Blue White Red

by Alain Mabanckou, Alison Dundy (Translator)

This tale of wild adventure reveals the dashed hopes of Africans living between worlds. When Moki returns to his village from France wearing designer clothes and affecting all the manners of a Frenchman, Massala-Massala, who lives the life of a humble peanut farmer after giving up his studies, begins to dream of following in Moki's footsteps. Together, the two take wing for Paris, where Massala-Massala finds himself a part of an underworld of out-of-work undocumented immigrants. After a botched attempt to sell metro passes purchased with a stolen checkbook, he winds up in jail and is deported. Blue White Red is a novel of postcolonial Africa where young people born into poverty dream of making it big in the cities of their former colonial masters. Alain Mabanckou's searing commentary on the lives of Africans in France is cut with the parody of African villagers who boast of a son in the country of Digol.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, African Literature, French Literature, Literature, Read For School, Novels

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 1998

About the author

Alain Mabanckou was born in 1966 in Congo-Brazzaville (French Congo). He currently resides in Los Angeles, where he teaches literature at UCLA, having previously spent four years at the University of Michigan. Mabanckou will be a Fellow in the Humanities Council at Princeton University in 2007-2008. One of Francophone Africa's most prolific contemporary writers, he is the author of six volumes of poetry and six novels. He received the Sub-Saharan Africa Literary Prize in 1999 for his first novel, Blue-White-Red, the Prize of the Five Francophone Continents for Broken Glass, and the Prix Renaudot in 2006 for Memoirs of a Porcupine. He was selected by the French publishing trade journal Lire as one of the fifty writers to watch out for in the coming century. His most recent book is African Psycho.

Reviews

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant early work of Alain Mabanckou only now translated into English. Written 1993/1995, it is a story of living the dream to become a Parisian and return to the home country - in this case Congo Brazzaville as a "dandy".

"I'll manage to get myself out of this". Thrown into some dark hole or cell of some kind, not knowing by whom, where and why, the first person narrator can no longer "distinguish between dream and reality..." Nightmarish wild thoughts tumble over each other in the captive's mind; shady figures appear like shadows before his eyes while he is desperately trying to hang on to hope and a resolution of his predicament. He muses that he needs order in his thoughts, that recalling the chronology of events may lead him to a way out of this cul-de-sac of a situation: Yes, start at the beginning! And that is what he does, mostly, in what follows. Whether he will escape and, most importantly, how he ended up in these desperate circumstances in the first place becomes the primary story of this extraordinary novel by Franco-Congolese author Alain Mabanckou. Written between 1993 and 1995 and published in 1998 in France it won the Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique Noire in 1999. BLUE WHITE RED stands at the beginning of a remarkable and multifaceted career of one of the most important African writers today. Born and raised in Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo, his novels have won several awards, among them the prestigious Prix Renaudot for Mémoires de porc-epic (Memoirs of a Porcupine) in 2006. For more than ten years Mabanckou has been living in the USA, teaching Francophone literature, currently at UCLA.

BLUE WHITE RED (you realize the colours of France's flag) is presented from the perspective of Massala-Massala, a young Congolese man with a dream. A dream that many young African people of his generation share: move to Paris, live the good life there, make a lot of money and come home regularly to bring presents to family and friends (and show off) ... and spread the dream to others. An infectious attraction to a world that appears easy and full of fun, where young men can afford the latest fashion in clothes, perfumes, hairstyles and in skin-lightening treatments. Those who return on regular visits home are called the Parisians, and, while in their old neighbourhood, are followed by throngs of admirers. There is another group of emigrants, the Peasants, those who work in the provinces in France, without any of the glamour or the features of a dandy. Mabanckou's portrayal of the Parisians is tongue-in-cheek and somewhat mocking, of course. This is done extremely well, indirectly and subtly, given his hero is completely taken by the façade of his idol. This contrast between the naïve musings of the narrator and the reader's sense that things are probably not like they seem, makes for entertaining as well as thought provoking reading. Still, there are yet other aspects to the narration that keep the reader engaged.

Massala-Massala's neighbour, Moki, is the local Parisian, who returns every year loaded with money and gifts, holding court in the 'house' (renovated, expanded palatially) next door. Our narrator follows him around, offering any assistance needed locally... he wants to be his shadow, even imitating his walk and gestures. As luck has it, Moki offers to help him to get to Paris and, after lengthy preparations, eventually, the young man enters the City of Light...

The description of his experiences in Paris from the first moments onwards is filtered through the time lens of memory, enriched by personal musings about people and local settings: "Everything flows in the slowness of memory. The past is not just a worn-out shadow that walks behind us. It can be ahead of us, precede us, bifurcate, take another path and gets lost somewhere... I must remember." Then, quickly, he returns to the action of the day, keeping the reader's attention. Interspersed are his doubts about his own behaviour, his easy trusting his friend Moki, his "adaptibility" to whatever role was designed for him that made him ignore early warning signs around him.

Mabanckou is an exquisite story teller who combines humour with satire, open sympathy for his hero's situation mixed with a good dose of self-criticism instilled into him. Massala-Massala recalls his father's cautionary advice, but, maybe, it is too late. Mabanckou combines his convincing depiction of people and scenarios with a deep understanding of and concern for the underlying socio-political tensions and challenges that young people have faced not only in his home country but across Africa in the early years of independence - and to some degree in many places still today. Mabanckou focuses in this and his later novels on the complexity of Congolese society; his satire becomes more biting.

Yet, this debut novel shows much of his style and substance in remarkable ways. He has become known not only as an imaginative story teller in the best African tradition; he enriches his writing with drawing on his astute observation of people and circumstances. Rather uniquely - and what makes reading and translating his work from the original French so challenging - he is an innovator of language and idiom, mixing colloquialisms and images with traditional French (French-French). Both the note by the translator of BLUE WHITE RED, Alison Dundy, and the introductory essay by Dominic Thomas are very helpful in this regard. Ms. Dundy's translation is excellent. Having read Mabanckou in French, I know the challenges she must have faced. Even the name "Moki" was chosen for its underlying meaning in the local language...

[Amelia E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t understand it and this isn’t my regular genre 🥲 read it for school.

[Robert Wechsler]

For a good while I truly enjoyed this Congolese novel. But the over-obvious, belabored satire became tiresome to me, and I dropped the book after the midway point.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alain Mabanckou's debut novel is narrated by Massala-Massala, a young Congolese man who is a neighbor of Moki, a slightly older man who is revered by the villagers where his parents and brothers live in luxury. Moki is a Parisian, one of the few Congolese who has emigrated to Paris and found success there. He is welcomed like royalty when he makes his annual return to his home during the dry season, as he represents the hopes and dreams of his people. He dresses in the latest Parisian fashions, hands out gifts to extended family members and friends, speaks proper French French instead of speaking in French, quotes de Maupassant, Saint-Exupéry and Baudelaire freely, causes local girls to swoon openly in his presence, and holds court at his father's home and in local bars, as he talks about the French capital, his opulent life, and what it takes to succeed there: "Paris is a big boy. Not for little kids." In the Congo, Parisians like Moki are revered, whereas Peasants, those emigrants who live in towns outside of Paris as they pursue higher education, don't dress like dandies, and associate with Congolese villagers as equals instead of as lesser beings, are viewed with disdain.

Massala-Massala decides to emigrate to Paris, and with the help of his father, his uncle and Moki, he manages to get a visa and passport, and travels by air to Paris with his idol. However, instead of the wealth and easy living that Moki has promised, he quickly discovers the truth about the sordid lives of African immigrants in France, most of whom live there illegally and in poverty, as they face the constant threat of police harassment and deportation back to their homelands. His legal visa soon expires, and he is forced to participate in the underground economy that provides him with enough money for food and lodging, but little else.

Blue White Red, named after the tricolored French flag and the winner of the 1999 Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire for the best novel published in France and written by a sub-Saharan Francophone author, is an apt and biting commentary about the sordid lives of African immigrants in France and their countrymen who are caught up in the hype about the greener grass that they believe awaits them in Europe. Although it isn't as well developed as his later novels it is still a very good effort, and a valuable addition to Francophone literature.

[Roisín · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight into a world I know nothing about, being young, white and Scottish. Frustrating to get into if you don't like books which open with the ending and then go back to explain the story.

[Sean Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice ride in a completely different culture and voice.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking place in post-colonial Africa, everybody reveres the ones who left. These immigrants must play the part of the success story...dressing up and boasting of the amazing life they lead in Paris. Dandyism is necessary for both sides. The villagers want to believe that there is a better world out there and the immigrant does not want to admit defeat. But life in Paris is not easy and the rewards are few.

[Arial Italic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Authentic

A story that goes beyond itself, for it reflects the struggle of many Africans in search of a better life. From the admiration for those who have made it, to the harshest reality of Paris.

* Rich in character, albeit often too still.

* Recommended for anyone into contemporary African tales.

[Carpasmeencasiola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short in story. He could have streched iT a bit more. I still haven Reading questions.
1. What happend when he returned to Congo?
2. What happend when he returned to paris?
Nevertheless. I've read the whole book with only a 10 minute break.

[Madelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

"La rédemption est une longue marche."

[Chloe Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of character analysis in the book. Very cynical. I need to do more reading about the meaning of the book to truly understand. The action starts in part 2, really the last 30 pages.

[Daniel Polansky]

An African everyman is seduced, betrayed by the dream of life in Paris.

[Nicole]

Everyone is obsessed with Moki! Commentary on the generational inpact of colonization shown through this Congolese Community's obsession with France. The obsession is demonstrated to the point of satire

Once in Paris a whole underground illegal system bred from necessity is shown. There are checkbooks stolen out of mailboxes and bulldozing companies being paid-off to not complete jobs...leaving empty buildings for the immigrants to live in. Brings up lots of questions without answers, but mainly brings home the point that there HAS to be a better way

[Abi Emmett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great novel on the disillusionment of the Parisian dream and the psychological effects of colonization in a culture. The book throws you into confusion then slowly reveals the plot line which isn’t my favorite format but the writing is great nonetheless.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was by far the easiest to understand of the books read in my Postcolonial Francophone Lit course, and it gets even easier to understand as you go on. Highly recommend for anyone interested in postcolonial lit or francophone lit in general.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really going to review the novel, but I do want to sum up it's subject with a quote. "The religion of the dream is anchored in the conscience of the country's youth. To shatter those beliefs is to expose oneself to the fate reserved for heretics.". (I forgot to write down the page number, my bad.) For a different view of the draw of Europe to poor African youth, I recommend Abdelleh Taïa's _Salvation Army_. I did like this book, though, for the insights it gave me into the longing of young men especially to reinvent themselves.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the humor. However, the reality of what poverty and lack of knowledge can drive us into is devastating. Most are going through such deception and done have give through it and can only tell the tale from an imprisoned mind.

[Erica]

n

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimmed beginning for “black writers in paris” class

[Marjolaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pages de tristesse mais de rires aussi. Un court et très beau roman qui parle du fantasme et du desenchantement de l émigration. Qu incarne " le parisien" qui a réussi son installation en France quand il retourne visiter ses proches restés au Pays?