Her voluntary disappearance in January in France, where she studies, caused a media tsunami in Senegal, her country of origin. Ten months later, Diary Sow published a novel about a young woman on the run, in order to respond to criticism and reclaim her story.
I leave tells the story of Coura, a Frenchwoman of Senegalese origin who decides to escape her life. She leaves Paris without telling anyone, then returns weeks later, changed forever.
“Disappear, some dream about it. She did it”, underlines Robert-Laffont who publishes the book, making the confusion between the real and the invented a crisp selling point. A short promotional video shows the author packing her suitcase, before slipping out into the night.
I’m leaving | in bookstores Thursday 4 November. #diarysow pic.twitter.com/V1oa48tjqF
– Diary Sow (@diarysow_auteur) November 3, 2021
Because Diary Sow had a similar experience last January. Half a month “pause”, according to her expression, having put the Senegalese authorities on the alert, up to President Macky Sall, who had given instructions for her to be found.
“My experience inspired me a lot” to give body to the main character, “my alter ego”, she explains to AFP, refusing, however, to tell about her long runaway, for a while “strictly personal”. “I am not Coura and she is not me”, she insists.
If Coura grew up rich, Diary Sow had a humble childhood, on the small Senegalese coast, where she was born 21 years ago. Unlike her heroine, the writer could however count on a loving father, who died last year, “who told me to raise my voice instead of bullying it”, she recalls. “If he had stayed alive I don’t think any of this would have happened”, observes the slender young woman with an intense gaze, whose chiseled speech, always preceded by short moments of reflection, denotes great maturity.
Brilliant, Diary Sow is twice best student of Senegal, in 2018 and 2019, a distinction as prestigious as commented in this poor West African country.
With her bac in her pocket, this excellence scholarship holder went to study in a prestigious Parisian scientific preparatory class. In 2020, she published her first novel, strengthening her national notoriety.
But last January, Diary Sow slips away, does not give any more news to anyone. An investigation for disappearance “disturbing” is open in France. Senegal fears the worst, right up to the top of the state.
“We had the impression of having lost a spoils of war, a trophy”, remembers Zoubida Fall, Senegalese news writer. “In the middle of Paris, we saw people looking for her with signs: + We are looking for the best student in Senegal. + There was not even her name.”
When the student reappears, comments pour in, often “vile”, continues Zoubida Fall : “When in our society we take someone as an example and that someone gets out of hand, we have reactions that can be extremely violent.”
The Senegalese poet Amadou Lamine Sall wants to be less lenient. Diary Sow “took pleasure in being known, in being photographed. She lent herself to this game, so she pays the price”, he says, when other award-winning high school students in Senegal “have not known these adventures”.
And to quote Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, best final year student in the country in 2009, who after “a lot of work”, was awarded the prestigious French Goncourt Prize at the beginning of November: “If she takes the time to work, maybe she can also become a great writer in twenty years.”
But the Senegalese, who says she is sometimes stopped in the street by compatriots telling her that she “is worthless”, does not want to wait.
I leave is in this sense a romanticized response to criticism. “I wrote this book to settle some scores”, recognizes the young woman “imprisoned by the opinion of others”, whose identity has according to her “been so distorted that (she) can no longer stick to this character”.
So Diary Sow wants “chock”. She makes Coura discover her sensuality, when one rarely talks about female intimacy in Senegal. “I wanted to provoke repulsion, incomprehension, disgust, I don’t care as long as it’s not indifference.”
She thus hopes, to the rhythm of Coura’s escapades, “reinvent” his life. And to dare: “Maybe one day I’ll be the one who defines my own image.”