Olympe Bhêly-Quénum

Olympe Bhêly-Quénum (born September 26, 1928, Donukpa, Dahomey [now Benin]) is an African French-language novelist, journalist, and short-story writer whose works are richly symbolic and metaphorical. They often illustrate an apprehensive, pessimistic view of life.

Bhêly-Quénum was educated at home (in what is now Cotonou, Benin) and at the Sorbonne in France. He earned degrees in literature and in diplomacy, taught school, worked at several foreign service posts, and was (from 1968) a journalist for UNESCO. He also edited the journals La Vie Africaine (1962–65) and L’Afrique Actuelle (1965–68).

Bhêly-Quénum’s major works included the novels Un Piège sans fin (1960; Snares Without End), in which a man’s life is ruined when he is unjustly accused of adultery; Le Chant du lac (1965; “The Song of the Lake”), which illustrated the modern conflict between educated Africans and their superstitious countrymen; and L’Initié (1979; “The Initiate”), the protagonist of which is a French-trained doctor who is also an initiate of a faith-healing cult. A collection of short stories (Liaison d’une été [1968; “Summer Affair”]), many of which were written before the novels, introduced his major theme of the supernatural. Bhêly-Quénum was praised in France for his elegant, poetic use of the French language. His novels and stories are for the most part violent episodes tied together by powerful narrative flow.

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Bhêly-Quénum’s later works included La Naissance d’Abikou (1998; “The Birth of Abikou”), a short-story collection, and the novel C’était à Tigony (2000; As She Was Discovering Tigony), in which a geophysicist begins to question her life and views, especially those concerning global capitalism.