Saint-Louis, Oct 6 (APS) – The Saint-Louisian writer, Louis Camara has just published a novel entitled “In the middle of the dunes”, in which he makes Nestor, a dog, talk about the adventures of his life and that of his master in the city of Saint-Louis.
“I chose to make an animal speak, in this case a dog,” the writer, Grand Prize of the Head of State for letters in 1996, told the APS, to emphasize the particularity of this new novel published with the collaboration of the La Rochelle printing house.
As a result, he emphasizes, “this work stands out a little from what has been done in Senegalese literature until now because we are not used to making animals speak except in the oral literature, notably tales and fables”.
He nevertheless indicates that in African literature, this fact is not new. Louis Camara gives the example of the book “Dog Time” by Cameroonian writer Patrice Nganang.
Questioned about this choice, he evokes “a narrative strategy which allows us to move forward hidden”. It allows the author “through the dog who has no taboos to tackle a range of questions that a human could not have done,” he adds.
To explain such an orientation, the author of the “Choice of the Ori”, a work which earned him the Grand Prize of the Head of State for letters, admits “to having a special relationship with the dog having grown up with this animal which has been a companion for him for a long time”.
Indeed, he reveals, “I was recognized in Saint-Louis because I was always with his company and it was with him that I discovered death”.
His pet leaves him after sixteen years of existence and Louis Camara remembers “crying” as he would have done for “a man”.
Mr. Camara learned from the dog in general certain qualities such as loyalty to his master but also courage.
“We have often seen a dog refuse to live after the death of its master,” he says. This animal is also heroic because “when there are disasters like earthquakes, they are sent first to save people in the rubble”.
To always defend his choice, he indicates that “it is one of the privileges of the novelist to use his imagination to speak to animals and in this case to the dog”.
Louis Camara informs that the entire novel takes place in Saint-Louis even if there are outings outside this city with one of the characters traveling to Cape Verde or at the end of the book to the South of the country. Which makes him say that “it’s a Senegalese novel”.
On the fourth cover page, Dr Thierno Boubacar Barry, author of “Louis Camara, the storyteller”, recalls that “the narrator of Louis Camara’s latest novel is a dog named Nestor who recounts the adventures of his life and those of from his master in the city of Saint-Louis or Ndar.”
“Written in an alert style and clear language, +In the middle of the dunes+ is a story of memories peppered with philosophical reflections and steeped in sometimes very caustic humor, with appropriate nods to the recent history of Senegal”, he writes.
For him, “It confirms the talent of an original writer who has his place in Senegalese and African literature”.
Writer, poet and storyteller, Louis Camara was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal. He is the author of several collections of stories, the best known of which is “Le Choix de l’Ori”, Grand Prize of the President of the Republic for letters in 1996.
Louis Camara is also the winner of the Best Short Story Prize from the Léopold Sédar Senghor Foundation and the Japanese Embassy’s haiku poetry competition.
Raised to the rank of Knight of the Academic Palms of the French Republic, this retired literature professor now devotes most of his time to literature.
AMD/ASB/MK
