From self-identity to universality : a reading of Henri Lopes ’ works

From self-identity to universality: a reading of Henri Lopes’

Born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, yet a citizen of Congo-Brazzaville, Henri Lopes is one of those African writers who were not only educated in Europe (France) but also lived there while writing a certain portion of their literary work.Being an influential political figure in his country, the author expresses his vision of an independent Africa through his literary works such as "Tribaliques" 1 (1971), "La nouvelle romance" (1976), " Sans tam-tam" (1977) and "Le pleurer-rire" (1982).However, from 1990, Lopes distances his writings from general political issues.In "Le chercheur d'Afriques " (1990) and "Le lys et le flamboyant" (1997), he veers into a new ideological direction, predominantly embedded in issues pertaining to existence: the quest for identity and issues related to hybridisation are recurrent themes and objects of scrutiny.It is clear that this biological approach serves as a pretext for the author to perform an in-depth interrogation of the complex issues of the universal in the context of a modern and globalising world.In his works, human blood and race represent an important aspect of culture; the blending of different cultures is an essential element for the construction of society.A community founded on cultural diversity is thus depicted as dynamic, strong and sustainable.One wonders whether the author is not describing his own life experiences through fiction.This might indeed be the case, considering that Lopes himself is a person of mixed origins, herein referred to as a "métis".However, the experience described by the author, who lives in France, transcends race; it addresses the modern debate on the issue of cultural hybridisation.

Introduction
Being a politician and a writer, one can easily discern through Lopes' writings, a complete picture of despotic postcolonial political (mis)management, coupled with a dire dearth of humanism on the part of the new political authorities.Tribaliques, La nouvelle ro-P.K. Mwepu mance, Sans tam-tam and Le pleurer-rire depict a particular worldview which provides an insight into the overarching reality of a young Africa that had just attained political independence.Lopes's stance, throughout his literary work, is clear: the liberation struggle against the occupation of the African continent by European powers is over; it is time now to fight against the ills of new political leadership comprised of Africans themselves.
While Lopes' works decry the shortcomings of postcolonial Africa, it is important to note that through writings published during the 1990s, particularly Le chercheur d' Afriques (1990) and Le lys et le flamboyant (1997), the author adopts a different angle from his customary thematic thrust: understanding issues of existence in the context of which questions such as identity and hybridisation come starkly to the fore.Whereas his work revolves around the search for identity in an empirical sense, or a purely physical perception of the cosmos, it is equally inspired by an ideal and impalpable conceptualisation process where the quest for inner identity seems to take precedence over physical appearance.This article will demonstrate how the search for identity at an empirical level can finally lead to thoughts of a more abstract and general nature.As it were, the question whether personal identity exists separately from collective identity is relevant in this regard.To address the issue, Lopes uses personal identity or individuality as a point of departure which, in his view, is a kind of confluence between one's race and land of birth.However, once subjected to an overtly racial dialectic, this distinction seems to change throughout his work as it gives way to a more comprehensive view that embraces the idea of an overarching universal identity from which European, African and other identities take root.The various positions propounded by different characters throughout Lopes' works show a deliberate progression from the individual towards the universal.

Being métis
In Le chercheur d'Afriques, the author depicts the situation of Europeans sent into the colonies, leaving their spouses and families behind and subsequently engaging in casual relationships with indigenous women.Children born out of these unions used to be abandoned by their fathers who would eventually return to Europe to be reunited with their families (Lopes, 1990:65), but once these children matured into adulthood they would feel a strong moral urge to look for their fathers.The protagonist André Leclerc is indeed a perfect example of these abandoned children.He looks for his father through all possible means and channels.Taking advantage of his stay as a student in Europe, he courageously embarks on the search for his father, regardless of the obstacles: his inability to establish his father's surname as a probable starting point for his quest, not knowing his physical address in Europe and the absence of anything that would have facilitated his search.Against all odds, he finally manages to track his father down.However, the narrative ends on a rather macabre note in that the lost child of mixed parents in search of his father is ultimately disowned by his white progenitor, who subsequently dies instantly from a heart attack caused by the presence of a child he would never have wanted to see in his family in Europe.This sudden death could be construed as a symbolic negation of harmonious inter-racial relations.It would appear that Lopes intended to use this episode as metaphor for the sour relations between races which, in physical terms, could be viewed as diametrical opposites.
It seems that the act of disclaiming the métis or people of mixed blood on the part of whites is embedded in the precepts and ideological bases of a colonial system -a system founded on the ideal of inculcating the notion of the racial superiority of whites over indigenous peoples.According to this plot, the world was officially perceived to be irreconcilable in so far as homogeneity constituted the central pillar underpinning all forms of association.However, for their part, blacks generally perceived the métis as "le rejeton honteux d'une trahison de la lignée" 2 (Blachère, 1994:115).Rejected thus by both sides, the métis embarks on a journey to determine his own identity, on his own terms.It is a drawn out existential quest from deep inside that culminates in anxiety: Malgré l'affection dont on m'entourait, je me suis souvent demandé si je n'étais pas un enfant recueilli.A bien y réfléchir, je ne pouvais être le fils ni du commandant ni de Ngalaha.Ma peau était différente de la leur, différente même de celle des albinos. 3(Lopes, 1990:182.) 2 "disgraceful offspring resulting from the betrayal of the bloodline".All translations from the original French text into English were done by the author of this article.
3 "Notwithstanding all the affection around me, I often wondered if I was not a foundling.After much thought, I (realised that I) could not have been the commander's nor Ngalaha's son.My skin (pigmentation) was different from theirs; different even from that of albinos."The novel Le lys et le flamboyant, on the other hand, constitutes an embodiment of a proud métis identity manifest in the absence of any hang-ups on the part of the characters.The reader can easily discern indirect references to the union between cultures through metaphors contained in the title itself: the "lys" (lily), a Western symbol of purity and brightness is seamlessly juxtaposed with the "flamboyant", as an epitome of the colourful dimension of African thought.The utterances of Kolélé, the protagonist of this novel, are reminiscent of this selfsame philosophy of symbiotic coexistence when she claims to be a descendant of both "ancêtres bantous et gaulois" 4 (Lopes, 1997:405).The narrator projects the idea that the lily and the flamboyant are encouraged to accommodate each other.This coexistence gives rise to a kind of harmony which becomes "l'hymne des mariages entre deux jeunes gens des tribus différentes" 5 (Lopes, 1997:406).The characters in this novel, who are all métis, do not seem to pay much attention to racial distinction.This stance constitutes a form of dual acceptance: the characters owe their distinction to not considering themselves peculiar.The identity of a racial grouping is thus reduced to hybridisation which entails accepting the other and finding that same other within oneself.
Furthermore, it seems significant to point out that through his works, Lopes has inductively used the biological hybridisation in terms of races as an empirical pretext to explore much more complex issues of universal import.From the author's point of view, hybridisation is indispensable to building a society that perpetually reinvents itself, whose inherent dynamism constitutes the very basis of the sustenance of such a society.Thus, it is this same philosophy of symbiotic coexistence that the narrator of Le lys et le flamboyant points out: Il n'y a rien de totalement pur.Sans addition étrangère, on dégénère.

5
"the hymn for celebrating the marriage between two young people from different tribes".

6
"Nothing is absolutely pure.The absence of additional outside input leads to degeneration.
Hybridisation is construed as a phenomenon capable of fostering faster social progress.Viewed from that perspective, Lopes certainly appears to have drawn inspiration from a worldview embedded in Négritude as well as positions upheld, among others, by Ousmane Socé, George Ngal and Sheikh Anta Diop.The latter accounts for the present, by exhuming a past characterised by exchange and by hybridisation processes.According to Diop, the only influential Egyptologist that Lopes met when he was studying in France, "les anciens Egyptiens étaient des Noirs, qui se métissèrent par la suite avec les populations venues du Proche-Orient" 9 (Pageard, 1979: 52).This very same vein runs through Ousmane Socé's works, in which the presence of the hybridisation theme is evident: Nous nous trouvons mêlés, tout d'un coup à la vie universelle.C'en est fait de vieilles traditions dans tout ce qu'elles contiennent d'incompatibles avec le monde nouveau qui se crée; nous nous métissons, tous les jours, dans tous les domaines de l'activité humaine.Et de ce métissage, va naître, en terre africaine, un monde nouveau. 10(Socé, 1965:148-149.)7 "Hence, in opposition to all those clamouring for Lomata's immolation, the troublemaker insisted that the white and brown people's message be heard in order to broaden the action spectrum of the nkissis, the famous medicines in Bantu pharmacopoeia which either killed or cured […] Each pure race is the fruit of forgotten hybridisation." 8 "I belong to all countries and all peoples".9 "ancient Egyptians were Blacks, who became racially mixed following the arrival of populations from the Near East".

Métis and "antillanité"
Lopes' position on métis can be likened to that of Edouard Glissant's antillanité.In the course of expounding his experiential theory he deals with the issue from a creolisation perspective and arrives at the conclusion that exchange in today's world is not a mere postulate but, indeed, a strong and inevitable challenge: Le monde se créolise, c'est-à-dire que les cultures du monde mises en contact de manière foudroyante et absolument consciente aujourd'hui les unes avec les autres se changent en s'échangeant à travers les heurts irrémissibles, des guerres sans pitié mais aussi des avancées de conscience et d'espoir qui permettent de dire -sans qu'on soit utopiste, ou plutôt en acceptant de l'être -que les humanités d'aujourd'hui abandonnent difficilement quelque chose à quoi elles s'obstinaient longtemps, à savoir que l'identité d'un être n'est valable et reconnaissable que si elle est exclusive de l'identité de tous les autres êtres possibles. 17(Glissant, 1996:15.)The viewpoints propounded by Glissant on the one hand and Lopes, on the other suggests that the common denominator of creolisation and hybridisation is the rejection of the concept of blood-mixing as a singular autonomous parameter.However, Glissant further intimates that creolisation transcends hybridisation on account of the unforeseeable dimension of the former, a characteristic that seems to be lacking in Lopes' case.Creolisation is thus projected as the emergence from a process of interchange of something unexpected or unforeseeable: La créolisation exige que les éléments hétérogènes mis en relation "s'intervalorisent", c'est-à-dire qu'il n'y ait pas de dégradation ou de diminution de l'être, soit de l'intérieur, soit de l'extérieur, dans ce contact et dans ce mélange.La créolisation est imprévisible alors que l'on pourrait calculer les effets d'un métisinto bridgeplaying circles, be invited by the French ambassador or cultural attaché.He would also become European in order to defend the principle of cooperation, whereas we regarded it as neo-colonialism." 17 "The world is creolising, this implies that cultures of the world brought into contact with one another today, in an earthshaking and perfectly deliberate fashion, change as a result of exchanges such as irreversible shocks, bloody wars as well as advances in terms of hope and conscience that create room for claiming -without being utopian as such, or rather by accepting to be utopianthat present-day humanities can hardly abandon something to which they have been attached for such a long time, namely that the identity of a being can only be valid or recognisable if it precludes the identities of all other beings." sage.La créolisation, c'est le métissage avec une valeur ajoutée qui est l'imprévisibilité. 18(Glissant, 1996:19.)What Glissant seems to suggest is that creolisation does not lend itself to predictable outcomes in that it spawns a new phenomenon, over which relevant actors cannot exercise any control.In terms of the framework of cultural hybridisation put forward by Glissant, the relation is not reduced to neutralism in the context of "totalitémonde": a modicum of distinction is an indispensable contribution to "chaos-monde" (melting world).Lopes, on the other hand, foregrounds some "ailleurs sans nostalgie ni mélancolie", (place elsewhere devoid of nostalgia and melancholy) a one-way ticket sometimes with no hope of returning.The narrator of Le lys et le flamboyant, Houang, couches this concept in the following terms: Je ne suis pas certain de ressentir pour ma part le besoin de la terre natale.Même si le hasard m'y a ramené, jamais l'exil ne m'a été un bagne.Dans tout pays, pour peu que je puisse m'y faire comprendre et entendre la langue de ses habitants, je trouve toujours des personnages qui ressemblent à ceux de chez moi, à des compagnons de jeux, à une amie chère. 19(Lopes, 1997:373-374.)This stance is similar to the one articulated by Jean Veneuse, the main character in the French writer René Maran's novel: Venu à Bordeaux tout enfant, à une époque où il aurait été difficile d'y trouver huit ou dix nègres, mes meilleurs amis sont des Blancs.Je pense et vis à la française.La France est ma religion.Je ramène tout à elle.Enfin, hormis ma couleur, je me sais Européen.Je ne peux, en conséquence, que me marier avec une européenne. 20(Maran, 1962:184.)18 "Creolisation requires that associated heterogeneous elements 'enhance each other'.This implies that during this intercourse, the being is not subjected to any degradation or humiliation from within or without this contact.Whereas the effects of hybridisation could be forecast, creolisation is unpredictable.(Chemain, 1988:123), could have inspired the writer to rise against the specific in favour of the universal.The apparent intimate link between the author's ideological positions on the one hand, and the views articulated by his characters on the other, lead to the conclusion that Lopes' work is never neutral and that "the connection between life and literature is understandable" (Tcheuyap, 1998:189).

Conclusion
The foregoing analysis of two of Lopes' works, Le chercheur d'Afriques and Le lys et le flamboyant, has revealed that, true to the mould of many black African writers, Lopes pays particular attention to foregrounding the ideological dimension of his writing.His works are embedded in "littérature engagée" which, over and above the aesthetic issues of language use, lays special emphasis on the utilitarian aspect of writing which is underpinned by the content.This propensity to assume certain ideological positions can be mainly explained by a worldview characterised by a deliberate disregard for human values.The ultimate goal of writing could thus be interpreted as the writer's intention to restore the meaning and dignity of the human being by appealing to a generally intellectual audience.Such recourse to indirect means of struggle against dehumanising ideologies is based on the fact that literature , just like all forms of art in Africa, comes across as an esoteric means for expressing oneself by propounding positions, considered to be extremely daring at times, on ills that afflict society.
This article analytically demonstrates how Lopes uses literature as a tool to decry the race issue as a social ill.There is no doubt that colonialism, as evoked by the author, was founded on several pillars, among which was the assertion of differences between people on the basis of physical and racist considerations and prejudices.It is against this background that racism took root, considering that the superiority complex that ensued contributed to the proliferation of racist prejudices.Lopes' perception of hybridisation goads the reader to reconsider his/her views on racial distinction in general.The negation of the existence of "a pure race" is set forth as an argument to counter the separatism encountered around the world today.Literature is also used as a vehicle to illustrate that the world is founded on "forgotten" or "unacknowledged hybridisation".The métis, from Lopes' perspective, is a person endowed with a free spirit and a sense of universal fraternity, who is nonetheless evolving in the face of multiple social prejudices.The call for universal fraternity, based on the recollection of "a forgotten past", constitutes P.K. Mwepu a cycle in the sense that the past is intertwined with the present, with a definite possibility of projecting oneself into a universalistic future.Hence, in this cycle, the end and the beginning dovetail; they beget one another.In Lopes' view, the global world is no longer an utopian entity, given that it exists already and that contemporary human beings are métis whose only task is to become aware of that fact.Is the author simply trying to reinvent the world based on the principle of non-discrimination?All indications are that the métis world, as envisaged by Lopes, exists in literature, particularly in his works.In this regard, Lopes, just like many others of the similar vein, inaugurates a new vision which should serve as supporting pillars for both the present and future worlds.His works, as it were, usher the reader into a domain of ethical challenges which goad the latter to contribute to the creation of a new society that is aware of the interaction that has already taken place and is ecstatic about the advent of a new world that is poised to share.Ultimately, Lopes believes that it is only through literature that such a new society would have the best chance of seeing the light of day.Today, as stated by Gontard, this theme of hybridisation or métissage is characteristic of francophone literature and has "strong echoes of the postmodern principles of heterogeneity, rhizome-reality and chaos-world" (Gontard, 2007:253).

List of references
Ainsi, à contre-courant de tous ceux qui prêchaient l'immolation de Lomata, le trouble-fête assurait qu'il fallait écouter le message des Blancs, et des Bruns, pour accroître le spectre d'action des nkissis, ces fameuses médecines de la pharmacopée bantoue qui alternativement redonnaient vie ou distribuaient la mort […] Toute race pure […] était le fruit d'un métissage oublié. 7 28(3) Des./Dec.2007:131-144ISSN 0258-2279Or in the same progressive vein: subscribe to a new culture without discarding the old one.He speaks about it with his maître d'hôtel with a considerable sense of pride:Les Blancs sont des Blancs.Nous prennent toujours pour des gamins.Attends seulement.[Ils]pensent que je ne les connais pas parce que je suis nègre.Or que, je suis moi-même français.14 the mind.For me métis people include all individuals whose soul is embedded in two or more cultures, regardless of whether they are black, white or yellow."13 "In my opinion, the term métis does not only denote people of mixed racial ancestry […] but people like myself, or you, Mr. Dieng, with your black skin, are métis in their minds and hearts."Literator 28(3) Des./Dec.2007:131-144 ISSN 0258-2279 claims to