La traversée de l’Atlantique ou la mort ? Une réflexion critique sur la notion d’échange

Abstract

This paper investigates the validity of the concept of “cultural exchange” through a few African novels, comparing different perspectives of journeys. While some African writers attempt to depict their most immediate environment, making themselves appear as “nationalist” as possible, one can notice however that more and more other African writers choose to encapsulate their literary universe in changing geographic settings: their writing depicts the mobility of characters aiming at reaching new frontiers. These new spaces, always to be discovered, provide African writers with a platform to depict subjectivities that cognitively enrich themselves on contact with newer and different world visions. However, the crossing into the other world (on the other bank of the river) seems not always to offer a space for mutual cultural exchange; it might be fatal and lead to identity “assassination”, “a journey of death”.

Keywords: Julien Kilanga Musinde, Henri Lopes, lost identity, the other, return to Africa