David Diop received the International Booker Prize for “Soul brother”

I am extremely happy to have won, it shows that literature has no borders, “novelist David Diop told AFP upon hearing the news, deeming” magnificent “that his translation allowed” the emotional charge. which touched French readers “to be” extended into the English-speaking world “. His second novel, Soul brother, won this Wednesday, June 2 the international version of the prestigious British literary prize Booker Prize, which rewards both its author David Diop and its British translator Anna Moschovakis.

David Diop, 55, thus became the first French author to win this prize, awarded to foreign books translated and published during the year in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The translator Anna Moschovakis, also a recognized poet, shares with David Diop the 50,000 books (58,000 euros) that come with this prize, one of the few to recognize the major role of translators.

A dive into the Great War alongside the Senegalese Tirailleurs

This second novel by David Diop, who was raised in Senegal and whose great-grandfather fought during the Great War, can be read as a tribute to the fighters of this conflict and in particular to the 200,000 Africans who fought in the French army.

The narrator, Alfa Ndiaye, is a Senegalese tirailleur. During an assault, his companion in arms and childhood friend is seriously injured. He begs his friend to finish him off but he cannot bring himself to do so. The book tells of Alfa Ndiaye’s attempt to redeem his companion, who died in terrible suffering.

Indeed, Mademba’s death convinced Alfa Ndiaye that there are no more laws. “In the world before, I would not have dared, but in today’s world, by the truth of God, I allowed myself the unthinkable”, explains the Senegalese rifleman.

Each evening, he leaves the trenches alone to infiltrate the ranks of the “blue-eyed” enemies. He kills one of them and slices his hand off with the cutter before bringing his trophy back to his trench.

At first, his superiors and his comrades praised him for his bravery. But after the fourth hand, they worry. “With the severed seventh hand, they had had enough,” says Alfa Ndiaye. Certainly, as the captain says, “the negroes are savages, cannibals, Zulus”, but now we are afraid of Alfa, of his madness. He is considered to be a “devourer of souls”, a sorcerer.

Crazy, Alfa Ndiaye certainly is. But what about the madness of this war? When the poilus revolt against the incessant and vain attacks imposed by their captain, the latter chooses seven soldiers at random, has their hands tied behind their backs and forces them out of the trenches under enemy fire.

Sent back to the rear, Alfa Ndiaye will remember the last days in Africa. This results in overwhelming pages, in the wasted time of innocence. When he went to war, he knew in advance that he would never come home again. It is now in the mind (even when disturbed) that the only possibility of refuge exists.

It is the reading of letters from poilus which inspired for this novel David Diop, lecturer in literature of the XVIII^e century at the University of Pau. The author explained that he had tried “to adapt to French” for this text the rhythm of the Wolof language, spoken in West Africa and by the author himself. In fact, the rhythm of the sentences is similar to a song. “I tried to build a language that reflects the thoughts of a person who thinks in another language,” explained David Diop.

Extremely precise translation work

Despite the “specificity of the context” which speaks more to French-speaking readers, the “questions of domination based on race and colonial violence, which exist everywhere in the world”, spoke to the English-speaking jury, judge Ms. Moschovakis. “This story of war, love and madness has a terrifying power”, for her part estimated in a statement the president of the jury, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, telling that the “incantatory prose and the dark but brilliant vision” of novel had “cast a spell” on all the members of the jury, “blown away”.

Faced with the impossibility of translating the play on words in the French title, Anna Moschovakis titled the English version At Night All Blood is Black (“At night, all bloods are black”). This sentence, taken from one of the first chapters of the novel, had already been mentioned as a potential title “with my editor in France” (Le Seuil), before its publication in 2018, said David Diop.

The novelist finds it “quite interesting”, because “it reflects well the will of the novel to suggest that war and its violence affect everyone, and that when the blood flows, it has the same color no matter what. human beings “.

Soul brother, already distinguished by the Goncourt prize for high school students as well as the Swiss Ahmadou Korouma prize, won the bet against five other finalists: the Argentinian Mariana Enriquez, the Chilean Benjamin Labatut, the Danish Olga Ravn, the Russian Maria Stepanova and the French Éric Vuillard. A total of 125 books were competing for the International Booker Prize this year.