Der Kontinent von allem und beinahe nichts

Reading and discussion

Sami Tchak
Moderation: Annette Bühler-Dietrich
Reading voices: Beat Dietrich and Samuel Zongo

Africa is the continent of everything and almost nothing. Influenced by his reading of the French ethnologist Georges Balandier, Maurice Boyer set off for Togo in 1970 to explore the life of the Tem there. He encounters everyday life in the village as well as the inscrutable village chief, his beautiful favorite wife and the mysterious imam. Did he really understand the village in the end? Even in old age, he is still preoccupied with this question, and in many encounters in the novel, positions on the continent clash. But Maurice Boyer is also a private man, and many scenes provide an insight into how he shapes his life, loves and ultimately his old age. In his novel, which has been widely discussed in France, the writer Sami Tchak, who comes from Togo, looks at his village with humor and criticism, but also at current discourses on Africa. By choosing the figure of a white French Africa researcher, he once again raises the question of who has sovereignty of interpretation over the continent. The translation into German by Annette Bühler-Dietrich was published by Noack & Block in 2024.

A cooperation between Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Institut français and the University of Stuttgart