Writen after meeting Henry Lopes in Guadeloupe

HENRI LOPES (12 September 1937-November 4, 2023)

Henri Lopes was born in Leopoldville on September 12, 1937. He is a Mulatto through his mother and defines himself as a “Sans Identité Fixe” (i.e. Without Stable Identity). He spent his childhood in Brazzaville where he attended school before moving to Bangui and Nantes. At Paris-Sorbonne he completed a MA in History. He taught there for two years before coming back to the Congo in 1965. Once back to his country he taught at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Brazzaville. He was appointed as National Director of Education, he then became Minister of the same department. He was Prime Minister from 1973 to 1976, Finance Minister from 1977 to 1980. After that he worked for sixteen years as Deputy Director, then Director General of UNESCO in Paris. Since 1998 he is Ambassador of the Republic of Congo to France and presently to the Vatican as well.

Lopes’ literary career started in 1966 with a collection of poetry, but he soon after opted to write prose. His topics are inspired by the ordinary life of modern African society such as: dictatorship, illegal enrichment of leaders and elite, corruption, misery of mass. He records situations varying from the desperate poor or smart prostitute to the inhumane tyrant. The aim of the writer is to moralize what he thinks to be a decadent society. Tribaliks: Contemporary Congolese Stories (1971) present eight novellas describing society and individuals. For it he won the Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique noire in 1972. 

Nouvelle Romance (1976) is a novel more related to the condition of the woman. Though the perspective is not feministic, one feels some sympathy towards women. Sans Tam-Tam (1977) can be seen as an attempt to de-colonize the mind. Pleurer-Rire (1982) translated as The Laughing Cry: An African Cock and Bull Story (1987) describes the abusive rule of President Bwaka Mabé na Saccadé who came to power by putsch. 

Le Chercheur d’Afriques (1990) is the story of André Leclerc, a young Mulatto student whose father – a former colonial agent in Africa – lives in Nantes, former center of slavery. He sees Africa from a special viewpoint. In Sur l’Autre Rive (1992) the narrator is the writer himself in the skin of a female artist. A young Congolese immigrates to Guadeloupe and presents herself as a Caribbean artist. The Lily and the Blazing, 1997 tells the life of the Mulatto community across the boarders of the Congo River. Dossier classé (2002) is of the same inspiration. Lopès recently published an autobiographical essay: Ma grand-mère bantoue et mes ancêtres les Gaulois. Simples discours (2003), fully opened to the dialogue of cultures.

Henri Lopes has received many prominent awards such as the Francophonia Prize of the French Academy and many international distinctions. He is a member of the High Council of Francophonie, and since 1999 a member of Conseil Supérieur of French Language. As a francophone writer and diplomat he is convinced that French unites Africans and has become an African language.

His attachment to the Americas is sometimes used by his political opponents to spoil his image. « Demandez-lui : où vivra-t-il après sa retraite ? En tout cas, il vous dira à Marie Galante et non au Congo-Brazzaville. » [Ask him where he will live after retiring. In any case he will tell you in Marie-Galante and not in Congo-Brazzaville] (See Makouta-Mboukou in his statement against Lopes candidature for Secretary General of Francophony) The insel Marie-Galante belongs to Guadeloupe and is the home of his wife. Henri Lopes is not a foreigner in Guadeloupe where he usually spends his vacations with his in law family, his daughter and great children.