Othering, Negritude, and disillusionment in Maryse Condé’s What is Africa to me?

Abstract

In Maryse Condé’s satirical autobiography, What is Africa to Me?, she recollects and  re-evaluates her decade-long stay in four West African countries. The book also affords readers the chance to follow her trajectory from a racially Othered adolescent female to an ardent follower of Negritude, especially Aimé Césaire’s brand, which she associates with her personal re-creation and the uplift of the whole of the Black race. Anchored in postcolonial and feminist perspectives on Othering, this paper examines the role that commodification, Negritude, and disillusionment play in the narrative. In this counter-discourse, pervasive Othering is perceptible in patriarchy, one-party governments, and the chasm between West Africans and diasporan Africans. It is argued that the writer’s ultimate disavowal of Africa is principally a function of her objectification by the post-independence elite. The paper concludes that, far from being blameless, Maryse Condé herself contributes to the Othering of her husband, Mamadou Condé, and of Africa.