Tchicaya U Tam'si was a Congolese author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. His official name is Gérald-Félix Tchicaya; his artist name means small paper that speaks for a country in Kikongo.

Life

U Tam'si spent his childhood in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, where he worked as a journalist until he returned to his homeland in 1960. Back in Congo, he continued to work as a journalist; during this time he maintained contact to the politician Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...

. In 1961, he started to work for UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

.

Since 1989, the Tchicaya U Tam'si-Award is given every two years for African poetry in the small Moroccan

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 city of Asilah

Asilah

Asilah or Arzila is a fortified town on the northwest tip of the Atlantic coast of Morocco, about 31 km from Tangier. Its ramparts and gateworks remain fully intact...

.

Style

U Tam'si's poetry incorporates elements of surrealism; it often has vivid historic images, and comments Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n life and society, as well as humanity in general.

Works

• Ces fruits si doux de l'arbre a pain 1990
• Les Cancrelats 1980
• La veste d'intérieur suivi de Notes de veille 1977
• À triche-coeur 1960
• Feu de brousse 1957
• Mauvais Sang1955

External links

• Description of the U Tam'si's poetry as well as samples in English translation of his works