• 30/07/2022
• By binternet
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Édouard Maunick, this death he hated - Jeune Afrique<

One of his last collections of poetry was called "50 quatrains to taunt death".On April 10, she ended up winning the game.Remains the work of this great Mauritian author.

He was like his poetry: flamboyant and baroque.Mauritian writer Édouard Maunick, who died in Paris on April 10, leaves both a considerable work and the memory of a colorful personality and very endearing.

He was born at the Source, District of Flacq, in eastern Mauritius, on September 23, 1931, a day of austral equinox, therefore of crossbreeding of the day and the night, liked to emphasize this man who saw in everything afate.

If his father, Daniel Maximin, sugar cane picker, has a name from Sanskrit, the origins of little Joseph Marc Davy, the official names of the future poet, are multiple, as is often the case in Maurice.In his veins flows from Indian blood, Pakistani, Mozambican, French, British…

« Nègre de préférence»»

In the merchants of the sea (editions presence African, 1964), he writes: "I am preferably negro".He will explain that he does not reject any of his roots, but that he chose his African origins after seeing his school friends despised and mistreated because of the color of their skin.It does not mean that he considers himself a black poet."My expression is mestizo," he said, before clarifying: "I prophesy the blood mixed like a language of fire.»»

After studying at the Teacher’s Training College in Beau-Bassin, Maunick naturally between teaching before becoming a librarian of the city of Port-Louis in 1958.

But the insularity calls initially.In 1960, he flew to Paris.After a few months of bohemian, he was hired by French radio from the time turned towards overseas.He will make the production and animation of radio emissions his job for fifteen years. La décennie 1980 le voit entrer dans les organismes internationaux, à l’Agence de coopération culturelle et technique (ACCT, future Organisation internationale de la francophonie) d’abord, puis à l’Unesco, où il sera notamment directeur des échanges culturels et directeur de la « collection Unesco d’œuvres représentatives»».

Editor -in -chief in Jeune Afrique

Maunick had already tried the written press, in the late 1970s, at the head of the bimonthly tomorrow Africa.In 1993, he returned to information journalism by occupying a position as editor -in -chief in Jeune Afrique.Change of course the following year, when the Mauritian government appointed him ambassador to Pretoria.It will be an immense happiness for the author of Mandela dead or live (Editions Silex, 1987) to attend the dismantling of the racial segregation system.

Since his young years in Mauritius, where he published his first collection on account of an author, these blood birds, in 1954, he never stopped publishing.As one is never better served than by oneself, he brought together the quintessence of his work in a remarkable personal anthology (Editions Actes Sud, 1989).Connoisseurs agree: with an author such as the Congolese Tchicaya U Tam’Si, he is one of the greatest African post-negronts poets.

Did he himself have a favorite poet?His father, who, however has never written a line. Mais ce raconteur de paraboles lui a donné à « à entendre, à voir et à sentir ce que la vie a de plus vivant, ce que la mort a de plus vulnérable»».

With him, poetry is inseparable from speech.That’s why he loved the radio so much.We had to see him, walking in the corridors of Jeune Afrique, declaim from his voice as a stentor the verses he had just put on the paper.He was getting carried away.To the author of these lines, he explained: "It is true that I am violent.I have a big mouth because I am of a race that we wanted to silence.I am violent, because there are in me, every second, thumbs that bang.»»

Fragilité

He seemed anything but modest, but his apparent assurance badly hid great inner fragility.Was poetry not for him the means to ward off his anxiety about existence?It was not by chance that he liked to repeat: "I know the answers, I am looking for the questions.»»

A bit like at Senghor, his master, Maunick's poetic invoice is due much to syntactic ruptures, elliptical formulations and a sometimes apparently incongruous vocabulary he draws from the environment of his native environment.Supported by the rhythm of Creole, this poetry is crossed by some essential figures: the father;Snow, the loved woman;the sea ;the island.

Cette dernière, c’est bien sûr Maurice, qu’il n’a en vérité jamais quittée et dont il disait qu’elle le « fertilise»». « Il n’est guère de poème où elle ne soit convoquée, interpellée, magnifiée»», écrit Jean-Louis Joubert, qui a consacré une belle biographie au poète mauricien.

Against the death he had in detect Édouard Maunick led a fight - poetic - fierce.Was not one of his last collections for the title 50 quatrains to taunt death?(Seghers editions, 2006) The mower ended up winning the game.