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Batouala
Nous sommes en 1921. À cette époque, personne n'ose douter du bien-fondé du colonialisme, porteur de civilisation et de paix. Une voix pourtant s'élève. Celle de René Maran, auteur antillais (1887-1960), alors fonctionnaire au ministère des Colonies, qui dénonce dans un roman, Batouala , les abus de l'administration en Afrique-Equatoriale française et les méfaits de l'impérialisme. Ses propos déclenchent un véritable scandale qui culminera avec le prix Goncourt qui lui sera pourtant décerné la même année . Cent ans plus tard, ce texte demeure d'une actualité brûlante, tant pour les préjugés tenaces qu'il continue de mettre à mal que pour le droit à la liberté qu'il revendique. Liberté de pensée et d'être que nous rappelle la préface d'Amin Maalouf : « Peu de gens se souvenaient encore de l'émoi qu'avait suscité son roman. Avait-il fait preuve de courage ou bien d'ingratitude en l'écrivant ? Son rêve d'un monde où le fait d'être noir ou blanc serait devenu sans objet était-il généreux et visionnaire, ou bien insensible et passéiste ? Un siècle s'est écoulé, et nous n'avons toujours pas la réponse. Maran n'est toujours pas sorti de son purgatoire, il n'est toujours pas dans l'esprit du temps. L'idée que l'on puisse être simplement humain , sans s'attacher à une identité ethnique, raciale, religieuse ou autre, semble aujourd'hui aussi révolutionnaire et aussi inconcevable qu'il y a cent ans. »
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 30, 1921
23 people are currently reading
757 people want to read
About the author
René Maran
37 books13 followersRené Maran, né à Fort-de-France (Martinique), le 5 novembre 1887, mort à Paris 13e le 9 mai 1960, est un écrivain français, lauréat du prix Goncourt en 1921 pour son roman Batouala, dont la préface dénonce le colonialisme.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
October 15, 2013
I'd highly recommend reading the Edward Hayes article, "On Reciprocity: René Maran and Alain Locke" (it's in the book The Practice of Diaspora) alongside this text. Much of the historical context and significance is lost and so it seems to at first be a rather insignificant text. In fact, that this text won the Prix Goncourt and claimed to give readers direct access to the "African mind and way of life" (as a véritable romain nègre) had significant impact on the novel's reception and the reader's understanding of the presentation of its characters.
May 20, 2025
3,5
En 1921, el ámbito cultural de París se vio sacudido por una noticia: se había otorgado el Premio Goncourt, el máximo premio literario del país, a un negro, quien además criticaba a Francia.
La novela premiada era Batuala, escrita por René Marán, un funcionario francés en las colonias francesas en África. Marán se había educado en la corriente humanista, y consideraba que Francia era su máximo exponente; los excesos que observó en su estadía en África, los atribuyó justamente a una traición a esos principios, y se consideraba un buen ciudadano poniendo en evidencia a los oportunistas y arrogantes que eran una mancha para el prestigio del país.
La novela se centra en el personaje de Batuala, líder de un conjunto de poblados cercanos a los ríos Bamba y Pombo, y describe con gran conocimiento del tema la vida cotidiana en estos poblados, de sus placeres, ritos, cacerías, historias de amor prohibido y mecanismos de venganza. Entre los ritos tiene un lugar especial a ceremonia del Ganza, la ceremonia por el pasaje de los adolescentes a la adultez, a través de la circuncisión y ablación, que se acompaña con una fiesta de comida, alcohol, danza y liberación sexual. Y a través de los personajes, se presenta la cosmovisión y leyendas de sus habitantes, que no son tampoco idealizados, sino simplemente descriptos.
Las menciones a los abusos de los administradores, aparecen de manera tangencial, y surgen de boca de los personajes en sus conversaciones, ya sea de temor, de enojo o de burla.
Más allá de el trasfondo conflictivo del Premio y la publicación del libro, que incluye cierta dosis de hipocresía, una muy buena historia, que es llevada adelante por sus buenos personajes, y está muy bien contada. Conviene mencionar que Marán, mientras estudiaba la Carrera de funcionariado, en forma paralela realizó la Carrea de Letras.
PD: La edición que he leído incluye un cuento largo, Yumba, la mangosta, que no he leído; y un buen epílogo de Amin Maalouf.
En 1921, el ámbito cultural de París se vio sacudido por una noticia: se había otorgado el Premio Goncourt, el máximo premio literario del país, a un negro, quien además criticaba a Francia.
La novela premiada era Batuala, escrita por René Marán, un funcionario francés en las colonias francesas en África. Marán se había educado en la corriente humanista, y consideraba que Francia era su máximo exponente; los excesos que observó en su estadía en África, los atribuyó justamente a una traición a esos principios, y se consideraba un buen ciudadano poniendo en evidencia a los oportunistas y arrogantes que eran una mancha para el prestigio del país.
La novela se centra en el personaje de Batuala, líder de un conjunto de poblados cercanos a los ríos Bamba y Pombo, y describe con gran conocimiento del tema la vida cotidiana en estos poblados, de sus placeres, ritos, cacerías, historias de amor prohibido y mecanismos de venganza. Entre los ritos tiene un lugar especial a ceremonia del Ganza, la ceremonia por el pasaje de los adolescentes a la adultez, a través de la circuncisión y ablación, que se acompaña con una fiesta de comida, alcohol, danza y liberación sexual. Y a través de los personajes, se presenta la cosmovisión y leyendas de sus habitantes, que no son tampoco idealizados, sino simplemente descriptos.
Las menciones a los abusos de los administradores, aparecen de manera tangencial, y surgen de boca de los personajes en sus conversaciones, ya sea de temor, de enojo o de burla.
Más allá de el trasfondo conflictivo del Premio y la publicación del libro, que incluye cierta dosis de hipocresía, una muy buena historia, que es llevada adelante por sus buenos personajes, y está muy bien contada. Conviene mencionar que Marán, mientras estudiaba la Carrera de funcionariado, en forma paralela realizó la Carrea de Letras.
PD: La edición que he leído incluye un cuento largo, Yumba, la mangosta, que no he leído; y un buen epílogo de Amin Maalouf.
September 11, 2009
I'm not sure what to make of this book. None of the characters were consistently sympathetic, and overall it seemed so pedantic in tone. But I can see for the time it was written it was startling in it's open portrayal of anti-colonialism among Africans. And there are moments when the characters' thought processes are amazingly clear, taking me inside someone else's thoughts and fears.
July 25, 2021
In 1922 (two years after Proust won with In Search of Lost Time) René Maran won the Prix Goncourt - and it is a fine book. Batouala is the chief and his happy life with his 9 wifes is only interrupted by his hate of the french, who have colonised the land (CAR) and are treating the natives as slaves and collecting taxes. Otherwise life goes on as usual: Coming of age-rituals and dances happen, jealousy (when your first wife desires the local rover), hunting, a burial and plotting the demise of your rival as one does...
René description from 1921 of village life in the Central African Republic is a little too descriptive for my taste (but who wins a grand prize without it - looking at you Man Booker!), but it is faithful to the tribes and their world view, depicting life as it is lived in the country - and that must have been some surprise to the French establishment back in the day.
René description from 1921 of village life in the Central African Republic is a little too descriptive for my taste (but who wins a grand prize without it - looking at you Man Booker!), but it is faithful to the tribes and their world view, depicting life as it is lived in the country - and that must have been some surprise to the French establishment back in the day.
July 31, 2024
René Maran, Batouala. Barbara Beck and Alexandre Mboukou, translators. Heinemann, 1921/1987.
The son of a member of the French colonial service, René Maran was born in Martinique, spent time in Gabon where his father was stationed, and attended a boarding school in Bordeaux. Like his father, he went on to serve in the colonial service, in French Equatorial Africa. Batouala is his first novel, and it is based on his experiences in Africa. It won the Prix Goncourt in 1921; the first time a Black writer had done so. Maran revised the original novel in 1937 to be franker and more explicit, more in keeping with his original vision. This 1987 translation is based on the 1937 rewriting. Maran is a precursor to the negritude movement of the 1930s, cited as an important influence by the likes of Aime Cesaire. The novel is part of Heinemann’s African Writers Series and its Caribbean Writers Series, the only Heinemann book I’ve encountered that is part of both.
Batouala is the earliest piece of twentieth century African literature that I have read. Like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), it is a village novel, but there are significant differences between the two. Achebe frames his story as a tragedy, a form familiar to western audiences. The main character, Okonkwo, is a village chief who is energetic, unbending, and angry, and people, even his family, fear him because of his quick temper and proclivity for violence. The characteristics which make him a strong and successful, if not particularly likable, leader, are at the core of his downfall when he faces colonial interference (governmental, religious, military) in tribal life. Okonkwo is not adaptable to a changing world.
While the eponymously named Batouala also centers on a tribal chief, Maran takes a very different approach to his portrayal, for Batouala is liked by almost everyone. He does not lead through fear but by inspiring love and admiration. He can be energetic and hardworking, but he also loves idleness and rituals. Okonkwo is never idle, and he barely tolerated tribal rituals, because they forced him to change his daily behavior and adapt to the larger communal needs of the tribe. Batouala loves to eat, drink, and smoke. He is extroverted and voluble, and he enjoys the company of others, which is why he finds communal rituals so satisfying. Both Maran and Achebe spend much time describing daily life (hunting, food preparation, etc.), but whereas Batouala readily integrates into those rhythms Okonkwo battles to dominate them. For Batouala the world is pretty easy, while for Okonkwo it is always a struggle. Batouala’s greatest flaw is his jealousy.
In the first few chapters, Maran creates a sense of the good life. In the morning Batouala wakes slowly, satisfied to slumber longer. He is content and confident. The narrative also focuses on Yassigui’inda, the first of Batouala’s nine wives. She too is confident, and she lives an independent life with a great deal of autonomy. She does not seem to fear her husband. The other figure introduced in the morning scene is Batouala’s dog, Djouma, who for all his dedication to his master also maintains a certain independence. Maran gives Djouma an almost human consciousness. Actually, Maran gives all the animals in the book, and there are quite a few, an anthropomorphised autonomy. All the characters maneuver in this imaginary world as equals. Maran offers an integrated whole, with one exception, the French colonials, who disrupt what otherwise seems like an idyllic space.
With one exception in the middle of the book, when the local French commandant shows up with soldiers, Maran makes colonial power felt primarily through the complaints of Batouala and the other villagers. Whites have successfully colonized the region, and the locals–the people are called the Banda–have submitted grumblingly to French rule. I say grumblingly, but in those grumbles Maran levels many criticisms at the French and colonial rule (racism, cluelessness, an unwillingness to understand or engage with the colonized). That said, Maran portrays Batouala et. al. in a kind of bubble, with the colonizers at arm’s length. In contrast, the British colonizers in Things Fall Apart become a more invasive presence as the novel progresses, ramping up the tensions and conflicts.
Batouala is a much gentler novel. The central event is a male circumcision/female excision ceremony (Ga’nza). The main conflicts are sexual, primarily Batouala’s jealousy over the developing relationship between his lead wife and his best friend, Bissibi’ngui. Everyone is happy with Batouala’s announcement of the ceremony, which, besides being an important coming of age ritual, also promises to be a big party with plenty of food and drink. Batouala is so happy with his decision that he goes off hunting, and his friend Bissibi’ngui takes advantage of his absence to visit Batouala’s nine wives and make a play for Yassigui’inda. As portrayed by Maran, monogamy is not necessarily a fundamental value. Yassigui’inda and other comment that it is okay, even good, for women to be with other men, as long as the other men gift the husband a little something. Batouala, though, may be more jealous than other husbands and assert his proprietary rights more forcefully. It is not clear that Batouala will assert his rights but only that he may. Mahan ameliorates the conflicts in the novel. Rather than letting them explode in climactic scenes, Mahan finds ways to soften, distract, or turn aside interpersonal conflicts. While there is an obvious division between the Banda and the French colonial authority, Mahan clearly does not want to explore intractable divisions within the Banda. Thus, when Batouala returns, everyone is happy, even Bissibi’ngui, who has to cool his jets and wait for another opportunity. The internal social order holds.
Yassigui’inda is off next morning for a tryst with Bissibi’ngui. A she walks through the forest with no weapon to protect her, she muses on her freedom to find sexual satisfaction. Her husband is older, and once a day is not necessarily satisfying enough. She is attracted to Bissibi’ngui, but she also wonders if he is too young and sharp and ignorant. She gets distracted and is almost pounced on by a panther just as her husband and Bissibi’ngui come along to drive off the panther. No one is injured or dies in the panther attack, but Batouala is suspicious. Maran diverts from a potentially significant plot development to a little character tension.
At the Ga’nza ceremony, everyone gathers far away from the eyes of the colonial government. There is much dancing, drinking, and eating. Much time is spent on complaints about the white man; they don’t like our food, our ways; they don’t like us; we should have wiped them out when they arrived. But now the characters simply accept the dominance of the colonizers, even grudgingly pay taxes. Maran’s tone is not of mourning or loss but complaint and resignation. And the characters are still in a bubble. The coming of age ceremony has been in place time out of mind. The boys and girls who are going to be circumcised and excised have been away from everyone in the bush. There is much drinking, eating, dancing, chanting, and noise. Maran portrays the chaotic nature of the ceremony, and in the midst of it all the boys are circumcised and the girls excised. Maran acknowledges the fear and pain. His purpose, though, is not to criticize the practice but to realistically render the actions of the participants, which includes describing the dogs eating the excised/circumcised parts. I’d note that given the current global movement to end female genital mutilation, a contemporary reader may find his “objective” rendering of the ceremony objectionable Afterwards, everyone is naked and pairs up, including Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda. An orgy is the culmination of the ceremony for the community, although Batouala is so jealous that he chases Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda out of the orgy. Batouala spends a lot of time on sex, heterosexuality really. I can see why the original 1920s audience might have been shocked, and why readers today might question Maran’s portrayal of binary sexuality. The scene ends when the colonial commandant shows up with soldiers and guns–the only time white men appear in the book–and everyone scatters. The commandant is disgusted by what he sees and has heard. For him, to use a western reference, this Dionysian ceremony is just a sign of African barbarity, a sign of the necessity of ruling over “these people.” Nonetheless, this is the sole moment of an active white presence in the novel. Maran does not take it as a lever to ramp up colonizer/colonized conflict.
Conflict in the rest of the book remains within the tribe. Bissibi’ngui knows that Batouala remains upset with him, and he is wary. He believes that he will be killed by Batouala or that he will kill Batouala. One night, Bissibi’ngui is walking through the bush with a torch and weapons when he encounters Batouala, his mother, and the dog Djouma, who loves Bissibi’ngui. Open hostility does not break out between the two men. Instead, Batouala tells stories to demonstrate his superior cultural knowledge and bully Bissibi’ngui a bit, telling him finally that he won’t live long and that men should stop visiting their neighbor’s wives. Bissibi’ngui is reserved and defensive, and there is a threat of violence in the air, but then some other men show up, and Bissibi’ngui stops worrying about being killed. Again, Maran consistently follows the pattern of diluting and diverting conflict.
The book ends with a big hunt, involving all the men in the tribe. It is a ritual event that begins with storytelling, in particular Batouala’s story of the white hunter who was not smart enough to put enough space between himself and the elephant he shoots, who runs at the hunter and gores him to death. Poor ignorant white man who does not know how to hunt an elephant (Chuckle Chuckle). The story reinforces the men’s sense of their superiority over the colonizers. The hunt itself is signaled by lighting the bush on fire to flush out the game. Unfortunately, a panther running from the flames slashes Batouala’s stomach. The other hunters put him under a tree and go on with the hunt, and by the time they get him back home it is too late. No remedies work, and Batouala dies a slow, painful death, although his jealousy pushes him to get up one last time to harass Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda.
Although Maran sets up the possibility that Batouala could be killed by a colonizer’s bullet or Bissibi’ngui’s knife, instead he is killed by nature or circumstance or, perhaps, neglect. As throughout the rest of the book, Maran cools conflict and tension. In Batouala, Maran does not write a great tragedy or an epic clash between cultures, but a lower case ordinary story of a particular set of people in a particular place. It reads as if Maran wanted to write a story of the Banda before the effects of colonialism became too pronounced.
The son of a member of the French colonial service, René Maran was born in Martinique, spent time in Gabon where his father was stationed, and attended a boarding school in Bordeaux. Like his father, he went on to serve in the colonial service, in French Equatorial Africa. Batouala is his first novel, and it is based on his experiences in Africa. It won the Prix Goncourt in 1921; the first time a Black writer had done so. Maran revised the original novel in 1937 to be franker and more explicit, more in keeping with his original vision. This 1987 translation is based on the 1937 rewriting. Maran is a precursor to the negritude movement of the 1930s, cited as an important influence by the likes of Aime Cesaire. The novel is part of Heinemann’s African Writers Series and its Caribbean Writers Series, the only Heinemann book I’ve encountered that is part of both.
Batouala is the earliest piece of twentieth century African literature that I have read. Like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), it is a village novel, but there are significant differences between the two. Achebe frames his story as a tragedy, a form familiar to western audiences. The main character, Okonkwo, is a village chief who is energetic, unbending, and angry, and people, even his family, fear him because of his quick temper and proclivity for violence. The characteristics which make him a strong and successful, if not particularly likable, leader, are at the core of his downfall when he faces colonial interference (governmental, religious, military) in tribal life. Okonkwo is not adaptable to a changing world.
While the eponymously named Batouala also centers on a tribal chief, Maran takes a very different approach to his portrayal, for Batouala is liked by almost everyone. He does not lead through fear but by inspiring love and admiration. He can be energetic and hardworking, but he also loves idleness and rituals. Okonkwo is never idle, and he barely tolerated tribal rituals, because they forced him to change his daily behavior and adapt to the larger communal needs of the tribe. Batouala loves to eat, drink, and smoke. He is extroverted and voluble, and he enjoys the company of others, which is why he finds communal rituals so satisfying. Both Maran and Achebe spend much time describing daily life (hunting, food preparation, etc.), but whereas Batouala readily integrates into those rhythms Okonkwo battles to dominate them. For Batouala the world is pretty easy, while for Okonkwo it is always a struggle. Batouala’s greatest flaw is his jealousy.
In the first few chapters, Maran creates a sense of the good life. In the morning Batouala wakes slowly, satisfied to slumber longer. He is content and confident. The narrative also focuses on Yassigui’inda, the first of Batouala’s nine wives. She too is confident, and she lives an independent life with a great deal of autonomy. She does not seem to fear her husband. The other figure introduced in the morning scene is Batouala’s dog, Djouma, who for all his dedication to his master also maintains a certain independence. Maran gives Djouma an almost human consciousness. Actually, Maran gives all the animals in the book, and there are quite a few, an anthropomorphised autonomy. All the characters maneuver in this imaginary world as equals. Maran offers an integrated whole, with one exception, the French colonials, who disrupt what otherwise seems like an idyllic space.
With one exception in the middle of the book, when the local French commandant shows up with soldiers, Maran makes colonial power felt primarily through the complaints of Batouala and the other villagers. Whites have successfully colonized the region, and the locals–the people are called the Banda–have submitted grumblingly to French rule. I say grumblingly, but in those grumbles Maran levels many criticisms at the French and colonial rule (racism, cluelessness, an unwillingness to understand or engage with the colonized). That said, Maran portrays Batouala et. al. in a kind of bubble, with the colonizers at arm’s length. In contrast, the British colonizers in Things Fall Apart become a more invasive presence as the novel progresses, ramping up the tensions and conflicts.
Batouala is a much gentler novel. The central event is a male circumcision/female excision ceremony (Ga’nza). The main conflicts are sexual, primarily Batouala’s jealousy over the developing relationship between his lead wife and his best friend, Bissibi’ngui. Everyone is happy with Batouala’s announcement of the ceremony, which, besides being an important coming of age ritual, also promises to be a big party with plenty of food and drink. Batouala is so happy with his decision that he goes off hunting, and his friend Bissibi’ngui takes advantage of his absence to visit Batouala’s nine wives and make a play for Yassigui’inda. As portrayed by Maran, monogamy is not necessarily a fundamental value. Yassigui’inda and other comment that it is okay, even good, for women to be with other men, as long as the other men gift the husband a little something. Batouala, though, may be more jealous than other husbands and assert his proprietary rights more forcefully. It is not clear that Batouala will assert his rights but only that he may. Mahan ameliorates the conflicts in the novel. Rather than letting them explode in climactic scenes, Mahan finds ways to soften, distract, or turn aside interpersonal conflicts. While there is an obvious division between the Banda and the French colonial authority, Mahan clearly does not want to explore intractable divisions within the Banda. Thus, when Batouala returns, everyone is happy, even Bissibi’ngui, who has to cool his jets and wait for another opportunity. The internal social order holds.
Yassigui’inda is off next morning for a tryst with Bissibi’ngui. A she walks through the forest with no weapon to protect her, she muses on her freedom to find sexual satisfaction. Her husband is older, and once a day is not necessarily satisfying enough. She is attracted to Bissibi’ngui, but she also wonders if he is too young and sharp and ignorant. She gets distracted and is almost pounced on by a panther just as her husband and Bissibi’ngui come along to drive off the panther. No one is injured or dies in the panther attack, but Batouala is suspicious. Maran diverts from a potentially significant plot development to a little character tension.
At the Ga’nza ceremony, everyone gathers far away from the eyes of the colonial government. There is much dancing, drinking, and eating. Much time is spent on complaints about the white man; they don’t like our food, our ways; they don’t like us; we should have wiped them out when they arrived. But now the characters simply accept the dominance of the colonizers, even grudgingly pay taxes. Maran’s tone is not of mourning or loss but complaint and resignation. And the characters are still in a bubble. The coming of age ceremony has been in place time out of mind. The boys and girls who are going to be circumcised and excised have been away from everyone in the bush. There is much drinking, eating, dancing, chanting, and noise. Maran portrays the chaotic nature of the ceremony, and in the midst of it all the boys are circumcised and the girls excised. Maran acknowledges the fear and pain. His purpose, though, is not to criticize the practice but to realistically render the actions of the participants, which includes describing the dogs eating the excised/circumcised parts. I’d note that given the current global movement to end female genital mutilation, a contemporary reader may find his “objective” rendering of the ceremony objectionable Afterwards, everyone is naked and pairs up, including Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda. An orgy is the culmination of the ceremony for the community, although Batouala is so jealous that he chases Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda out of the orgy. Batouala spends a lot of time on sex, heterosexuality really. I can see why the original 1920s audience might have been shocked, and why readers today might question Maran’s portrayal of binary sexuality. The scene ends when the colonial commandant shows up with soldiers and guns–the only time white men appear in the book–and everyone scatters. The commandant is disgusted by what he sees and has heard. For him, to use a western reference, this Dionysian ceremony is just a sign of African barbarity, a sign of the necessity of ruling over “these people.” Nonetheless, this is the sole moment of an active white presence in the novel. Maran does not take it as a lever to ramp up colonizer/colonized conflict.
Conflict in the rest of the book remains within the tribe. Bissibi’ngui knows that Batouala remains upset with him, and he is wary. He believes that he will be killed by Batouala or that he will kill Batouala. One night, Bissibi’ngui is walking through the bush with a torch and weapons when he encounters Batouala, his mother, and the dog Djouma, who loves Bissibi’ngui. Open hostility does not break out between the two men. Instead, Batouala tells stories to demonstrate his superior cultural knowledge and bully Bissibi’ngui a bit, telling him finally that he won’t live long and that men should stop visiting their neighbor’s wives. Bissibi’ngui is reserved and defensive, and there is a threat of violence in the air, but then some other men show up, and Bissibi’ngui stops worrying about being killed. Again, Maran consistently follows the pattern of diluting and diverting conflict.
The book ends with a big hunt, involving all the men in the tribe. It is a ritual event that begins with storytelling, in particular Batouala’s story of the white hunter who was not smart enough to put enough space between himself and the elephant he shoots, who runs at the hunter and gores him to death. Poor ignorant white man who does not know how to hunt an elephant (Chuckle Chuckle). The story reinforces the men’s sense of their superiority over the colonizers. The hunt itself is signaled by lighting the bush on fire to flush out the game. Unfortunately, a panther running from the flames slashes Batouala’s stomach. The other hunters put him under a tree and go on with the hunt, and by the time they get him back home it is too late. No remedies work, and Batouala dies a slow, painful death, although his jealousy pushes him to get up one last time to harass Bissibi’ngui and Yassigui’inda.
Although Maran sets up the possibility that Batouala could be killed by a colonizer’s bullet or Bissibi’ngui’s knife, instead he is killed by nature or circumstance or, perhaps, neglect. As throughout the rest of the book, Maran cools conflict and tension. In Batouala, Maran does not write a great tragedy or an epic clash between cultures, but a lower case ordinary story of a particular set of people in a particular place. It reads as if Maran wanted to write a story of the Banda before the effects of colonialism became too pronounced.
December 21, 2019
I can tell from reading this novel, it’s importance for the African revolutions of the mid-20th century. It’s depiction of African life is detailed in a way that brings the (male) characters and their surroundings to life. It breathes a certain humanity into Batouala and his tribe’s (and the others around them) lifestyle and customs in a way that definitely wasn’t being done.
However, the book is blatantly sexist. All the female characters exist mainly as props and devices for Batouala, Bissibi’ngui and other males of the tribe. Batouala’s wife, Yassigui’ndja, is motivated purely by her desire for the male body. There’s a quote somewhere in there that goes, (paraphrase), “food, water, and a man to sleep next to is all we need.” Overall, this sexism greatly disappointed me.
This book is incredibly significant to African and African diasporic history, and I’m glad I own it, but it is flawed.
However, the book is blatantly sexist. All the female characters exist mainly as props and devices for Batouala, Bissibi’ngui and other males of the tribe. Batouala’s wife, Yassigui’ndja, is motivated purely by her desire for the male body. There’s a quote somewhere in there that goes, (paraphrase), “food, water, and a man to sleep next to is all we need.” Overall, this sexism greatly disappointed me.
This book is incredibly significant to African and African diasporic history, and I’m glad I own it, but it is flawed.
November 22, 2024
3,5⭐️
mit dem Roman an sich konnte ich zwischenzeitlich nicht so viel anfangen aber das Nachwort fand ich super spannend. Die Perspektive eines schwarzen französischen Kolonialbeamten der dann ein kolonialismus-kritisches Buch in den 20er Jahren schreibt ist faszinierend.
Möchte allerdings noch weitere Bücher zu dem Thema lesen und glaube auch, dass (vor allem aktuellere) Sachbücher etwas weiterbringender sind.
mit dem Roman an sich konnte ich zwischenzeitlich nicht so viel anfangen aber das Nachwort fand ich super spannend. Die Perspektive eines schwarzen französischen Kolonialbeamten der dann ein kolonialismus-kritisches Buch in den 20er Jahren schreibt ist faszinierend.
Möchte allerdings noch weitere Bücher zu dem Thema lesen und glaube auch, dass (vor allem aktuellere) Sachbücher etwas weiterbringender sind.
October 24, 2020
Un classique. A lire pour mieux comprendre comment les blancs ont été perçu par les noirs pendant l’époque coloniale. Et peut-être même après. Comme l’Éditeur écrit: Batouala est le premier roman "nègre" écrit par un "nègre."
January 1, 2015
Free ebook version available at Open Library.
Batouala could really benefit from an academic introduction to situate it within the time period and explain who the author was and how his writing challenged the contemporary colonial imagination of the lives of African peoples. Though Maran was a Black man from the French colony of Martinique, the story remains an outsider-observer's narration of the internal, cultural daily life, inner thoughts, and motivations of (maybe Gbaya?) people in a Central African village, based on years living there as a member of the French colonial service (!). Nowadays there is a fantastic amount of gorgeous, critical, intricate fiction by African authors from across the continent, so the faults of this novel ring louder than the criticism and challenge it presented at the time.
This challenge is presented straight forward enough however in the gem of a preface by an author overwhelmed and disgusted by the genocidal horrors of the French rubber-plantation-enslavement colonial system. You could well enough skip the simple, descriptive story of village life, but don't skip the few pages of biting cynical disgust that precede it:
This region used to be very rich in rubber and had a large population. It was covered with plantations of every kind and teemed with goats and poultry.
Seven years have been enough to work complete ruin. Villages have grown fewer and farther between, the plantations have disappeared, the goats and poultry have been exterminated. As for the natives, they were broken down by incessant toil, for which they were not paid, and were robbed of even the time to sow their crops. They saw disease come and take up its abode with them, saw famine stalk their land, saw their numbers grow less and less. ...
... If we knew of what vileness the great colonial life is composed, of what daily vileness, we should talk of it less, we should not talk of it at all. It degrades a man bit by bit. ... These and other ignoble excesses reduce those who indulge in them to the last degree of flaccidity. A condition so abject must be a matter of prune concern to those who are charged with representing France, the men who assume responsibility for the evils from which certain parts of the Negro country are at present suffering. ...
Intellectual anemia joining hands with moral debility, they have deceived their country and felt no remorse. What I urge upon you to set right is everything embraced in the administration's euphemism of "mistakes." It will be a sharp struggle. You will attack the slave-drivers. Fighting them will be harder than tilting at windmills. Your task is a splendid one. Put your shoulders to the wheel then. Waste no time! It is the will of France.
Hey anthropologists and poly-sci students who are all flocking to study CAR now given its crisis hot-spot position on the world stage: maybe one of you could do this little book some justice?
Batouala could really benefit from an academic introduction to situate it within the time period and explain who the author was and how his writing challenged the contemporary colonial imagination of the lives of African peoples. Though Maran was a Black man from the French colony of Martinique, the story remains an outsider-observer's narration of the internal, cultural daily life, inner thoughts, and motivations of (maybe Gbaya?) people in a Central African village, based on years living there as a member of the French colonial service (!). Nowadays there is a fantastic amount of gorgeous, critical, intricate fiction by African authors from across the continent, so the faults of this novel ring louder than the criticism and challenge it presented at the time.
This challenge is presented straight forward enough however in the gem of a preface by an author overwhelmed and disgusted by the genocidal horrors of the French rubber-plantation-enslavement colonial system. You could well enough skip the simple, descriptive story of village life, but don't skip the few pages of biting cynical disgust that precede it:
This region used to be very rich in rubber and had a large population. It was covered with plantations of every kind and teemed with goats and poultry.
Seven years have been enough to work complete ruin. Villages have grown fewer and farther between, the plantations have disappeared, the goats and poultry have been exterminated. As for the natives, they were broken down by incessant toil, for which they were not paid, and were robbed of even the time to sow their crops. They saw disease come and take up its abode with them, saw famine stalk their land, saw their numbers grow less and less. ...
... If we knew of what vileness the great colonial life is composed, of what daily vileness, we should talk of it less, we should not talk of it at all. It degrades a man bit by bit. ... These and other ignoble excesses reduce those who indulge in them to the last degree of flaccidity. A condition so abject must be a matter of prune concern to those who are charged with representing France, the men who assume responsibility for the evils from which certain parts of the Negro country are at present suffering. ...
Intellectual anemia joining hands with moral debility, they have deceived their country and felt no remorse. What I urge upon you to set right is everything embraced in the administration's euphemism of "mistakes." It will be a sharp struggle. You will attack the slave-drivers. Fighting them will be harder than tilting at windmills. Your task is a splendid one. Put your shoulders to the wheel then. Waste no time! It is the will of France.
Hey anthropologists and poly-sci students who are all flocking to study CAR now given its crisis hot-spot position on the world stage: maybe one of you could do this little book some justice?
February 21, 2014
Admired both by Hemingway and early African nationalists, Batouala was the first novel by a writer of African descent to win France's highest literary prize. Despite coming out in 1921 it contains many passages of unabashedly vitriolic anti-colonial sentiment as well as some explicit scenes. Unique and intriguing, but much more so if you know some context before you read it.
February 3, 2012
I read this in French for my graduate class and had to try to analyze it in terms of being the first novel of the Negritude Movement. All that aside, I liked the imagery and interesting language mix of French and African.
June 14, 2019
"We are only taxable flesh. We are only beasts of burden. Beasts? Not even that. Dogs? They feed them and they care for their horses. Us? We are for them less than those animals; we are lower than the lowest. They are slowly crushing us."
March 31, 2009
Very touching story.
September 6, 2009
"... when you have read it, you have seen Batouala, and that makes it a great novel." Ernest Hemingway
May 22, 2018
La lenteur du récit prédomine...
January 2, 2024
Batouala written in french by Ranemaran, is an afro Carribbean writer Iiving in Paris in the 1920's, the English edition is printed in 1972 it can be the first novel about Africa written by black Carribbean available for use in an academic setting, literature classes and wide general public.
Batouala depicts the life of a great African king who battle desire of young men for his wife. Batouala is a story of cultural African love, growth of generations and change in African as the results of European intervention. Batouala portray African cultural landscape, percersive spirituality and story telling style of common creatures.
Moreover, Batouala's depicts the unpleasant factual realities of primitivism life of African nation. The description of painful vicious circumcisions rite practiced, human body smeling, war and killing of human by fellow blacks and animals.
Batoula deploys an eye of God device narrative to depicts emotional and mental state of animals, the king among the animal beasts Mourou, the panther who roars as a powerful beast that destroys men and women but the character Batoula succeeded in protecting or winning mourou against his wife but batoula was later killed by same Mourou.
The Mourou beast in the text can be symbolised as the present of white colonial masters, the fight, dispute and hatred of the colonial to the life and death struggles for the black Africans, in their struggle to resist colonial harsh intervention . The Mourou depicts a symbol of battle with the white colonist.
The use of lyrical prose style to depicts African tradition, Batouala paean to fire a lyrical language of prayers and hymns "the glory be to fire" and also the portrayal of the wild and blood incantations initiations rite of circumcisions. Mourou frenzy hunts was conducted through fire wild dancing.
Batouala incredibly significant to readers was because it neither glorifies nor degrades the African men and women. Batouala is important for the African evaluation if the mid twentieth century. It breaths a certain humanity into Batouala and his tribe (and the other tribes surrounding them) lifestyle and customs in a way that definitely wasn't being done however, the book is blantely sexist. All the female characters exist mainly as props and devices for Batouala, Bissibi'ngui and other male of the tribe. Batouala's incredible significant to African and Africa diasporic history.
Batouala depicts the life of a great African king who battle desire of young men for his wife. Batouala is a story of cultural African love, growth of generations and change in African as the results of European intervention. Batouala portray African cultural landscape, percersive spirituality and story telling style of common creatures.
Moreover, Batouala's depicts the unpleasant factual realities of primitivism life of African nation. The description of painful vicious circumcisions rite practiced, human body smeling, war and killing of human by fellow blacks and animals.
Batoula deploys an eye of God device narrative to depicts emotional and mental state of animals, the king among the animal beasts Mourou, the panther who roars as a powerful beast that destroys men and women but the character Batoula succeeded in protecting or winning mourou against his wife but batoula was later killed by same Mourou.
The Mourou beast in the text can be symbolised as the present of white colonial masters, the fight, dispute and hatred of the colonial to the life and death struggles for the black Africans, in their struggle to resist colonial harsh intervention . The Mourou depicts a symbol of battle with the white colonist.
The use of lyrical prose style to depicts African tradition, Batouala paean to fire a lyrical language of prayers and hymns "the glory be to fire" and also the portrayal of the wild and blood incantations initiations rite of circumcisions. Mourou frenzy hunts was conducted through fire wild dancing.
Batouala incredibly significant to readers was because it neither glorifies nor degrades the African men and women. Batouala is important for the African evaluation if the mid twentieth century. It breaths a certain humanity into Batouala and his tribe (and the other tribes surrounding them) lifestyle and customs in a way that definitely wasn't being done however, the book is blantely sexist. All the female characters exist mainly as props and devices for Batouala, Bissibi'ngui and other male of the tribe. Batouala's incredible significant to African and Africa diasporic history.
November 12, 2025
Рене Маран — француз креольского происхождения. Родился близ Мартиники, одного из островов Карибского моря. Около четырёх лет совсем юношеского возраста провёл в Африке, после жил и учился во Франции. С 1910 года работал в колониальной администрации Убанги-Шари, в том же году вошедшей в состав Французской Экваториальной Африки. Он видел все из��енения, коснувшиеся постоянного перечерчивания границ, учитывая активную роль Германии в колониальных процессах. Но не это его беспокоило. Рене Маран наблюдал за жизнью местного населения. И ничего хорошего он не мог отметить. В 1912 году задумал написать об этом книгу. Но как и о чём рассказывать? В течение последующих лет Рене Маран опирался прежде всего на собственное представление, будто показывая жизнь африканцев изнутри. Но насколько читатель был готов поверить именно такой манере изложения?
Тяжело проникнуться доверием к автору, если он с первых строк говорит о чернокожем населении Африки в негативных оттенках. Маран делится мнением, согласно которому африканцы лишены разума, живут по воле домыслов, ничего всерьёз не воспринимая. Вместе с тем Маран замечает, что так будет и впредь. То есть не видит ничего, что может повлиять на способность африканцев измениться. Читатель тогда захочет спросить: какие действия предпринимают европейцы? Совершенно никаких. Тогда почему Маран столь категоричен? Если бы читатель не знал о происхождении самого автора, мог сделать определённые выводы. Иначе не может возникнуть понимания, почему Рене Маран столь категоричен.
(c) Trounin
Тяжело проникнуться доверием к автору, если он с первых строк говорит о чернокожем населении Африки в негативных оттенках. Маран делится мнением, согласно которому африканцы лишены разума, живут по воле домыслов, ничего всерьёз не воспринимая. Вместе с тем Маран замечает, что так будет и впредь. То есть не видит ничего, что может повлиять на способность африканцев измениться. Читатель тогда захочет спросить: какие действия предпринимают европейцы? Совершенно никаких. Тогда почему Маран столь категоричен? Если бы читатель не знал о происхождении самого автора, мог сделать определённые выводы. Иначе не может возникнуть понимания, почему Рене Маран столь категоричен.
(c) Trounin
August 12, 2022
I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was a very enjoyable read that struck me as ahead of its time. It's 100 years old and much has changed in Africa in that time. I also only have a very small amount of context for understanding Maran as an author and where and why he wrote.
That said, I really liked that Batouala gives us the African (male) perspective, and doesn't shy away from calling out white colonists for their racism and lack of cultural humility.
I also found much of the language really visual and beautiful. I love when an obscure classic like this still has so much to offer.
"The whites are good for nothing. They call us liars, and treat us accordingly. Our lies don't deceive anyone. If we embellish the truth sometimes, it's because the truth isn't good enough; manioc without salt is tasteless. But the whites! They lie for nothing. They lie with method. They lie by rote, as naturally as they breathe. that's what gives them the advantage over us."
"Life is short. Work is for those who will never understand life. Doing nothing does not degrade a man. In the eyes of one who sees things truly, it differs from laziness.
As for him, Batouala, until it was proved to the contrary, he would believe that to do nothing was simply to profit by everything that surrounds us."
That said, I really liked that Batouala gives us the African (male) perspective, and doesn't shy away from calling out white colonists for their racism and lack of cultural humility.
I also found much of the language really visual and beautiful. I love when an obscure classic like this still has so much to offer.
"The whites are good for nothing. They call us liars, and treat us accordingly. Our lies don't deceive anyone. If we embellish the truth sometimes, it's because the truth isn't good enough; manioc without salt is tasteless. But the whites! They lie for nothing. They lie with method. They lie by rote, as naturally as they breathe. that's what gives them the advantage over us."
"Life is short. Work is for those who will never understand life. Doing nothing does not degrade a man. In the eyes of one who sees things truly, it differs from laziness.
As for him, Batouala, until it was proved to the contrary, he would believe that to do nothing was simply to profit by everything that surrounds us."
March 22, 2023
Around-the-world #147: Central African Republic 🇨🇫.
René Maran was the first African to win the Prix Goncourt in 1921 for this novel.
The novel itself seems more a collection of short stories about indigenous life in (the predecessor of) the Central African Republic, as well as an attack on French colonialism. It is somewhat connected by a very thin story about two men fighting for the same woman (who is the ninth wife of one of them).
The real annoying part is the extensive vocabulary used, not only in French, but foremost in thenlocal vernacular which doesn't get translated. Whole sentences become incomprehensible in this way.
2.5 *.
René Maran was the first African to win the Prix Goncourt in 1921 for this novel.
The novel itself seems more a collection of short stories about indigenous life in (the predecessor of) the Central African Republic, as well as an attack on French colonialism. It is somewhat connected by a very thin story about two men fighting for the same woman (who is the ninth wife of one of them).
The real annoying part is the extensive vocabulary used, not only in French, but foremost in thenlocal vernacular which doesn't get translated. Whole sentences become incomprehensible in this way.
2.5 *.
October 8, 2024
Like Things Fall Apart, what history has deemed "The Great African Novel" tends towards being told from the perspective of a male chieftain or warrior, which is quite a myopic approach to an attempted critique of colonialism. Here, though, at least, it is less explicitly about the main protagonist's masculinity, even if it is still about that.
December 31, 2021
الطمع شر البلية و هو سبب خراب كل البلاد الآمنة ... وهو سبب خراب بلدنا .
January 8, 2022
Belle écriture avec un vocabulaire extrêmement riche... Je m'attendais à plus d'anecdotes sur l'administration coloniale !!!
Read
April 10, 2022Un livre de cours quoi 😶
September 30, 2022
Rythmé par la nature, les célébrations, et la chasse, un quotidien à la fois si étranger et si proche, où le désir et la mort entament une danse originelle et mystique
May 28, 2023
J'ai découvert ce livre dans le cadre de mon cours de littérature negro africaine. Franchement je n'ai pas beaucoup apprécié
October 10, 2025
interesting. But hard to know what to make of it.
January 26, 2026
5 stars - Batouala by René Maran was published in France (in French) in 1921 and then again in 1938. The author, of Afro-Caribbean descent working in the French colonial service in what is now the Central African Republic, tells the story of an elderly local chief Bataoula and his nemesis Bissibi'ngui. It is told in a purposely poetic style, combining lyricism with a natural and "primitive" simplicity, with the intent of the narrative seeming to come not from an observer or narrator but from the inside of the main character himself, or from the time and place where the story originates. It is a story that is lyrically told but never idealized; it feels genuinely and forcefully realistic. The introduction by Donald E. Herdeck in the 1972 English translation, says the book "was the first great novel about Africa by a Black writer." It received the Prix Goncourt in 1921 and was admired for its realism by Ernest Hemingway.
Batouala the chief embodies his people's very non-Western traditions, beliefs and values, which are beginning to be contested by European colonialism, but the greater threat to his immediate authority is represented by the young man Bissibi'ngui, handsome and virile, who disregards all traditions and values as he relentlessly strives against Batouala to pursue his own sexual desires. His passion is focused on Batouala's youngest wife, who is essentially Batouala's slave and who willingly welcomes Bissibi'ngui's attentions. The basic narrative, called "An African Love Story" in the book's subtitle, is about sexual desire and how Batouala energetically fights to protect his possessions, i.e., his wife, his traditions, beliefs and values, but the broader context speaks to the disruption of African village societies by colonialism which is only part of an oncoming pervasive and destabilizing Westernization.
My (limited, initial) sense is that Batouala sets an essential pioneering template or benchmark for subsequent novels about Africa. For example, the later classic and much more well-known Things Fall Apart (1958), by Chinua Achebe, set in Nigeria, tells a similar underlying story of how a community and its leader, and all of Africa, are transformed by colonialism and, additionally, by the Christian missionary movement. Reading the two novels in sequence only deepens the combined force of their impact.
The Central African Republic continues to struggle with the legacy of colonialism and the dynamics of its inner conflicts, as shown in the non-fiction Making Sense of the Central African Republic by Tatiana Carayannis (2015).
Additional books about the Central African Republic on Goodreads.
Batouala the chief embodies his people's very non-Western traditions, beliefs and values, which are beginning to be contested by European colonialism, but the greater threat to his immediate authority is represented by the young man Bissibi'ngui, handsome and virile, who disregards all traditions and values as he relentlessly strives against Batouala to pursue his own sexual desires. His passion is focused on Batouala's youngest wife, who is essentially Batouala's slave and who willingly welcomes Bissibi'ngui's attentions. The basic narrative, called "An African Love Story" in the book's subtitle, is about sexual desire and how Batouala energetically fights to protect his possessions, i.e., his wife, his traditions, beliefs and values, but the broader context speaks to the disruption of African village societies by colonialism which is only part of an oncoming pervasive and destabilizing Westernization.
My (limited, initial) sense is that Batouala sets an essential pioneering template or benchmark for subsequent novels about Africa. For example, the later classic and much more well-known Things Fall Apart (1958), by Chinua Achebe, set in Nigeria, tells a similar underlying story of how a community and its leader, and all of Africa, are transformed by colonialism and, additionally, by the Christian missionary movement. Reading the two novels in sequence only deepens the combined force of their impact.
The Central African Republic continues to struggle with the legacy of colonialism and the dynamics of its inner conflicts, as shown in the non-fiction Making Sense of the Central African Republic by Tatiana Carayannis (2015).
Additional books about the Central African Republic on Goodreads.
September 16, 2023
I loved this. Picked it up after some research turned up Maran as an early French African author and one can see he’s a poet —the language is absolutely incredible. So is the indictment of colonialism and the rubber trade—it’s kind of amazing to me this won the Prix Goncourt, and so early?! An incredible and worthwhile read. Simple, short, but rich and evocative.
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