David Diop is a French academic-turned-novelist specialising in 18th-century French literature and francophone Africa. In 2021, he won the International Booker Prize for At Night All Blood Is Black, the story of the friendship of two young Africans drawn into war. It is the first book translated from French to receive the award, one of the top prizes in the English-language publishing world.
Diop spoke to Al Majalla about capturing the trauma of conflict, how literature can be the voice of the vanquished and his new book about dangerous beauty. This is the conversation.
In your book At Night, All Blood is Black, you brilliantly capture the psychological impact of war through your characters. What was your inspiration for writing this tale?
I drew my inspiration from letters from soldiers collected by a French historian, Jean-Pierre Guéno, in 1998. These letters and notebooks reveal the profound trauma suffered by soldiers in the First World War. Reading La Main Coupée by Blaise Cendrars, a great Swiss writer who fought in the First World War, also inspired me.
Book 24: At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
Short, visceral, and brilliant. Book is a narration of a Senegalese soldier in World War 1. A book I still need to process. pic.twitter.com/2IbhYjrDnc
— Jophin Mathai (jofmat.bsky.social) (@jofmat) October 31, 2024
Your novel Beyond the Door of No Return was based on the real-life story of a French botanist. Tell us more about him.
Michel Adanson was an 18th-century French botanist. In 1757, he published an account of his scientific journey to Senegal in Paris. This travelogue, as well as his papers and drafts, which are kept at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, inspired me.
Your latest novella, Dreamland, features a beautiful girl character named 'Dream'. Is she a symbol of confronting the ugliness of injustice?
Yes, Dream challenges the ugliness of the world with her beauty. But her beauty is dangerous because it exposes her to abuse and violence in the hell where she lives. Ultimately, we learn that her beauty cannot shield her from injustice.
Even though Dreamland is a novella that discusses war, killing, and hunger through the story of an orphan girl, the story's beginning is written almost like a children's book. What was behind this artistic choice?
I read true testimonies of extremely tough underage migrants. I wanted to tell this story of voluntary exile in a poetic tale not associated with any place or time. It is an allegory centred on this couple, Dream and Hope, that motivates young migrants from all over the world. I felt the emotion that came over me when reading their testimonies was best conveyed in this poetic form.
As an author of historical novels, what role does literature play in addressing often overlooked historical and cultural narratives?
History is often written by victors. Literature that involves history seems to me to be a way of giving voice to the voiceless and allowing them to express their point of view.
Je suis ravi de partager avec les lecteurs mon nouveau roman "La porte du voyage sans retour". Parution aujourd'hui aux @EditionsduSeuil, merci à toute leur équipe pour leur confiance et leur soutien.#Laporteduvoyagesansretour #rentréelittéraire pic.twitter.com/OwaYkOAjZm
— David Diop écrivain (@DDiop_ecrivain) August 19, 2021
In Beyond the Door of No Return, you merge history with fantasy. Did you face any challenges in blending the two?
There is historical testimony about a slave from Maryland who returned to Africa. He was a prince who had been taken captive during a war. His master befriended him because he was educated and wrote Arabic and later freed him and sent him back to his country of origin in present-day Gambia. It is a remarkable story. I used it to build intrigue around the novel's main character, Maram.
Your work explores the themes of colonialism, identity, and the African experience but doesn't tackle modern-day issues related to these themes. Is this a conscious choice?
My characters, although from a distant time, still speak to us in the modern world. What I am interested in is to recreate the French colonial empire when its subjects were not permitted to speak. Giving them a voice in my modern-day novels is my way of indirectly speaking to my contemporaries.
Do you believe that African literature, despite the wealth of serious works, does not get the recognition it deserves in today's literary world?
Africa is a huge continent with many talented writers who are often overlooked. But things are changing slowly, and I was really pleased when Abdulrzak Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021.
How did you start writing, and who influenced you?
It goes back to childhood, but compared to other novelists, I only began to write seriously much later in life. I am an old, young writer. I learned to live before writing.
