Emmanuel Macron salutes the art and manner of Mayor Conde

Monday, April 15 at 3:00 p.m. While the sun and newly blooming flowers chase the wind and rain in the garden of the National Library of France, a woman stands inside.

A portrait of Mary Condé, resplendent in black, draws the gaze of guests gathered in the recently renovated Richelieu’s magnificent Oval Room. Family, friends, political, cultural and associational figures, as well as representatives of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths gradually fill the ranks and form an arc around the tribune.

Right in front, Richard Philcox. The husband and translator of a Guadeloupe writer who died on April 2, who read, taught and translated all over the world, is surrounded by Mary Conde’s daughters, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A few rows later, Christian Baptiste, deputy of Guadeloupe, where the writer was born, in Pointe-à-Pitre, in 1934; Academics Amin Maalouf and Eric Orsena. A number of column signatories have been published Obs, From April 4, the national tribute is demanded: former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, essayist Mabula Sumahoro, former Foreign Minister Georges Pau-Langevin, former football international Lilian Thuram or again former Minister of Justice Christian Taubira.

After about ten minutes of waiting, quietly, the President of the Republic enters between the books, accompanied by the First Lady, accompanied by several members of the government, including Prime Minister Gabriel Atal, Minister of Culture Rachida Dati. and Minister of Education Nicole Belube.

“No, Mary Conde is not sleeping! »

This ceremony, which lasts about an hour, is strongly focused on the writer’s literary works. Four readers take turns at the table to vote on a mosaic of the vast and protean work. Heremakhonon (“10/18”, 1976) to his last novel, The gospel of the new world (Buchet-Chastel, 2021). The distinguished author spoke at the 2018 New Academy Literary Awards, exploring the legacy of colonization and slavery, the future of black diasporas, and the love and condition of women through theater, autobiography, essay, and a children’s novel. Mary Conde lived and thought by building bridges between Guadeloupe, Africa, Haiti, Europe, her existence and the world. The task seemed enormous, the choice with great precision, in the movement of accompanying thoughts, a clear and generous voice that knew how to express its The heart laughs and cries (Robert Lafont, 1999) and unsatisfied life (JC Lattès, 2012).