Library Weekly

On 20 June 1990, the Senegalese writer Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar, Senegal. Sarr is the author of four novels as well as a number of award-winning short stories. He won the 2021 Prix Goncourt for his novel The Most Secret Memory of Men, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African to do so.

He moved to France to study, where his research focused on Léopold Sédar Senghor. However, Sarr soon shifted his focus toward fiction, ultimately choosing not to finish his thesis. His literary prowess soon gained recognition with the short story La cale (2014), about the slave trade, which was awarded the Prix Stéphane-Hessel. His debut novel, Terre ceinte (2015), describes life in a fictional Sahelian village under the control of Islamist jihadi militias. In 2015, it received the Prix Ahmadou-Kourouma at the Salon du livre of Geneva. This was followed by Silence du chœur (2017), which paints a portrait of the day-to-day life of African migrants in Sicily. His third novel, De purs hommes (2018), deals with the prejudice and violence surrounding homosexuality in Senegal, where it is still illegal to be openly gay.

In November 2021, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt for his novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (translated as The Most Secret Memory of Men), inspired by the life of the Malian writer Yambo Ouologuem. He is the first person from Sub-Saharan Africa to win the Prix Goncourt. At 31 years old, he is also the youngest Goncourt laureate since Patrick Grainville won in 1976. 

(Source: Wikipedia accessed on 20 June 2025).

Selected publications

Burnautzki, Sarah, Abdoulaye Imorou and Cornelia Ruhe, Le Labyrinthe littéraire de Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Boston, 2024).

Maran, René, Un homme pareil aux autres: roman (Marseille, 2021).

Ouologuem, Yambo, Le devoir de violence: roman (Paris, 1968).

Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, Brotherhood (London, 2021).

Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, De purs hommes: roman (Paris, 2018).

Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes: roman (Paris, 2021).

Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, Silence du chœur: roman (Paris, 2017).

Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, Terre ceinte: roman (Paris, 2014).

Warner, Tobias, The tongue-tied imagination: decolonizing literary modernity in Senegal (New York, 2019).

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr: "The hardest part of colonization is something mental." | Louisiana Channel