Franco-Senegalese writer Fatou Diome remembers the sinking of the Joola in 2002

Audio 29:00

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

Revealed in 2003 by Le Ventre de l'Atlantique, Fatou Diome, author, among others, of Kétala, Those who are waiting and Impossible to grow up, transforms from book to book our look at Africa and the world. Her new novel entitled Les Veillers de Sangomar by Éditions Albin Michel opens the day after the sinking of the Joola, a ferry that sank in September 2002 off the coast of Senegal, killing 2,000 people.

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“  No one ventures without apprehension at Sangomar, this uninhabited piece of land where, in the Serer animist tradition, the jinn and the souls of the deceased gather. On the neighboring island, the young Coumba begins a long widowhood, recluse with her mother-in-law. She has just lost her husband in the sinking of the Joola in 2002, off the coast of Senegal. As of nightfall, after the procession of ritual prayers and compulsory visits, Coumba can finally face his sorrow, record happy memories, invoke the dead. Then, her room opens wide to the watchmen of Sangomar, spirits of the ancestors and shipwrecked who tell her their destiny and will lead her to meet her "immortal beloved" ". (Presentation of the novel)

(Replay of August 31, 2019)

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• Culture
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• Senegal

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