Probably Ghostwritten, L'enfant noir: A Lost African Vision for Global Interdependence with 21st-Century Relevance

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Christopher Miller recently supported Adele King's exposure of L'enfant noir (1953) as likely having been ghostwritten, thus ingraining the stain of French anti-independence conspiracy on the founding novel of Francophone African literature. A new perspective on decolonialization from Frederick Cooper and Gary Wilder suggests that it is misunderstood to read Camara Laye's biography as political betrayal. The novel embodies a vision for global cooperation that transcends the nation-state, a position that archival research reveals to have been hegemonic in French West African postwar discourse. Pluralistic sovereignty was meant to ensure both cultural integrity and fair, effective governance in an interdependent world. This vision was lost with the balkanization of Africa, but it parallels what Jürgen Habermas, Yuval Harari, and other scholars view as crucial in order to solve twenty-first-century challenges. The structural dilemma that colonies faced in the 1950s now threatens the entire global community.