The impossible journey home of Kossi Efoui's Solo d'un revenant, or the Destruction of the African roots

Vol.38,No.1(2017)

Abstract
At the turn of the 21st century, African literature of French expression evolves around a principal theme, that of migration. Knowing that a majority of these writers do not choose to live in their native country, but rather move to Europe, France more specifically, that propensity to write about their experience of migration is not surprising. The new literary movement that emerges during those years is thus called migritude. Even though Togolese author Kossi Efoui is often associated with that movement, the kind of migration he chooses to depict seems to be more complex than a typical transcontinental emigration and, therefore, raises important matters such as the relationships one develops to the past and the present, memory and history, and even life and death. This paper will explore the return home as it is represented in Kossi Efoui's Solo d'un revenant (2008) and will try to shed a light on the vision of Africa that the novels vehicles.

Keywords:
return; identity; territory; African literature; migritude; Kossi Efoui

Pages:
123–132
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