Tchicaya U Tam'si

Who is Tchicaya U Tam'si?

Tchicaya U Tam'si, born Gérald-Félix Tchicaya on August 25, 1931, in Mpili near Brazzaville in French Equatorial Africa, is regarded as one of the most important Francophone African poets of the twentieth century. His pen name, meaning roughly "the little leaf that speaks for its country" in Kikongo, reflects his lifelong engagement with his homeland even while living largely in France. He was the son of Jean-Félix Tchicaya, the first Congolese deputy elected to the French National Assembly, and finished his secondary schooling in Orléans and Paris. After working as a journalist in France, he returned to Congo in 1960 and stayed in contact with Congolese and Congolese-adjacent political figures including Patrice Lumumba, before joining UNESCO in Paris from 1960 onward. His poetry, shaped by Surrealism and the Negritude movement, includes "Le Mauvais Sang" (1955), "Feu de brousse" (1957), and "Épitomé" (1962). He received the Grand Prix at the first World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar in 1966. He died on April 21, 1988, in Bazancourt, France.

Sources: Tchicaya U Tam'si — Encyclopaedia Britannica · Tchicaya U Tam'si — Wikipedia · Tchicaya U Tam'si — Poetry Foundation