Félix Couchoro
On 5 April 1968, Togolese writer and educator Félix Couchoro died in Lomé at the age of 68. He was one of the first African novelists, the inventor of chapbooks in Francophone Africa, a master of serial writing and the author of more than twenty novels.Couchoro was born on 30 January 1900 in Ouidah, Dahomey (now Benin), to Dahomeyan parents. After his school education in a Catholic school and a short period as a primary school teacher, he became the manager of a local branch of the Société Commerciale de l’Ouest Africain (SCOA), a French trading company in Grand Popo (Dahomey). From 1931-1933 he edited the newspaper Éveil Togolais/Eveil Togo -Dahoméen. In the paper, he advocated for greater freedom of trade between Benin and Togo.
In 1939, police harassment forced him to take refuge in Aneho in Togo. From 1939 to 1952, he worked as a business agent in Anecho and became a nationalist in the Committee of the Togolese Unit (CUT), Sylvanus Olympio's party. After a riot in Vogan in 1952, he escaped to Aflao, Ghana, to avoid being jailed. His business failed and he was frequently low on money in Ghana. He returned to Togo in 1958 and found a job in Lomé. When Togo became independent in 1960, Couchoro was appointed an editor at the Togolese information service. He retired from this post in 1965, and died in Lomé three years later.
Couchoro’s first book 'l'Esclave' ( the slave) was published in Paris in 1929. The novel went unnoticed until its republication in the 1960s and 1980s. His second novel, 'Amour de féticheuse' ( Love of a fetish priestess, 1941) was printed by Mme d'Almeida printing shop in Ouidah. It is the first locally printed novel in Francophone Africa. Since the existing commercial distribution for books was either non existent or controlled by trading companies, Couchoro self-distributed the publication. In the 1960s, he successfully published a number of mystery and social novels in serial form in a Togolese newspaper.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Selected publications
Félix Couchoro et le réalisme merveilleux francophone / Laté Lawson-Hellu.
In: Les Cahiers du GRELCEF, no 9, 2017, p. 49-70.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/grelcef/article/view/10324
Le fait religieux et la résistance anticolonialiste chez Félix Couchoro / Laté Lawson-Hellu.
In: Les Cahiers du GRELCEF, no 8, 2016, p. 69-81.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/grelcef/article/view/10351
Entre la frontière et l’espace régional culturel dans l’écriture de Félix Couchoro / Laté Lawson-Hellu.
In: Les Cahiers du GRELCEF, « Le temps et l’espace dans la littérature et le cinéma francophones contemporains », no 7, 2015, p. 117-127.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/grelcef/article/view/10379
L’écriture populaire de Félix Couchoro: la perspective linguistique et littéraire / Laté Lawson-Hellu.
In: Les Cahiers du GRELCEF, no 6, 2014, p. 75-88.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/grelcef/article/view/10390
Popular perceptions: voice and genre in Félix Couchoro’s crime fiction / Pim Higginson.
In: Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2013, 49:1, 87-99
L'image du Togolais nouveau dans l'oeuvre romanesque de Félix Couchoro / Tchassim Koutchoukalo. - Bern [etc.] : Peter Lang, cop. 2012
La textualisation des langues et la résistance chez Félix Couchoro / Laté Lawson-Hellu.
In:Les Cahiers du GRELCEF, no 2, 2011, p. 245-260.
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/grelcef/article/view/10468
Œuvres complètes. 3, Inédits / Félix Couchoro [et al.]. - London, ON. : Mestengo Press, University of Western Ontario, 2006
Œuvres complètes. 2, Romans et récits / Félix Couchoro [et al.]. - London, ON. : Mestengo Press, University of Western Ontario, 2006
Œuvres complètes. 1, Romans / Félix Couchoro [et al.]. - London, ON. : Mestengo Press, University of Western Ontario, 2006
Felix Couchoro, 1900-1968: pionneer of popular writing in West Africa? / Alain Richard
In: Readings in African popular fiction / Stephanie Newell. - Bloomington [etc.] : Indiana University Press [etc.] ; Oxford : James Currey, 2002, pages 67-70Le champ littéraire togolais / János Riesz, Alain Ricard. - Bayreuth : Bayreuth University, 1991
Naissance du roman africain : Félix Couchoro (1900-1968). - Alain Ricard; FélixCouchoro. - Paris [etc.] : Présence africaine, cop. 1987
Voyage Littéraire, 02 Novembre 2007: Carme Toudonou sur l'ouvrage ''Amour de féticheuse'' de Félix Couchoro
Timeline of Togolese writers via DBpedia and Wikidata
Posted on 5 April 2023, last modified on 4 April 2023