francophonie, published by Oumar Bâ (1917-1998) in 1966. This illustrious but poorly documented poet also collected eighteen modern Fulani poems, which he translated (available online at Persée.fr), and wrote the essay Le Fouta-Tôro, au carrefour des cultures (published by L'Harmattan), which confirmed his interest in the oral tradition. Téné Youssouf Gueye, born in 1923, followed in his footsteps. He excelled in all genres, composing short stories, grouped under the title L'Orée du Sahel, poems(Sahéliennes) and a play, Les Exilés de Goumel, published in 1975 in Dakar. His only novel , Relia ou le chemin de l'honneur, which deals with the customs of the Kaédi society in which he grew up , unfortunately did not meet with the expected success. He was arrested in 1986 for signing the Manifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanian, at a time when Colonel Sidi Ahmed Ould Taya was engaged in a terrible oppression of blacks, and died in Oualata prison two years later.
Contemporary literature
Always shy, Mauritanian literature became more accessible with the generations of the second half of the twentieth century, and continued to be expressed in all its forms: theater with Moussa Diagana(La Légende du Wagadu vue par Sïa Yatabéré, Targuiya, Un quart d'heure avant...) and poetry(Cherguiya: lyrical odes to a woman of the Sahel, Notules de rêves pour une symphonie amoureuse, from which is extracted "Mon pays est une perle discrète", a formula that will become proverbial) with Ousmane Moussa Diagana. In his novel, Di Ben Amar brings to life, in Îlot de peine dans un océan de sable, a nomadic hero from the north of Mauritania who has gone to Dakar to seek his fortune. His quest will take on the appearance of an unhappy epic and will become the symbol of the painful path that leads from the loss of traditions to modernity. A theme that will be echoed in the Last of the Nomads by El Ghassem Ould Ahmedou who will give his book an undeniable ethnographic scope. If, at the dawn of the 1990s, Moussa Ould Ebnou will attempt a breakthrough to science fiction(L'Amour impossible, Barzakh), soon the themes of preference linking the literature to the issues of everyday life will take over, when they will not be denounced societal problems as in J'étais à Oulata : le racisme d'État en Mauritanie by Alassane Harouna Boye (L'Harmattan) or in Otages, a book with a strong autobiographical accent by Mama Moussa Diaw, an author who grew up between Mauritania and Senegal, and suffered the clashes that opposed these two countries in 1989.
The pure testimony joins the realist current and the style is sharpened with writers who finally gained an international scope by breaking the editorial barriers. Thus, the poet Abdoul-Ali War, born in 1951 in Bababé and now living in France where he works in the film industry, published his collection J'ai égaré mon nom (I Misplaced My Name ) with Editions Obsidiane in 2020. As for Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, if he is still in the catalog of Elyzad (a Tunisian publishing house whose books are also distributed in France) with some of his emblematic titles such as Le Griot de l'émir or Je suis seul, he has now also integrated that of Sabine Wespieser in 2021 with Parias, a confession in which Mauritania of today is outlined. Recipient of the prestigious Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2016 for Le Tambour des larmes (Elyzad), the story of a young girl who becomes pregnant and must flee the marriage that her parents want to impose on her, Beyrouk is undoubtedly one of the important Mauritanian voices, but we should not forget Aichetou who carries that of her female congeners in her texts that oscillate, in a beautiful balance, between stories, short stories and poetry(I am N'Daté.. la Fin des esseulées, Au-delà des frontières, etc.). Bios Diallo - who heads the association Traversées Mauritanides, which has been working since 2006 to promote writers via a website, the organization of literary meetings and the animation of a neighborhood house - has published with L'Harmattan(Les Pleurs de l'arc-en-ciel, Les Os de la terre, Une vie de sébile) and with Obsidiane(La Saigne). He also contributes to the magnificent review Apulée initiated by Hubert Haddad within the Zulma publishing house. Finally, the very young Fanta Dramé published a first novel with Plon, in 2022, which has all the makings of a true story, since in Ajar-Paris she recounts the life of her father - born in Mauritania, exiled in France - and, through him, his double culture.
