Today we talk about HARE AND THE PROUD KING, a book by Serigne Fallou DIAGNE published with our Publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author, Serigne Fallou DIAGNE, to get to know her better, what prompted her to the writing of her book HARE AND THE PROUD KING, as well as the crucial themes which find expression in her book.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What is the moment that brought you to the writing of your book?
Passionate about drawing, I started all my stories by animating them first (see attached extracts with hare in his way to see the rat brothers). Moreover, some characters in the book are illustrations taken from my films. My YouTube channel holds a certain number of them (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSPXNnWKl4). In 1993 one year after my admission at university (Gaston Berger St Louis-Senegal) at the English department, literature and after years of preparation, I began to gather together the various pieces of text I had used to make films. I rewrote them, incorporating images (extracted from the animated films) to illustrate them better, because my target audience are children. I’ve spent much more time in the animation process than in the novel way which is easier. After university, I did courses in computer graphics which permitted me to deal less in freehand drawings. Such trainings have helped me a lot in the animation production. At the beginning, I used to draw on paper, scan the images through my computer and go over the same images with the electronic pencil. I moved beyond this stage a long time ago because I draw directly on the computer using a number of software programmes. It saves me a lot of time. When editing for animation, I arrange each drawing according to the principle that guides the creation of cartoons: approximately 20 images per second of film. I have kept hundreds of them, safely stored on my hard drive. After all this, I went to the studio to record the voices. I edited the voice of a great local actor, as well as those of children and sound effects. These films led to the creation of my books.
- What are the crucial themes of your book?
These stories told by our elders are deeply rooted in our culture and every one of them teaches a lesson. In our society, old people are considered the guardians of knowledge. My maternal grandmother played that role in our family. I am Inspired by her. The book shows the power of authority and how it must be controlled if it is in the hands of a single person. Buur[i] for example has authority over everybody. The whole country is afraid of him. For the slightest reason, all it takes is a snap of his fingers for a head to roll. Power can drive one mad. Hence, it’s shown here how power can change a person and that too much authority does not mean one can do whatever he wants. The excessive power of buur can be likened to what we now call dictatorship.In this imaginary world, two powers clash: injustice and cruelty embodied by the king, against intelligence and justice, symbolised here by hare who is always qt the sides of the oppressed ones. He’ll give him a life lesson.
- What is the message you want to communicate to your readers?
When we’re young, we used to gather (my brothers and I) in front of my grand ma’s hut around the crackling fire, listening carefully to marvellous stories passed down from our ancestors from generation to generation. All my stories are of that kind and are collected from the depths of our collective memory. Adding to the fact that I’ve been inspired a lot by my grandmother who inspired me a lot, I work with a team and there’s one or two fellows whose role is to roam the country for stories. Contrarily to western civilization, we’re an oral tradition society. I write the stories with my own word as used to do my grandma with her words, but the stories are the same from generations. There’s an adage saying that in Africa, a deceased old man is a burning library. Our adages, tales and proverbs teach people how to behave in society. The real target however are the youngsters who must be armed with values and wisdom, main themes developed in every message.
- Which authors of the present and/or the past do you take as a model?
One of the greatest African scholars who wrote among other books, “Nations nègres et culture’’. Cheikh Anta DIOP (1923-1986) was a Senegalese intellectual and thinker. He has conducted extensive scientific research on African culture. His studies have enabled him to trace Wolof language back to Egypt. He is a source of motivation for many Africans, including myself. My master’s thesis at university was an analytical study comparing Maya Angelou’s Purple Eyes and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. In my opinion, this masterpiece by the Nigerian writer is one of the works that best expresses African society. African wisdom speaks through his work, from which I can quote certain proverbs and sayings:
“A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing,”
“Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then know that something is after its life.”
“The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.”
“A man who makes trouble for others is also making for himself. ”
Quoted from Achebe’s Things fall apart.
- Are you working on a new writing project you can tell us about?
Hyena and the given word is a tale that talks about a vicious individual, like those found almost everywhere in this world. the sort of person who would sell his own mother to get what he wants, without any principles or morals. As in all our tales, these stories take place in an imaginary world where our ancestors lived in harmony with wild animals. In those days, they knew how to speak.
Keeping one’s word is the main moral of this story.
I have also written a manuscript on what is known in the West as supernatural events that we experience on a daily basis, generally in rural areas. I lived with my grandmother when I was young. She was an expert in dyeing fabrics and her services were in high demand. Because of this, she often had to make deliveries to very remote villages in the interior of Sine (the region where we come from). She walked the entire way; I never saw her get into a carriage like everyone else did. As night often caught us on the road, we were frequently confronted with supernatural sights. Most of the time, in the middle of the night. A hen accompanied by her chicks blocking our path; a monkey or the sound of footsteps following us…were frequent. She would stop and chant incantations until the chicks. These kinds of things struck me deeply. In these writings, I recount them with a touch of fiction.
Europe Books thanks the author, Serigne Fallou DIAGNE, once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside her on the editorial path that led to the publication of her book HARE AND THE PROUD KING. We wish her the best of luck for her future works.
To you, my readers, may this book capture and intrigue you, but also allow you to collect food for thoughts to reflect upon and apply in your everyday life!
So, my dear readers, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your editor!