赫勒·马郎诞辰132周年谷歌涂鸦标志

赫勒·马郎诞辰 132 周年
2019年11月5日

Today’s Doodle celebrates French author René Maran, born on a boat en route from Guyana to Martinique on this day in 1887. His 1921 book Batouala: A True Black Novel spoke of life in a Central African village as seen through the eyes of a tribal chief. Praised by the likes of Ernest Hemingway, the powerful work of fiction made Maran the first black author to win the prestigious Prix Goncourt, one of France’s highest literary honors.

As the son of a French colonial official, Maran spent his early childhood in Gabon and was educated in French boarding schools. Like his father, he went on to work for the French government, serving as an administrator in Oubangui-Chari, now known as the Central African Republic. While there, Maran learned the Bantu language and wove details of the local culture into his writing.

In 1921, the preface to his debut novel criticized racial inequalities in the colonial system, which sparked controversy and criticism. Maran soon resigned from his government position and moved to Paris, where he corresponded and socialized with African-American writers of the Harlem Renaissance throughout the 1920s and 30s.

Maran would go on to write for prominent periodicals in France and America—including publications like Opportunity, The Crisis, and Chicago Defender—and authored several other books of verse, fiction, and memoir. He also spent more than a decade reworking Batouala, a groundbreaking work of fiction that was admired for its unprecedented insights into African life and widely translated.

Maran remained staunchly committed to equality throughout his life, as well as to the quality of his writing. His success gave inspiration to the 1930s movement of francophone intellectuals in the African diaspora, and to this day he is regarded as a literary pioneer.