"The blue trio", Ken Bugul's new novel-tale on migration and freedom

Audio 29:00

Ken Bugul speaks at Pascal Paradou's microphone about his latest novel “Trio bleu” (African Presence).

© Cécile Lavolot / RFI

By: Pascal Paradou

1 min

Senegalese author Ken Bugul, winner in 1999 of the Black African Literary Grand Prix for

Riwan ou le chemin de sable,

returns at the end of 2021 with a new novel

Le trio bleu

, which will soon be published by Présence Africaine. .

Advertising

When she published her first book in 1982, 

Le Baobab fou

, her publisher asked Mariètou Mbaye Bileoma to take a pseudonym.

I told her 'I don't have enough imagination to come up with a pen name but in any case the heroine is called Ken Bugul"

 ", explains the writer known for nearly 40 years under this name meaning " 

The one that nobody wants

 " in Wolof.

In 2021, in

Le Trio Bleu

, she talks about migrations, in particular that of her main character, Gora.

Gora is in his thirties who left the Senegalese province of Djoloff for France, known as “ 

Rewma

 ” (“the country” in Wolof).

This story with the dimensions of a fairy tale evokes above all the freedom of its characters who are " 

like birds

 ".

Guest

 :

Ken Bugul.

His new novel 

Le trio bleu

 will soon be published by

Présence Africaine

.

► Ken Bugul also chaired

 the jury for the 2021 RFI Theater Prize

won by

Haitian writer Jean d'Amérique.

Newsletter

Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Culture

  • French language

  • Francophonie

  • Literature

On the same subject

In G major

Family spirit: Senegalese writer Ken Bugul and her Sene-Gambian grandson Modou N'diaye

In G major

Ken Bugul, the exorcism through writing