An activist for memory and anti-colonialism, Maryse Condé was an important writer in the French-speaking world and the author of more than 70 works. She died in early April at the age of 90.
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President Emmanuel Macron paid a national tribute on Monday April 15 to the writer Maryse Condé, who died on April 2 at the age of 90 in the Apt hospital (Vaucluse). for the National Library of France (BnF), on the Richelieu location (2nd arrondissement). This honor brought together many members of the government, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and the Minister Delegate for the Overseas Territories, Marie Guévenoux, as well as personalities from culture, religion or overseas territories, such as the permanent secretary of the French Academy Amin Maalouf or the Guadeloupean deputy Christian Baptiste.
“She lived in the uncomfortable love of Guadeloupe. In the undisturbed connection with France. She came from France in her own way“, explained the head of state in his speech. “She lived in the Republic in her own way. Without rejecting her militant past or completely denying that her destiny as a woman contained irrefutable republican hope. A beautiful child of the Republic, like the beautiful child of the transmigration of hearts, who overcomes the curse and the abandonment“, he continued.
“Without cheating, without trying to please”
The author of Segou Or from Unvarnished life was one of the great voices of French-language literature and explored the history of Africa and its diaspora, the legacy of slavery and black identities in his novels, plays and essays. “She, Maryse Condé, who interrupted Bernard Pivot on the set of Apostrophes with the words: “Can I protest?” Of infinite revolt, of infinite malice, of infinite sweetness“Emmanuel Macron emphasized.
“Maryse Condé wrote neither in French nor in Creole. She wrote in Maryse Condé“said the president.”Maryse Condé lived in Guadeloupe with a bittersweet love. (…) Maryse Condé lived without giving up anything. Without cheating, without pleasing. By continuing to write and cook, I keep literature in my stomach. At the height of her impish authority, her wild humor, laughing at herself and dictating her sentences like one were dictating recipes“, he added.
