Fatou Diome (Senegal)

FATOU DIOME was born in 1968 in Niodior, an island off the coast of Senegal. Despite diffi cult circumstances Diome managed to attend school, learning the French with which she would later write. At the age of 13 she left Niodior and continued her education in the city of M'Bour and later moved to Dakar to study at the university, supporting herself by working as a housekeeper. In 1990, Diome married a Frenchman and moved to France. Rejected by his family and subjected to racism she divorced him two years later.

Self-determination, exile and ostracism are the central themes in Diome's work. Following a collection of short stories, La Préférence nationale in 2001 and a novella, she published her fi rst novel, Le Ventre de l'Atlantique ( Th e Belly of the Atlantic, 2006) in 2003. It was a bestseller in France. Partly autobiographical, the bittersweet novel concerns Salie, a Senegalese immigrant living in Paris, and her younger brother Madicke, who stayed behind in Senegal. After years of struggle Salie has finally arrived and settled in France. Her younger brother dreams of following her to become a successful football player. Le Figaro enthused about the novel: “There are a thousand clichés about immigration, and in one novel Fatou Diome sweeps them all away.” The Belly of the Atlantic has been translated into English, German and Spanish.

Diome's second novel Kétala was published in 2006 in France and presents the eight days between the death of an emigrant returned from Europe and the traditional sharing out of her possessions. Everyday objects that have been left behind interact to tell the story of their former owner. Th us a kaleidoscopic image of a life emerges, caught between tradition and modernity, rebellion and degradation, Africa and Europe.

Diome teaches Literature at the University of Strasbourg where she is also working towards a doctorate.

Bibliography

Kétala, Flammarion, 2006

The Belly of the Atlantic, Serpent’s
Tail, 2006

Le Ventre de l’Atlantique, Anne
Carrière, 2003

La Préférence nationale, Présence
africaine, 2001

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