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Boubacar Boris Diop

b. 1946

Sengalese writer

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About Boubacar Boris Diop

Born 1946. Boubacar Boris Diop is a Senegalese screenwriter, journalist and writer.

Boubacar Boris Diop (born 26 October 1946) is a Senegalese novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His best known work, Murambi, le livre des ossements (translated into English as Murambi: The Book of Bones), is the fictional account of a notorious massacre during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He is also the founder of Sol, an independent newspaper in Senegal, and the author of many books, political works, plays and screenplays. Doomi Golo is one of the only novels ever written in Wolof; it deals with the life of a Senegalese Wolof family. The book was published by Papyrus Afrique, Dakar.

He was awarded the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Life and career Boubacar Boris Diop was born in Dakar in 1946. He taught literature and philosophy in several Senegalese high schools. He became technical advisor at the Cultural Ministry of Senegal. He began working as a journalist and writer, writing for local newspapers, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Paris-based magazine Afrique, perspectives et réalités.

Work Diop's book Murambi, le livre des ossements was written for the Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire [Rwanda: write out of a duty to remember] initiative of 1998. He is the author of Doomi Golo, a novel entirely in Wolof. It was translated to English by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop, and published as Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks by the Michigan State University Press in the series African Humanities and the Arts.

Diop also writes for the cinema and theatre and contributes to numerous publications, including and Chimurenga.

In 2022, he headlined the Neustadt Festival.

Novels Kaveena, Philippe Rey, 2006. L'Impossible innocence, Philippe Rey, 2004. Doomi Golo, novel in Wolof, Éditions Papyrys, 2003 (in French Les Petits de la guenon, Éditions Philippe Rey, 2009). Murambi, Le livre des ossements, Paris: Stock, 2000. English translation by Fiona McLaughlin, Murambi: The Book of Bones (Indiana University Press, 2006) L'Europe, vues d'Afrique, short stories, several authors, Le Figuier. Le Cavalier et son ombre, Paris: Stock, 1997, Price Tropiques 1997. Les Traces de la meute, novel, Paris: Éditions l'Harmattan, 1993. Les Tambours de la mémoire, Paris: Nathan, 1987, re-edition L'Harmattan, 1990, Grand Prix de la République du Sénégal pour les Lettres, 1990. Le Temps de Tamango, follows Thiaroye, terre rouge (théâtre), first edition Paris: Harmattan, 1981, Prix Bureau Sénégalais du Droit d'Auteurs 1984. Translated into Italian. Re-issued Le Serpent à Plumes, 2002.

Essays Négrophobie, essay, with Odile Tobner and François-Xavier Verschave, Ed. Les Arènes, 2005. L'Afrique au secours de l'Occident, preface of the book by Anne-Cécile Robert, Ed. de l'Atelier Le Temps des aveux, Labor, Belgique 1993, collection of texts on the issue Ecriture et démocratie (writing and democracy)

Plays Thiaroye terre rouge, L'Harmattan 1981 (with Le Temps de Tamango). Grandakar-Usine, co-written with Senegalese director Oumar Ndao, has been performed widely in sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb.

Political writings Nicholas Sarkozy’s Unacceptable, 2008. Speech By Boubacar Boris Diop (Trans. from French by Wandia) Njoya). Ivory Coast: colonial adventure, By Boubacar Boris Diop. Monde Diplomatique, April 2005. LE SENEGAL ENTRE CHEIKH ANTA DIOP ET SENGHOR Boubacar Boris Diop, 2005. Boubacar Boris Diop (Journaliste écrivain) : Les parents pauvres des médias. The PANOS Institute of West Africa, 2002. Boubacar Boris Diop, Dakar Noir . Transition - Issue 87 (Volume 10, Number 3), 2001, pp. 90–107. The new wretched of the earth on the Spanish exclaves Ceuta and Melilla at signandsight.com.

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Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Awards
Prix Tropiques; Neustadt International Prize for Literature

People in Boubacar Boris Diop's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Boubacar Boris Diop's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Boubacar Boris Diop?

Sengalese writer

When was Boubacar Boris Diop born?

Boubacar Boris Diop was born on 26 October 1946 in Dakar.

What is Boubacar Boris Diop's occupation?

Boubacar Boris Diop is a screenwriter, journalist and writer.

What nationality is Boubacar Boris Diop?

Boubacar Boris Diop is Senegalese.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Boubacar Boris Diop

· Wikidata: Q894953

· DBpedia: Boubacar Boris Diop

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Boubacar Boris Diop. https://biography.guide/boubacar-boris-diop/

MLA: "Boubacar Boris Diop." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/boubacar-boris-diop/.

Chicago: "Boubacar Boris Diop." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/boubacar-boris-diop/.

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