Majors and Minors in Europe's African Enterprise: Oyono's Une vie de boy in Danish and Swedish Translations

Abstract

The publication of ferdinand oyono's anticolonial novel une vie de boy (1956) in three scandinavian-language translations—danish, Swedish, and Nynorsk Norwegian—in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with a surge of pan-Nordic interest in African culture and liberation movements. This outward turn was part of a major shift in the construction of national and regional identities in the Nordic region—particularly in Denmark and Sweden. Once minor European kingdoms with modest colonial holdings on several continents (including Africa), these considerably downsized modern nation-states were forced to reposition themselves on the world stage starting in the twentieth century. Africa's anticolonial movements presented an opportunity for the Nordic region to embrace a new global role: that of nations of conscience whose leadership on human rights issues granted them influence and authority far beyond the size of their military, population, gross domestic product, or cultural and linguistic presence in the world. While the importance of this leadership among Western nations—particularly in fighting apartheid—can hardly be disputed, it has, paradoxically, also made it possible for Scandinavians to distance themselves from their own colonial involvement in Africa and to focus instead on the more extensive, visible, and enduring colonial histories of other European nations, mainly France and England.