Boubacar Boris Diop’s Thiaroye

Abstract

Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1946, Boubacar Boris Diop embarked on a dual career as a writer and journalist, after having been a professor of literature and philosophy. His fictional works include Le Temps de Tamango (Tamango’s Time, 1981), Les Tambours de la mémoire (The Drums of Memory, 1990), Les Traces de la meute (The Pack’s Traces, 1993), Le Cavalier et son ombre (The Horseman and His Shadow, 1997), and Murambi, le livre des ossements (Murambi, the Book of Bones, 2000), which explores the drama of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. His most recent novel in French, Kaveena: L’Impossible innocence (Kaveena: The Impossible Innocence), was published in 2006. His fictive works all combine history with African legends. In 2009, Diop opted to use Wolof for his novel Doomi Golo. He later translated it into French himself, under the title Les Petits de la guenon (The Guenon’s Children). Diop’s writing career oscillates between fictional and journalistic writing. In addition to his regular participation in French and Senegalese newspapers— he is the founder of the first independent newspaper in Senegal, Sol— Diop’s journalistic activity also includes his participation as an essayist in collective works such as Le Temps des aveux (Time for Confession, 1993) and Négrophobie (Negrophobia, 2005).