EDEM AWUMEY, while the fields burn Receive the last hour alerts of duty

When he lived in Paris, Edem Awumey often went to museums.Walking from one room to another, he wondered what the painters wanted to tell, what was to say the smile of the Mona Lisa.In cotton wedding, his sixth novel, each time the narrator, Berlin journalist, visit Vienna, he is lost in contemplation in front of a painting by Bruegel the Old, the Dance of the Peasants.

"This is the element of mystery that interests me in painting," says the novelist in videoconferencing.In Bruegel the Ancien's painting, what is mysterious?These are peasants who work in harsh conditions and yet they are dancing, picolent.What are they celebrating?What do their smiles say?Their Sunday clothes?It is a priori simple and happy, but what is going on behind?»»

Fascinated by this painting which reminds him of his grandfather, the journalist obtained permission to visit as early as a photo exhibition entitled La Dance des Paysans thanks to the complicity of his friend Ed Kaba, who manages the new museum of the Green Revolutionin an African city that the author does not name.Shocked by this naive representation of peasant life, Toby Kunta, cotton planter recently committed as security guard, takes the journalist hostage and claims the firm, multinational who sold several peasants of transgenic cotton seeds that ruined them,Two hundred million francs.

In the meantime, Toby burns the photos one by one and replaces them with artifacts who belonged to his brothers and sisters peasant.If the firm does not respond to his request, the journalist, which he nicknamed Robinson, risks being immolated alive.Soon, the burning sun and the ventilation stop making the place unresphere.

Black Sun

If Mina through the Shadows (Boréal, 2018), her previous novel, shared some similarities with the Sartre flies, cotton wedding refers rather to camera, another piece of the philosopher.Even more, abroad of Camus with this insolent sun which knocks out cotton planters from the southern United States, West Africa, Uzbekistan and Indian Rajasthan.The Gatanois of adoption, which reveals to prefer Camus to Sartre, recalls that these writers and the playwrights of the absurd aroused his conscience when he was a teenager in his native Togo.

"There is probably a very Camusian side in this novel.This burning sun that comes up often, it is an actant, an almost contemptuous character in my novels.Writing is often a look at these readings that have worn us.Camus is the revolted man.In a somewhat pretentious way, we can say that Toby carries this anger, this revolt.»»

In a way, the novelist invites the spirit of Beckett (while waiting for Godot) in this closed camera whose numbers of the chapters will decrease, as in a countdown.

"The absurd somewhere, they will not escape it.From the start, we are waiting.We cannot stop the mechanism once it is engaged.Will he kill his hostage or are we going to respond to his complaints?This is the novel of a certain expectation.It is a very strong paradigm, that of waiting.There, where I come from, many people have waited for something to happen.We promised these peasants the dream with these GMOs.They sowed then waited for a miracle to come out of the earth.For a tiny part, it worked, but for the others, it was the disaster.Genetically modified cotton has not kept its promises.We saw it in India and Burkina Faso.»»

The invisible hand

Speaking of the fate of the Burkinabé peasants, Edem Awumey confides that in the genesis of cotton wedding, there have been several readings and the situation in Burkina Faso, a country close to Togo, which tried the adventure of transgenic cotton, which lhas arrested.

"By reading an article, I come across the testimony of a peasant who compares himself to a serf.In the novel, Toby says that we returned to the Middle Ages, at the early days of slavery.The difference is that today the master remains fierce, but he is invisible.It's the firm.Many years and centuries later, a certain exploitation continues.It’s so vicious that people were forced to make some choices.Before, we were talking about capture;People were transported to America and had no choice.Today, the approach is different, but in the end, we find ourselves before the same reality of the exploitation of the weakest by those who have a certain economic power.»»

While Toby and Robinson, who has traveled the world, discuss the fate of peasants, that of children working in Dacca's spinners in Bangladesh is also mentioned.The author defends himself to arouse guilt in the reader by reminding him of these harsh realities.Rather, he wants to bring him to ask questions about his consumption habits.

« Le but, ce n’est pas de dire “je ne porte plus de vêtements de Cerruti ou de Zadig & Voltaire”, mais d’entamer une démarche qui peut fonctionner comme une certaine responsabilité par rapport à ce qu’on fait pour qu’un certain écho arrive aux oreilles des grandes marques, qui se font fabriquer des habits là-bas pour pas grand-chose.»»

Ayant passé les étés de sa jeunesse dans les champs de café et de cacao de ses grands-parents, où il a pu constater que « malgré la dureté du travail, ces gens-là souriaient à la vie»», Edem Awumey n’a pas voulu signer un roman à charge contre l’esclavage qui perdure et le capitalisme, mais remettre l’humain au centre de la question dans un face-à-face entre deux solitudes.

"I think of this sentence from Senghor:" We are the men of the dance, whose feet resume vigor by hitting the hard ground ".Finally, cotton men may be happy people, who create happiness with little things before being peasant.Isn't the first job that of living?This is what fascinates me in the dance of peasants.»»

Ce mot commençantpar « n»»

In cotton wedding, Edem Awumey uses a word that has been at the heart of several debates in recent years.To readers who could be hit, this is why the novelist has chosen not to exclude him from his vocabulary."The word exists.The word existed.He says a happy story.He says a very hard story.We cannot empty the dictionary of these words which reflect a reality.How do you want us to talk about slavery without mentioning this word?I am against those who will say not to use this word anymore.What does it mean ?Don't we talk about it anymore?We cannot erase it.He is part of the story.I can't avoid that term, so I write it.We cannot write the story by forgetting sides.We try the writing of something total and this word is part of this story.I am against this approach wanting to prune the speech and I assume it.Do not ask me to get rid of a term, but leave me space to be able to explain it.Fortunately, literature still allows the time of this explanation.»»

Cotton wedding

Edem Awumey, Boréal, Montreal, 2022, 252 pages

À voir en vidéo