Dr. Aliko Songolo “Knighted” for his French contributions
A man of honor
A man of honor
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
It’s not something that Dr. Aliko Songolo, UW-Madison professor of French and Italian, but also African
literature written in French, was expecting or even desired. In March, he had been informed that he had been
named “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques” — Knight in the Order of Academic Palms — by the
French Ministry of Education. But once he received the honor, he didn’t mind having it at all.
While Songolo developed an interest in Spanish and planned to study in all of the Romance Languages:
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, the summer after he applied to and was accepted to the
University of Iowa, their department was split into French and Italian and Spanish/Portuguese. Since he wanted
to study African writers — and remain connected to the Congo, Songolo chose French and Italian.
Songolo did not enjoy a clear path to his dissertation. While he wanted to write on an African or Caribbean
author who wrote in French, he couldn’t find anyone who was ready to supervise his studies and so, he was
encouraged to focus on a French writer. “So I looked around to see who was on the faculty,” Songolo said”. I
decided then to do my dissertation on a very important poet from Martinique, Aimé Césaire. I read his work and
found his work was quite up the alley of where I wanted to go. So I studied the African aspects of his poetry. And
| Dr. Aliko Songolo has been named a “Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques” |
since he was a French surrealist as well, that went over very well because they thought I was going to do surrealism. But I did something called French
Surrealism in African Surreality.”
After he received his Ph.D. from Iowa in 1975, Songolo began teaching at the University of California-Irvine where he was able to teach African and
Caribbean writers in French. He was one of a handful who were doing this in the U.S. at the time. In 1991, UW-Madison lured Songolo away from Irvine with a
joint appointment to the Dept. of French & Italian and Dept. of African Literature & Languages.
One reason why Songolo left Irvine was he was tired of being the only one working in this area. After some delay, UW-Madison hired someone else. “For
quite some time, they could not hire more than one,” Songolo said. “That was how things went because they considered it to be a marginal subfield of French
studies. But slowly, it has become mainstream to the extent that now, many people are thinking of sort of choosing it as part of a degree especially at the
undergraduate level. If you want to teach 20th century French, you can’t do it without bringing in writers from Africa, the Caribbean and Quebec.”
The bond that the French language makes between Africa and France is an interesting one. To the French, the language is the culture so that anything
that furthers the French language is also furthering French culture.
“They care about the spread of their culture,” Songolo said. “And it is through that lens that they see the world. There are companies that go to Africa and
Asia and so on. But the language and the culture are the Trojan Horse. So if you go to practically any African capital, you will find that there is a French
cultural center. There is also an American cultural center, but generally the American cultural center — I worked in one — does not do as much as the French
cultural center. Once the language has been spread, then you are ready to receive the French. You’ll trade with them. You’ll do politics with them and so on.”
And it is the French language that has created strong bonds between France and some African languages in a way that English has not done for Britain and
Africa. “France, more than Britain, still has a presence in Africa through different kinds of agreements, less now than say 20 years ago,” Songolo said. “There are
all kinds of bilateral and multilateral agreements between France and its former colonies in Africa. In fact, there is a summit every year that brings together the
president of France and the presidents of French speaking African countries. Beyond that, there is an organization that was created in the early 1960s right after
independence. Today it is called the International Organization of Francophonie. Every two years, it brings together all countries in which French is spoken as
the official language or just simply a friendly language. If you count the populations of those countries, it’s well over 400 million people.”
Interestingly, while the French language is the Trojan Horse of France into other cultures, it was also a Trojan Horse that allowed African writers to speak
directly to the French people. “African literature in French began, in part, as an effort to inform the French public about what the colonials were doing in Africa,”
Songolo said. “There was always a discrepancy between what the home countries knew and what the colonials were doing in the colonies. Many of these books
early on didn’t have that much of an audience in Africa. The audience was in France, especially since the books were published in France anyway. They still
are, for the most part. And one of the first actually was back in 1922 by a writer from Martinique who was a French subject. He was appointed governor to a
French colony in central Africa. Today, it’s called the Central African Republic. He wrote the book that won the biggest prize in French literature. In the preface,
he condemned French colonialism. And many others were actually speaking against France. Sometimes it was done without even mentioning France. But you
could see as you read those books that they were speaking against France. So that is part of the irony of this particular award I am receiving from the French. In
a way, I am teaching against France or against French colonialism or against what France has done. But as long as it is in French, it is fine. It is all very ironic.”
And the French language — and longstanding ties — have created economic and social divides in Africa. “I once wanted to take two trips,” Songolo
recalled. “One was a 45-minute flight from Douala, Cameroon to Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The second trip was going to be from Douala in Cameroon to Dakar in
Senegal. That would have been 3-5 more hours. The trip from Cameroon to Senegal was half the price. I thought this was strange, so I went to the travel agency
and said ‘What’s going on here? You must have made a mistake.’ He said ‘No, you don’t understand.’ Senegal is a Francophone country. Nigeria next door is an
Anglophone country. So there is this divide that exists still today between Anglophone and Francophone Africa.”
Songolo is due to receive his award in May from the French consulate in Chicago.
Surrealism in African Surreality.”
After he received his Ph.D. from Iowa in 1975, Songolo began teaching at the University of California-Irvine where he was able to teach African and
Caribbean writers in French. He was one of a handful who were doing this in the U.S. at the time. In 1991, UW-Madison lured Songolo away from Irvine with a
joint appointment to the Dept. of French & Italian and Dept. of African Literature & Languages.
One reason why Songolo left Irvine was he was tired of being the only one working in this area. After some delay, UW-Madison hired someone else. “For
quite some time, they could not hire more than one,” Songolo said. “That was how things went because they considered it to be a marginal subfield of French
studies. But slowly, it has become mainstream to the extent that now, many people are thinking of sort of choosing it as part of a degree especially at the
undergraduate level. If you want to teach 20th century French, you can’t do it without bringing in writers from Africa, the Caribbean and Quebec.”
The bond that the French language makes between Africa and France is an interesting one. To the French, the language is the culture so that anything
that furthers the French language is also furthering French culture.
“They care about the spread of their culture,” Songolo said. “And it is through that lens that they see the world. There are companies that go to Africa and
Asia and so on. But the language and the culture are the Trojan Horse. So if you go to practically any African capital, you will find that there is a French
cultural center. There is also an American cultural center, but generally the American cultural center — I worked in one — does not do as much as the French
cultural center. Once the language has been spread, then you are ready to receive the French. You’ll trade with them. You’ll do politics with them and so on.”
And it is the French language that has created strong bonds between France and some African languages in a way that English has not done for Britain and
Africa. “France, more than Britain, still has a presence in Africa through different kinds of agreements, less now than say 20 years ago,” Songolo said. “There are
all kinds of bilateral and multilateral agreements between France and its former colonies in Africa. In fact, there is a summit every year that brings together the
president of France and the presidents of French speaking African countries. Beyond that, there is an organization that was created in the early 1960s right after
independence. Today it is called the International Organization of Francophonie. Every two years, it brings together all countries in which French is spoken as
the official language or just simply a friendly language. If you count the populations of those countries, it’s well over 400 million people.”
Interestingly, while the French language is the Trojan Horse of France into other cultures, it was also a Trojan Horse that allowed African writers to speak
directly to the French people. “African literature in French began, in part, as an effort to inform the French public about what the colonials were doing in Africa,”
Songolo said. “There was always a discrepancy between what the home countries knew and what the colonials were doing in the colonies. Many of these books
early on didn’t have that much of an audience in Africa. The audience was in France, especially since the books were published in France anyway. They still
are, for the most part. And one of the first actually was back in 1922 by a writer from Martinique who was a French subject. He was appointed governor to a
French colony in central Africa. Today, it’s called the Central African Republic. He wrote the book that won the biggest prize in French literature. In the preface,
he condemned French colonialism. And many others were actually speaking against France. Sometimes it was done without even mentioning France. But you
could see as you read those books that they were speaking against France. So that is part of the irony of this particular award I am receiving from the French. In
a way, I am teaching against France or against French colonialism or against what France has done. But as long as it is in French, it is fine. It is all very ironic.”
And the French language — and longstanding ties — have created economic and social divides in Africa. “I once wanted to take two trips,” Songolo
recalled. “One was a 45-minute flight from Douala, Cameroon to Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The second trip was going to be from Douala in Cameroon to Dakar in
Senegal. That would have been 3-5 more hours. The trip from Cameroon to Senegal was half the price. I thought this was strange, so I went to the travel agency
and said ‘What’s going on here? You must have made a mistake.’ He said ‘No, you don’t understand.’ Senegal is a Francophone country. Nigeria next door is an
Anglophone country. So there is this divide that exists still today between Anglophone and Francophone Africa.”
Songolo is due to receive his award in May from the French consulate in Chicago.