2023-12-27 16:35:45
For her first novel, Guyanese Saïna Manotte offers a story that takes the reader on a journey to Guyana in the 50s and 60s. Nini, the young heroine, is confronted with realities that the writer decides to convey with a delicate and committed pen.
Saïna Manotte has a generous pen: History, flavors, loves, struggles intertwine and collide here, in the land of Guyana.
Edmonise, known as Nini, grew up in Sinnamary with her grandparents. At 13, they told her that she had to leave Sinnamary to join Cayenne and get to grips with her new life. His personal history will then be mixed with the great history of Guyana. From her adolescence to her life as a woman, from casual “kid-breaking” on the way to school to demonstrations for the autonomy of Guyana, Nini is different from the others. The sublime black woman dances fiercely with the gifts, sometimes bitter, that life offers her. She oscillates between two worlds and tries to keep her heart pure despite the curse that has plagued her family for several generations.
In this coming-of-age novel, the young heroine faces many realities: colorism, women’s destinies, poverty, wealth, beliefs, politics, love.
Written during confinement, this first novel received major literary sponsorship in
person of Christiane Taubira. Very well received, it experienced stock shortages in the Antilles and Guyana.
A zachari and a dance is the first novel by Saïna Manotte • ©Outre-mer la 1ère / Éditions Mahury
Born in Cayenne, Saïna Manotte is a Guyanese singer, composer and author. A lover of Creole culture, she invites everyone to travel to her lands with her songs.
A zakari and a dance is his first novel.
Reading an extract
“My body starts to quiver to accompany my teeth dancing in my mouth. So, when she passes by me and stops her big, inhabited eyes on my happy hips, I stare like a stick and taste my zakari conscientiously.”
A zachari and a dance is published by Mahury editions.
Find the other overseas writers from the literary magazine À la 1ère Page.
Realization : Jean-Luc Benzimra
Graphics and Animation: Joel Cimarron
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