Antoine Abel

Antoine Abel (born November 27, 1934 in Anse Boileau , Seychelles , † October 19, 2004 in Mahé , Seychelles) was a Seychellois writer and poet . He was the first author to write literary on his home islands and is therefore considered the father of Seychellois short stories and poetry. Many of his works deal with the folklore of the Seychelles and the natural environment of the islands. He wrote mainly in French and Seychelles Creole .

life and work

Life

Antoine Abel was born in 1934 in the district of Anse Boileau on the Seychelles island of Mahé as the son of farmers. He graduated from elementary school and then worked as a bricklayer. After four years of secondary school education in Switzerland, Abel became a teacher in 1959. A little later he studied at the University of Reading , received a Certificate of Advanced Studies and taught agriculture on Mahé . At the University of Bristol , he took an advanced training course to train teachers at the Teacher Training College in Victoria . He carried out this profession until his retirement in 1986. In 2004 he died after a long illness and was buried in Anse Boileau.

He worked in the country's education and culture ministries and had two children.

plant

In Antoine Abel short stories play oral history a major role. Soungoula comes up again and again : a trickster who is half ape and half human. Soungoula appears partly as a hero and partly as a villain, but always triumphs. Abel's poems are often short and devoted to nature as well as rural subjects. However, he also wrote some political and very emotional poems. which contrasts with the simplicity of his usual poetry.

As a teacher, Abel published the collection of poems Paille en queue (German: tropical birds ) in 1969 , in which he tells of his childhood memories. It was the first poetry published in the Seychelles.

In the 1970s he continued his literary activity and regularly published articles in English in the Seychelles Bulletin and Seychelles-culture . With the releases of Coco sec , Une tortue se rappelle! and Contes et poèmes des Seychelles 1977 in Paris, Antoine Abel became the first Seychellois writer to be published in Europe.

Coco sec describes the work of local farmers and fishermen. In Une tortue se rappelle! (German: A turtle remembers! ) the turtle is symbolic of the Seychelles, which never rushes and believes it may have the truth. The legend is told in a humorous way, historically correct information is supplemented with Abel's own inventions. Allusions to the legends of Lemuria can be seen. In 1979 he received - as a co-winner alongside Jean-Henri Azéma - the French literary prize Prix ​​des Mascareignes for his book Une tortue se rappelle! .

Contes et poèmes des Seychelles (German: Stories and Poems of the Seychelles ) are a collection of the orally transmitted poems and stories of the country. Abel himself wrote in the book that he wanted to save the cultural heritage from oblivion that was passed down by the bards in the past. He wrote the stories down after interviews with the islands' elders. With the book Contes des Seychelles (German: Tales of the Seychelles ) published in 1981 , he carried out this work.

After independence from the British in 1976, Seychelles Creol became the official language of the Seychelles and many books have been translated into this language. Abel participated in the movement by writing the first play with Restan Kamira (1980) and the first novel in Seychelles Creole with Mon tann en leokri (1982).

Some of his French and Creole poems as well as a large number of new unpublished texts were published in anthologies in the early 1980s , for example on La Réunion ( Anthologie de poésie seychelloise ) and the Antilles ( Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie créole ).

After his death, the novel Carcassaille and the collection of poems Faune, flore et sentiments , which have not yet been published, were discovered.

Jean-Louis Joubert describes him as a humble writer who hides behind the people of the Seychelles, whose stories he writes down. Joubert also writes that "Antoine Abel's clear, unaffected language, receptive to the charm of Seychelles Creole, is probably the one that is best suited for the birth of a literature".

Pri Antoine Abel

The Pri Antoine Abel literature prize was awarded twice (2007 and 2010) by the Creole Institute as part of the Kreol des Seychelles festival . Only publications in Seychelles Creole were considered.

bibliography

Poems

• Jean François Sam-Long: Anthologie de poésie seychelloise (= Collection Anchaing). Editions Collectif. Reunion 1984.
• Lambert-Félix Prudent: Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie créole (= Editions caribéennes, Volume 3). ACCT, West Indies 1984, ISBN 2-903033-50-1 .

stories

• Paille en queue. Imprimerie Saint-Fidèle, 1969.
• Une tortue se rappelle! PJ Oswald, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7172-0824-0 .
• Coco sec.PJ Oswald, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7172-0808-9 .
• Contes et poèmes des Seychelles. PJ Oswald, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7172-0816-X . (also contains poems)
• Contes des Seychelles- CLE international, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-19-031747-9 .
• Fauns, flore et sentiments. Unpublished.

Novels

• Mon tann en Leokri. Piblikasyon Nasyonal, Seychelles 1982.
• Carcassaille. Unpublished.

Fonts

• La femme seychelloise et l'heritage culturel. International School of Bordeaux. 1976.
• Contribution aux études ethnobotaniques et floristiques aux Seychelles. In: Médecine traditionnelle et pharmacopée. ACCT, Paris 1983, ISBN 92-9028-046-8 .

Comic

• Tizan, Zann ek loulou. ACCT 1981. (text by Abel, drawings by Paul Yerbic )

Play

• Restan Kanmira. 1980.

Web links

• Obituary: Seychelles loses Antoine Abel, poet and nature-lover , in Seychelles Nation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Stephen Bishop: Abel, Antoine . In: Simon Gikandi (Ed.): Encyclopedia of African Literature . Routledge, London / New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-203-36126-9 , pp. 4 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Christophe Cassiau-Haurie: Plaidoyer pour une réhabilitation d'antoine abel aux Seychelles… Africultures, October 2008, accessed on January 18, 2014 (French). 
3. ^ Culture department mourns death of poet, writer Antoine Abel. Seychelles Nation, October 22, 2004, accessed January 18, 2014 . 
4. ^ ABEL Antoine . In: James R. Mancham (Ed.): Seychelles: personalities of yesterday . Mahe Publications, Mahé, Seychelles 2005, ISBN 978-99931-800-5-0 , pp. 11 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
5. ^ African Book Awards Database. Prix ​​des Mascareignes, des Seychelles et des Comores (approx. 1964 – approx. 1998). (No longer available online.) Indiana University Bloomington, archived from the original on December 20, 2013 ; accessed on January 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Jean-Louis Joubert (Ed.): Littératures de l'Océan India . EDICEF, Vanves 1991, ISBN 2-85069-654-4 , pp. 271 f .
7. ^ African Book Awards Database. Pri Antoine Abel = Prix Antoine Abel (2007 – present). (No longer available online.) Indiana University Bloomington, archived from the original on December 20, 2013 ; accessed on January 18, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.