Latérite / Red Earth

Cast in a language at once as stark and as pregnant with possibility as the West African landscape itself, this prizewinning collection of poems by acclaimed African writer and artist Véronique Tadjo cuts to the heart of the modern African experience. The term latérite refers to the red, iron-rich earth characteristic of many West African villages and roads. Suggestive of movement— of the age-old displacement of African peoples, of shifting directions and an uncertain future—it is at the same time emblematic of connectedness, of the visceral bond between people and the land that sustains them. These themes echo throughout Red Earth/Latérite as the poems slowly intertwine, recapitulating one another to form an extended recitative, a lyrical narrative of love and outrage and loss. Together, they constitute a vivid statement about the African experience from one of the continent´s most powerful and spellbinding voices.

[The poems of Red Earth/Latérite create] a comprehensive tale of life — “Life in all colors: green and unripe; bitter and bittersweet.” And it is the art with which this tale is carried through that has established Véronique Tadjo as one of the most accomplished writers of her generation, a fact to which this translation bears ample witness.

-F. Abiola Irele, author of The African Imagination

Publisher: Eastern Washington University Press