Languages and history
To fully understand Mayotte's relationship with French literature, it's essential to look back at its history, complex though it is. Geographically, Mayotte is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, comprising two main islands: Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre. Together with Grande Comore, Mohéli and Anjouan, they form the larger archipelago of the Comoros. Culturally, these territories constitute a veritable crossroads of civilizations, as much because of successive waves of settlement as because they served as a stopover point, sometimes permanent, for merchants transiting between Africa and Madagascar. These vast influences continue to endure and to be heard in the various idioms still in use, but they are also at the origin of a particular, rich and unique culture, which can be felt in the themes addressed in the literature. However, there is also the (thorny) question of identity, for by refusing the independence chosen by the other Comorian islands, by being linked to countries strongly marked by the decolonization process, but at the same time being dependent on a distant metropolis that did not always bother to give it its rightful place, Mayotte has found itself at a crossroads. This complex reality, whether from a linguistic, religious or societal point of view, is strewn with doubts, questions, irony or a certain violence. This dense material is constantly being deconstructed by a growing number of authors.
The first document in French has nothing literary about it: it's the treaty, ratified in 1843, by which Sultan Andriantsoly sold Mayotte to France in exchange for a life annuity. Of course, prior to this, the archipelago had a strong oral tradition, with ancient tales inherited from ties with Madagascar and Africa, as well as a corpus of written texts, generally using the Arabic alphabet, these included texts by Cadi Omar ben Aboubacar(Chronique arabe de Maore, 1865), Prince Saïd Omar el Masella(L'Histoire de la possession de Mayotte, 1875) and Sheikh Mkadara ben Mohamed(Chronique de Mtsamboro, 1931). In the 20th century, the question of a definitive attachment to the hexagon arose through several referendums - much to the dismay of the Union of the Comoros, which claimed sovereignty after having itself detached from French authority. It was ratified in 2011 when the archipelago officially became an overseas department, which did little to resolve the many problems facing the territory: economic crisis, shortages, social unrest, illegal immigration, etc. Illiteracy was another major concern: for a long time confined to madrassas (Koranic schools), schooling adapted to the slow pace at which structures were being created, with the first French college only being built in 1980... It was on this soil, which at first glance seems anything but fertile, that at least three writers made their mark: Nassur Attoumani, born in Moroni (Comoros) in 1954 but now living in Mayotte, Abdou Salam Baco and Alain-Kamal Martial, both from Mzouazia, where they were born in 1965 and 1976 respectively.
A top three..
Nassur Attoumani is undoubtedly the most famous of all Maoran authors, and his work has been the subject of a number of theses, notably by Christophe Cosker, published by Presses Universitaires Indianocéaniques: Nassur Attoumani en images, pour une poétique de l'image ironique, 2020; Lecteurs de Nassur Attoumani : enjeux d'une réception francophone dans l'océan Indien, 2021. It has to be said that the writer seems to be a man of many talents, wearing many hats: musician, playwright, novelist, he also writes for young people and doesn't hesitate to be satirical when he adapts Molière's Tartuffe in the form of a comic strip with the evocative title, Le Turban et la Capote. In 1989, he founded a theater company, M'kakamba (Arc-en-ciel), and staged his first play, La Fille du polygame, the same year, for although he knows how to be humorous, his subjects are often far from light-hearted. Thus, in Mon mari est plus qu'un fou : c'est un homme (Naïve, 2006, Grand Prix littéraire de l'océan Indien), and in Tonton ! rends-moi ma virginité... (Orphie, 2015), he doesn't hesitate to denounce domestic violence and incest. Nassur Attoumani also draws on the history of his archipelago. In his essay Mayotte : identité bafouée (L'Harmattan, 2013), he takes on the role of ethnologist, recounting traditional tales, and anthropologist, attempting to explain the socio-cultural transformation his people are undergoing, while in his novel Nerf de bœuf (L'Harmattan, 2001) he tackles the issue of slavery. Similarly, in one of his best-known texts, Le Calvaire des baobabs, he returns to the 1940s and the decisive encounter between a Mahorese child and a white man. Finally, in 2015, he signed his first collection of poetry, Requiem pour un nègre, published by Ngo in Libreville, once again urging his readers not to forget the past.
No less political, just as much of a music lover, and although younger than Attoumani, Abdou Salam Baco can pride himself on having written the first French-language novel from Mahorais with Brûlante est ma terre (L'Harmattan, 1991), a text with strong autobiographical overtones. Once again, the difficult confrontation between natives and metropolitans is the subject of this novel, and although it ends with an erroneous prophecy - Mayotte will become a French department - it has lost little of its interest. Two years later, the author signed Dans un cri silencieux with the same publisher, before reverting to his real name (Abdou Mambo Baco) to pursue a body of work that never ceases to question colonization and to demonstrate its commitment, notably with Si longue que soit la nuit... (éditions Menaibuc, 2013), which brings his trilogy to a close.
Alain-Kamal Martial is the next generation, linking Mayotte, where he grew up, with metropolitan France, where he completed a DEA in Literature before joining LERTA (Laboratoire d'études et de recherches théâtrales d'Avignon). His reputation extends far beyond France's borders, as his plays have been performed in some twenty countries, one of the most representative perhaps being 17 millions d'enterrements pour une dépouille nationale, translated into Portuguese by writer Mia Couto and performed at the Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique. Failing to be seen on stage, some of her works are also available in print, such as Zakia Madi : la chatouilleuse (L'Harmattan, 2004) which, as its name suggests, takes as its heroine one of the women who fought in the late 1960s for Mayotte to join France, or Papa m'a suicideR (Avant-scène théâtre, 2006) which portrays the disappearance of a young girl abused by her father. In 2007, Les Veuves enjoyed an international tour.
... and a dynamic new generation
To this trio, we should of course add the name of Nassuf Djailani. Born in Mayotte in 1981, he pursued his schooling in France, where he now resides, but this in no way prevents him from worrying about the fate of his archipelago. These concerns and his mixed-race values have inspired a collection of poems, Naître ici, published in 2019 by the fine Bruno Doucet publishing house and winner of the Prix Fetkann Maryse Condé in 2020. These texts represent just the tip of the iceberg, as Nassuf Djailani is the author of a dozen titles published by L'Harmattan(Se résoudre à filer vers le Sud, 2012), Passage(s)(Bob, 2016) and above all Komedit(Roucoulement, 2013, Comorian Vertigo, 2017, etc.). His sumptuously-titled collection of short stories, L'Irrésistible nécessité de mordre dans une mangue (2020), offers the rare chance to discover Mayotte through his eyes.
The momentum of Mayotte's literature seems to be confirmed by the creation of a regional agency for books and reading in 2015, which initiated a residency program for children's authors, as well as by the launch of a book fair in 2017 and, in 2019, the birth of a Club des écrivains et des amis du livre (CEAL) chaired by Soulaimana Noussoura. Reference works are also starting to appear, such as Les Littératures francophones de l'archipel des Comores (Classiques Garnier), which gives pride of place to Mayotte and includes contributors Linda Rasoamanana, Buata B. Malela and Rémi A. Tchokothe, and several websites keep a close eye on literary news, such as www.revueprojectiles.com and the blog www.muzdalifahouse.com. In conclusion, while we hope that the efforts undertaken to encourage the new generation to take up writing will be successful, it is in any case appreciable to note that women are also taking up the pen, as demonstrated by the "Écrire au féminin" competition co-organized in 2020 by the DLLP (Direction du livre et de la lecture publique) and the Délégation régionale des droits des femmes (Regional Delegation for Women's Rights). Strangely enough, the prizewinner (Yasmina Aouny, with La Cause) entered under a male pseudonym (Abdoul Fouadi), but this should not obscure the fact that since the early 2000s, women have taken up the fight to denounce the violence they suffer, which was first started by men. Now, generally under the guise of fiction, they no longer hesitate to tell their own stories, giving them universal appeal and making themselves spokespersons for the feminist cause. For example, Laoura Ahmed has written a story(Le Contenu de la fiole, published by Société des écrivains, 2006) as well as a thesis on customary law in marriage(La Construction d'un système juridique), Zahara Silahi, Rihana Hamidouna, Séline Soula, Rozette Yssouf and others.
