Central African Republic / All works
Novel · A way to begin
Le Silence de la forêt
Not translated into English
Étienne Goyémidé · 1984
Synopsis
Gonaba, back from his studies in France and appointed school inspector in Bangui, has a post, money and the rank that the position confers. His meeting with Manga, a Pygmy, awakens his curiosity about the hidden world of the Babinga, and he suddenly decides to give everything up and go to live in the heart of the equatorial forest. There he faces the solitary trek, hunger, fatigue and fear, then gradually learns the language of those who take him in and seeks his place among them, with the desire to be at last a man like the others.
Context
Published in Paris by Hatier, this first novel was followed by two others, one of which recalls that the trade in human beings did not begin with the Europeans. The narrative reverses the pattern of the exploration novel: it is an African civil servant trained in Europe who sets out to discover the Pygmies, and the studies devoted to it question the way he represents them, between hierarchy and encounter. Didier Florent Ouénangaré and the Cameroonian Bassek Ba Kobhio made a film from it, for which the author wrote the screenplay.
Who it is for
A brief novel in French, with a linear narrative; we follow step by step a man who unlearns his rank.
Prizes and reception
The film based on the novel was selected at Cannes by the Directors' Fortnight and received a special mention at the Namur festival.