Métis et Métissages: L'éclairage littéraire en miroir

Abstract

Due to slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, the violent contacts between Europe and Africa engendered social changes and aroused feelings of frustration, hatred, and even revenge. This painful experience appealed to the imagination of various black intellectuals. Through fiction and poetry, they tried to make alienated and subjugated Africans not only recover the quintessence of their "Negritude" but also contribute to the "Universal Civilization." Hence, the topicality in twentieth-century French African literature of this theme: "The Métis Imagination and Cross-Culture: A Literary Approach." This paper is an attempt to examine the evolution of the issue through history, especially in the light of three trends of thought. Firstly, as patriots and upholders of African values, Ousmane Socé Diop and Mariama Bâ systematically reject intermarriage, since they find it detrimental to the black race, and to the progress of Africa as well. Secondly, Abdoulaye Sadji, who is aware of the inevitable social transformations that occur when people of divergent cultures come into contact and conflict, moderates his point of view, considering that interracial marriage entails both advantages and inconveniences. Thirdly, Léopold Sédar Senghor, the president and poet, approves of hybridity, while focusing on cultural, intellectual, and economic exchanges for the fulfillment of the "Universal Civilization." What is worth stressing is that although he promotes mixed marriage, Senghor does not impose it as a sine qua non condition for the accomplishment of this political and humanistic project.