Ibrahim Issa

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Ibrahim Issa (* July or August 1929 in Gouré ; † February 21, 1986 in Niamey ) was a Nigerien writer , journalist and manager . His novel Grandes Eaux Noires (1959) is considered the first literary book publication from Niger in French .

Life

Ibrahim Issa was born into a nomadic Fulbe family from the Gouré area. His parents separated shortly after his birth and Issa grew up with his mother's family. In order to get revenge on the latter, his father made sure that Ibrahim Issa was sent to the "school of the whites" of the French colonial administration , which at the time was often viewed as a punishment. Issa attended the primary school in Gouré from 1935 to 1940 and the regional school in Zinder from 1940 to 1943 . He then went to secondary school in the capital Niamey, where he graduated in 1947.

He joined the Nigerien Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in 1948, for which he worked until 1959. Among other things, he was director of the radio station in Ouallam from 1952 to 1955 . In 1955 he published his own poems for the first time - in the journal Trait d'Union . He was politically active in the ruling Sawaba party . From 1958 to 1959 he was head of the cabinet of the Minister for Livestock. A few months after the overthrow of Sawaba Prime Minister Djibo Bakary , Ibrahim Issa left Niger and went to France . He trained at the Société de Radiodiffusion de la France d'Outre-Mer (SORAFOM) in Maisons-Laffitte . SORAFOM trained radio makers from the French overseas territories. Issa met the Négritude writer Léon-Gontran Damas , who was working for SORAFOM at the time. Issa's novel Grandes Eaux Noires was published in 1959 . He returned briefly to Niger, where he was in charge of setting up the radio programs in Zinder , and then in 1961 he graduated from the Study Center for Journalism at the University of Strasbourg .

Back in Niger, Issa worked from 1961 to 1963 in the civil service as director of information and press. He wrote editorials and columns for the state press. The Republic of Niger, independent of France since 1960, was a one-party system of the Nigerien Progress Party under Hamani Diori and Boubou Hama . The Sawaba party was banned. Because of his previous association with the Sawaba, Ibrahim Issa was arrested in 1963 and not released until 1967. He then became the administrative and financial director of the state cement plant in Malbaza . In 1971 he switched to the private sector and became Country Director for Niger at the Texaco oil company . After a long break, he returned to his literary publications. From 1971 to 1974, several of his poems appeared in the weekly Le Niger . Issa was arrested again in October 1975 when former Sawaba supporters were suspected of participating in an attempted coup against the head of state Seyni Kountché, who had been in office since 1974 . The same fate befell the writer Abdoulaye Mamani , also a Sawaba veteran. The conditions of detention in Kountché's prison in the Sahara weighed heavily on Issa. He was released in 1978 and returned to his post at Texaco. In 1979 his second book came out with the poetry collection La vie et ses facéties . His autobiography Nous de la coloniale was published in 1982. In 1984 he retired.

Ibrahim Issa was married and had twelve children. He most recently suffered from pain attributed to his time in captivity and died at the age of 56.

Literary work

overview

Ibrahim Issa's importance as a writer is revealed primarily through his only published novel, Grandes Eaux Noires . With publication in 1959, the work is considered to be the first extensive literary publication from Niger in French, the country's official language. Issa had already written the novel in 1952 (according to other sources, 1954). Grandes Eaux Noires ("Great Black Waters") is set in a distant epoch in the rugged, spacious Nigerian Sahel and is a reflection on the history of Africa and the unity of humanity. Ibrahim Issa also published a number of witty political poems. In his autobiography Nous de la coloniale (1982) he described his childhood and youth. Fearing further political repression in the Kountché era, he soon withdrew the publication. An announced sequel did not materialize. Despite his narrow published oeuvre, Issa is considered a prolific writer. The generally difficult publication conditions in Africa and his own perfectionism prevented further publications during his lifetime. Ibrahim Issa was posthumously the first recipient of the Prix ​​Boubou Hama literary prize in 1989.

List of publications

novel
  • Grandes Eaux Noires . Scorpion, Paris 1959.
( Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction et notes de Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 . )
Poetry
  • La vie et ses facéties . Imprimerie Nationale du Niger, Niamey 1979.

In addition, publication of individual poems in the magazines Trait d'Union (1955), Niger Information (1956–1957) and Le Niger (1971–1974).

Autobiography
  • Nous de la coloniale . La Pensée Universelle, Paris 1982.
Others
  • Mahamadou Halilou Sabbo : Caprices du destin . With a foreword by Ibrahim Issa. Imprimerie Nationale du Niger, Niamey 1981.
  • Diallo Amadou Hassane: A l'ombre des anciens . With a foreword by Ibrahim Issa. Imprimerie Nationale du Niger, Niamey.

literature

  • Jean-Dominique Pénel: Unité et diversité de l'homme dans Grandes eaux noires d'Ibrahim Issa . In: Ecriture . Littératures du Niger. No. 42 . Lausanne 1993, p. 30-41 .
  • Jean-Dominique Pénel, Amadou Maïlélé: Littérature du Niger. Rencontre . Volume I: Kélétigui Mariko, Mamani Abdoulaye, Idé Oumarou, Yazi Dogo, Hawad, Ibrahim Issa. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12858-3 , Chapter VI: Ibrahim Issa , p. 239-253 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 274-275 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Ibrahim Issa: Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction and notes from Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 , Introduction: Rééditer Grandes Eaux Noires, p. 10-11 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ibrahim Issa: Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction and notes from Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 , Introduction: Rééditer Grandes Eaux Noires, p. 14-15 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Ibrahim Issa: Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction and notes from Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 , Introduction: Rééditer Grandes Eaux Noires, p. 12-13 .
  5. ↑ Ibrahim Issa: Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction and notes from Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 , Introduction: Rééditer Grandes Eaux Noires, p. 19 .
  6. ↑ a b Ibrahim Issa: Grandes Eaux Noires. Le premier livre de littérature nigérienne en français . Introduction and notes from Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-12854-5 , Introduction: Rééditer Grandes Eaux Noires, p. 16-17 .
  7. ↑ Boubacar Hama Beïdi: Les traces de ma mémoire. Souvenirs d'un instituteur nigérien . Préface de Jean-Dominique Pénel. L'Harmattan, Paris 2014, ISBN 978-2-343-04199-5 , Préface, p. 8 .
  8. ↑ Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 255 .
personal data
SURNAME Issa, Ibrahim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerien writer, journalist and manager
DATE OF BIRTH July 1929 or August 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Gouré
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1986
Place of death Niamey