Africa in the Novels for Young People in France and in Germany by Élodie Malanda

Abstract

Reviewed by: Africa in the Novels for Young People in France and in Germany by Élodie Malanda Sibylle Weingart Translated by Nikola von Merveldt L'AFRIQUE DANS LES ROMANS POUR LA JEUNESSE EN FRANCE ET EN ALLEMAGNE 1991-2010. Les pièges de la bonne intention. [ Africa in the Novels for Young People in France and in Germany.] By Élodie Malanda. Series: Francophonies; 12. Honoré Champion éditeur, 2019, 583 pages. ISBN: 978-2-7453-5071-8 L'AFRIQUE DANS LES ROMANS POUR LA JEUNESSE EN FRANCE ET EN ALLEMAGNE 1991-2010. Les pièges de la bonne intention. [Africa in the Novels for Young People in France and in Germany.] By Élodie Malanda. Series: Francophonies; 12. Honoré Champion éditeur, 2019, 583 pages. ISBN: 978-2-7453-5071-8 About seventy years ago, certain colonial structures changed in many of Africa's fifty-four states. African men and women fought for formal independence from the former colonial powers then and in the following decades. However, these "formal" forms of independence were only snapshots of the ongoing political, economic, and cultural struggles for Africa's real and lasting independence, not only from Europe. One of the decisive steps of decolonization is cultural in nature, as the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiongo points out in his seminal essays "Decolonising the Mind" (1986) and "Moving the Centre—the Struggle for Cultural Freedom" (1993). In these essays, Ngugi calls for cultural self-empowerment and the self-liberation of African people from colonial projections or racist violence by Europeans. This call was also addressed to white Europeans and white authors, with the appeal to engage in self-critical self-reflection, to be aware of one's own privileges, to think about "whiteness," to question socialization with colonial clichés regarding Africa and African people, and to challenge racially grounded stereotypes in one's own writings and thoughts and actions. In times of Black Lives Matter, this call has gained new urgency. In her doctoral dissertation L'Afrique dans les romans pour la jeunesse en France et en Allemagne (published by Honoré Champion, Paris, 2019), the Luxembourg researcher Élodie Malanda expertly examines the question of what "African images" contemporary children's and youth literature from France and Germany, both former colonial powers in Africa, "send" to their readership today: of the continent in general, of [End Page 116] individual countries, and of African men, women, and children. She bases her analysis on 150 selected novels of contemporary children's and youth literature published in France or Germany between 1991 and 2010, including some translations from English. In her book, Malanda examines the important question of the extent to which colonial discourse and colonial "fantasies of omnipotence" are perpetuated in contemporary children's and youth literature, or whether and to what extent there has been a change in discourse, a disruption or a critical reflection of the "forms of representation" of Africa and African people in French and German children's literature. The subtitle of the doctoral thesis, Les pièges de la bonne intention (The Pitfalls of Good Intentions), already dampens expectations of great changes in the "Africa images." It may remind readers of the saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," pointing out the jarring contradiction between the intention and literary outcome of many of the novels examined. Many of these books are indeed imbued with the authors' and characters' sense of mission to promote understanding among nations, to sensitize the readership to political problems, and to put the colonial idea of white superiority in the text itself in its place. Forewords, blurbs, and biographical information about the authors also bear eloquent witness to this. In addition, some of the authors (such as Yves Pinguilly, Hermann Schulz, Nasrin Siege, and many others) claim the status of "friend of Africa," "white African," or "Africa expert" for themselves, and insist on their intimate knowledge of the countries based on regular visits or longer stays. But this does not save them from traps in their own texts, which sometimes reproduce subtle or even crude colonial clichés, as Malanda can demonstrate with her astute interpretative work. Malanda investigates how these contradictions between good intentions and controversial...