Camus, the African

Abstract

Before considering directly the question of the “African-ness” of Albert Camus, I must briefly describe the way which led my thoughts to it. Having, years along, taught the work and evoked the man in my lessons of literature, I lately realized, in a prolonged contact with North-Africa and in my own fictional writing, how deep and fertile his influence has been on my own personality. This influence comes, no doubt, from the African soil itself, from its harsh climate and violent landscapes. But such a physical fascination, so vividly represented in his work, is not the only origin of his feeling of African belonging. There is here an enigma to be accounted for, a taboo to be dispelled. My opinion is that the “African-ness” upheld by Camus – this sensation of freedom, this moral lawlessness – does not derive only from his youth as a “pied-noir”, but above all from the books he read, from J.J. Rousseau and Arthur Rimbaud in particular.