Batuala

In 1921 no one dared to doubt the validity of colonialism as a means of peace and civilization. However, a voice was raised. That of René Maran, an Antillean writer - then an official of the Ministry of Colonies - who denounced the abuses of the Administration in French Equatorial Africa and the misdeeds of imperialism in a decisive novel: Batuala. His words unleashed a real scandal that culminated in the awarding of the Goncourt Prize. One hundred years later, his text remains completely current, both for the tenacious prejudices that he continues to question and for the rights that he claims. Amin Maalouf's epilogue to this edition reminds us of that non-negotiable freedom of thought: "Maran's identity dilemma was impossible to resolve. At least, in his situation and in his time. Everything he could do, as a man and as a writer, was to bear his testimony and scream with rage. That is what he did in Batuala. And that is what earned him being, at the same time, crowned and crucified. Few still remember the commotion that his novel caused. Did he demonstrate courage or ingratitude to the write it? Was his dream of a world in which being white or black was irrelevant generous and visionary, or callous and retrograde? A century has passed and we still have no answer. Maran still has not left purgatory, the idea that can be simply human, without attachment to an ethnic, racial, religious or other identity, seems as revolutionary today and as inconceivable as then".