Light and Sound: Boubacar Boris Diop with Sarah Quesada

Boubacar Boris Diopis the author ofMurambi: The Book of Bones, (Indiana UP, 2016; translated by Fiona McLaughlin), an unforgettable novel of the Rwandan genocide that blends journalistic research with finely drawn characterizations of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. In this episode, Mr. Diop reads fromMurambi,translated from French by Fiona McLaughlin, and speaks to Duke professorSarah Quesadaand host Aarthi Vadde about how his work on the novel spurred him to rethink his language of composition. Mr. Diop wrote his first five novels in French, but afterMurambi,shifted to Wolof, the most widely spoken language in his home country of Senegal. Asked to describe the difference between writing in French and writing in Wolof, Mr. Diop sums it up memorably: “When I start writing in French, I shut the door; I shut the window…I don’t hear the words I’m writing. When I write in Wolof, I hear every word.”

Sarah and Mr. Diop discuss whether translation can be an ally to a Wolof worldview or whether the sounds that Mr. Diop hears through his window will inevitably be lost to readers who encounter his Wolof novels in English or French. Their dialogue suggests that, while Wolof represents a form of linguistic emancipation from the legacy of a French colonial education, there is also discovery and freedom in raising the literary profile of Wolof for an international audience. Mr. Diop’sDoomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooksis the first Wolof novel to be translated into English and an excerpt from his second Wolof novelBàmmeelu Kocc Barmais available in translationhere.

In response to our signature question of the season, Mr. Diop proposes that the Wolof word “keroog” is very difficult to translate but not impossible. And it spurs an impromptu comparison to the Spanish word “ahorita,” which like “keroog,” blurs the distinctions between present, past, and future. In an episode about personal and political memory, nothing could be more fitting!

Mentioned in this episode:

--Toni Morrison
--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
--Mario Vargas Llosa
--Ernesto Sábato
--Léopold Sédar Senghor
--Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks
--Les Petits de la guenon(法国Translation ofDoomi Golo)
--Bàmmeelu Kocc Barma– literally translated as Kocc Barma's Grave (Diop’s second Wolof novel)
--Malaanum Lëndëm– Diop’s third Wolof novel
--Alice Chaudemanche(French translator ofMalaanum Lëndëm)
--Pierre Nora– French historian
--Marianne Hirsch
--“Sites mémoriaux du génocide”– memorial sites of genocide (term used by UNESCO that qualify as heritage sites.)
--Rwandan term – “ejo” (similar to keroog) from the language: Kinyarwanda

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