L’héritage de la négritude dans quatre livres pour la jeunesse de l’auteure centrafricaine Adrienne Yabouza

Sammanfattning: The negritude movement was a political and artistic movement, which developed in France and in the French-speaking parts of the world in the 1930’s, criticising racial discrimination and the exploitation of the African continent, and promoting African art and cultural expression as well as a common African identity and heritage.  This study examines how some values reflected in the early literature of the negritude movement are manifested in four picture books written in the 2010’s by the Central African author Adrienne Yabouza. The study concentrates specifically on three values: the close relationship between Africans and nature, the idealization of the black woman and the attitude towards aggressions and war, and searches to understand if, and in what way, the values have changed since the days of the negritude. It also aims at analysing the possible significance of any changes, or lack thereof. The theoretical framework is based on postcolonial theory, and particularly the context of enunciation of the francophone literature from the former French colonies. Regarding the closeness to the nature and the idealization of the black woman, the study concludes that the values reflected in the books of Yabouza are very similar to those manifested in the early works of the negritude. It is suggested that this might be due to the fact that the literary field to which the books belong is strongly anchored in the West. This leads to a lack of a critical discussion about this kind of literature in Africa, something that prevents the literature from following the cultural development of the continent. Concerning the attitude towards aggressions and war, the study notes a difference between the values conveyed by the negritude and those manifested in the examined picture books. This is certainly partly explained by the fact that the picture books are written for children while the works of the negritude are supposed to be read by adults. But the study also suggests that while a critical literary discussion is largely absent in Africa, a dialogue about war and violence is much more present, something that may have contributed to the evolution of the values manifested in the work of Yabouza.