In his novel “Une vie qui se cabre”, Sylvain Pattieu, historian and writer, imagines a uchrony where the French Empire, in the aftermath of the Second World War, shifts its political center of gravity towards its colonies. It powerfully explores colonial issues through the destiny of a young woman from Dakar.
It is a coming-of-age novel, which tells the story of a young woman who opens up to the world and post-colonial issues. A native of Dakar, who left to study to become a teacher in the south of France. But in a France which did not really exist, but which could have.
Indeed, the writer who tells this story has made a small historical shift. Imagine if after the Second World War, the French Empire had changed its center of gravity. Imagine if power had passed from France to its colonies. Imagine descendants of slaves, Aimé Césaire or his wife Suzanne, at the head of this reinvented French Union.
It is this bold idea that guided the pen of Sylvain Pattieu. His new novel, “ A life that rears up » was published by Flammarion.
Reporting : Juliette Dubois met the Kenyan artist Jess Atieno on the occasion of her exhibition “Odyssey” installed until April 27, 2024 at the Galerie Cécile Fakhoury in Dakar