Joseph Zobel

Joseph Zobel (26 April 1915 – 18 June 2006) is the Martinican author of several novels and short-stories in which social issues are at the forefront. Although his most famous novel, La Rue Cases-Nègres, was published some twenty years after the great authors of Negritude published their works, Zobel was once asked if he considered himself "the novelist of Negritude". The novel was adapted for the screen by Euzhan Palcy in 1983 as Sugar Cane Alley.

Biography

Literary beginnings and influences

Born in Martinique, Joseph Zobel grew up with the support and unconditional love of his grandmother and his mother. His mother, Delia, was forced to work as a nanny for a Békés (white Creoles) family, the Des Grotte family, in Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique.

Young Zobel was a brilliant student, earning himself a scholarship that allowed him to pursue an education and finish high school. After finishing his high school studies, he had hoped to study architecture in Paris. Unfortunately, he did not have the funds or another scholarship to help pay for such endeavors. Instead, he got his first job with the Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests which forced him to move closer to the water in South Martinique, specifically to the towns of Diamant and Saint-Esprit. His time in Diamant and Saint-Esprit allowed him to become well acquainted with the local fishermen and to learn more about their lifestyle, which would later influence his popular novel La Rue Cases-Nègres. Despite gaining an appreciation for the lifestyle on the coast, he couldn't forget the values he grew up with in the more rural inland of Martinique.

During World War II, there was a blockade on the French West Indies preventing anybody, including Zobel, from leaving Martinique or traveling to France.

Time in France and literary career In 1946, Zobel took advantage of his administrative leave and went to Paris to continue his studies. In Sorbonne, he took courses in literature, dramatic art, and ethnology. Additionally, he earned a position as an assistant professor at the Lycée International François-Ier in Fontainebleau.

Settled in this city with his wife and three children, Zobel devoted the 1950s to intense literary activity and writing. He published numerous novels such as Les Jours Immobiles and La Fête à Paris. He also wrote many poems which he recited at various festivals in France, Switzerland, and Italy. Most notably, in 1950, Zobel published one of his principle works, La Rue Cases-Nègres, a story greatly influenced by his childhood and time in Martinique. The story recounts a child, without much experience in the world, and a grandmother, who is experienced but softens her perspective of the world, resulting in a rare testimony to the West Indian Black community at the time. The Éditions Albin Michel refused to publish the text because of the Creole-inspired phrases. It was Alioune Diop who finally published La Rue Cases-Nègres in his newly created publishing house and magazine, Présence Africaine. The novel proceeded to go down in history in France and in the African continent.

Retirement and final publications Retiring in 1974, Zobel settled in the village of Générargues where he continued to write and even rewrite some novels: Les Jours Immobiles became Les Mains pleines d’oiseaux and La Fête à Paris became Quand la neige aura fondu.

In 1995, Zobel published D’Amour et de Silence, an art book of watercolors and some unpublished poems and extracts from his personal journal.

His final publications were published in 2002: Gertal et autres nouvelles, a novel combining unpublished texts and extracts from his personal journal which he held from 1946-2002; Le Soleil m’a dit, a complete poetic work.

Works

His most famous novel, La Rue Cases-Nègres (often translated as Black Shack Alley or Sugar Cane Alley), was published in Paris in 1950. The novel is an account of a young boy raised by his grandmother in a post-slavery - but still plantation-based - Martinique. The struggles of the impoverished cane-sugar plantation workers, and the ambitions of a loving grandmother who works hard to put the main character through school are the core focus of the novel, which also describes life in a colonial society. Zobel stated that the novel was his version of Richard Wright's Black Boy (1945), in that they are both semi-autobiographical.

The novel was adapted for the screen by Euzhan Palcy in 1983 as Sugar Cane Alley.

While La Rue Cases-Nègres is Zobel's most renowned work, the author started his writing career in 1942 during World War II with Diab-la (a tentative English title could be "The Devil's Garden"), a socially conscious novel similar to Jacques Roumain's Masters of the Dew (published a year or more later). With Diab-la, Zobel tells the powerful story of a sugar-cane plantation worker freeing himself from colonial exploitation by creating a garden in a fishermen's village of Southern Martinique.

Leaving Martinique in 1946 to pursue ethnology and drama studies in Paris, Zobel spent some years in Paris and Fontainebleau, before relocating to Senegal by 1957. Writing a few short stories, he had a notable impact in the cultural life of French-speaking West Africa as a public radio producer.

A noted poet and a gifted sculptor as well as a writer, Zobel retired to a small village in southern France in 1974. He died in Alès in 2006.