Ren� Maran on Lucie Cousturier, a Champion of Racial Understanding

Abstract

he name of Lucie Cousturier, widely known in the 1920s, has resur- faced only occasionally in subsequent years. When her two books recording her encounters during the First World War with the West African Rifl emen known as tirailleurs senegalais, Des inconnus chez moi and Mes inconnus chez eux, fi rst published in 1920 and 1925, respectively, were republished in the 1950s, they were prefaced by Rene Maran, the celebrated author of Batouala, which had controversially won for him the Prix Goncourt in 1921. 1 A new edition of Des inconnus chez moi has recently (2001) been published, prompting the present paper. It is not our purpose here to reiterate the introductory material of this most recent addition but rather add to it, notably in light of newly retrieved material, to emphasize Rene Maran's continuous support for Cousturier's writing. Serious research into Cousturier's writings is hampered by the appar- ent absence of any archive collecting her papers. My best efforts have been frustrated at every turn. Although Maran suggests that she died in Paris, the relevant Mairie has no record of her death. And because the date of her marriage is not known, neither is her maiden name. It seems unlikely that her family would have destroyed her paintings and drawings, yet their location is likewise unknown. So too is that of her country house at Frejus. Knowing that she was buried at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris after her death in 1925 is of little help. The present paper can therefore only be a modest contribution, offered in the hope that her link with the better- known Maran (though heaven knows his publications and papers are scat- tered well beyond the archives at Aix-en-Provence and Dakar) will prompt others to continue the quest. It is the researcher's almost inevitable lot both to have a highly devel- oped esprit de l'escalier and frequently to encounter the external mani- festation of this frustrating phenomenon: the discovery of new sources of material. I had known about Rene Maran's contribution to the Black periodical Opportunity, published by the New York National Urban League, from reading his preface to the 1956 edition of Mes inconnus chez eux in the library of the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop at Dakar, Senegal. Neither that library, nor the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, nor any library in Britain or Ireland (where I am normally based) has a copy of the journal. I was therefore delighted to fi nd Opportunity held at the Firestone Library of Princeton University, where I was invited as a Fellow of the Council of the