This study of Kossi Efoui is framed by the theoretical framework of postcolonialism, specifically, in the context of the “engagement littéraire” of African writers. In order to counter this vicious reality of power domination, Efoui is on a mission to seize words as a weapon not only to reveal, and unveil to the “people” the real purpose behind the political discourses of “peace and hope”, but also to “heal and exorcise” the broken, and very desperate hearted. Nevertheless, beyond, their destructive power, words have also the capacity to touch, to heal the broken hearted or better yet in a spiritual sense, to “exorcise.” It is in this sole perspective that we are introduced to the study of Solo d’un revenant, and L’ombre des choses à venir by Kossi Efoui, who sees language or its words as a tool used by dictatorial governments to keep their citizens in ignorance, in order to better exploit them. Words can destroy our reality or blind our imagination. Whether they are conveyed orally or written down in a newspaper, or in a novel, they have the power to incite violence, or create peace. In 2010, the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle organized a collection of Efoui's plays, titled "Le théâtre de Kossi Efoui : une poétique du marronnage au pouvoir".Kossi Efoui ou la perspective d’un nouvel engagement: le pouvoir d’exorcisme de l’écriture dans Solo d’un revenant et L’ombre des choses à venir Specifically, in Le carrefour, he described his characters as bodies, rather than specifically noting them as black or African. Efoui's plays were noted as having unclear settings, which were the subject of criticism as his works were considered too Western and too isolated from Africa, which Efoui did intentionally to link Africa and the West in his works. His third novel, Solo d'un revenant, was published in 2008, and won the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie, and he followed that up with L'Ombre des choses à venir, published in 2009. His first play, Le carrefour, was published in France and the United States in 19, respectively, after achieving success in Togo, and it was performed in the French Cultural Centre in Lomé the same year.Īfter publishing several short stories throughout the mid-1990s, Efoui published his first novel, La Polka, in 1997, and followed that up with La Fabrique de cérémonies in 2001, which won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire. In the 1980s, he took part in a non-conformist student movement in opposition to President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, and moved to France in 1992 in a case of self-imposed exile. Efoui was born in Anfoin, a village in the Maritime Region of Togo, studied philosophy at the University of Lomé, and obtained a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Benin.
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