Batouala

René Maran was born in Martinique, educated in France, and served as a colonial administrator in the French colonies of West Africa.  In 1921, he won the Prix Goncourt for Batouala. He was the first black author to be so honored. Although the book's preface includes a blistering critique of French colonial abuses, Maran asserts that the novel is a story not of black against white, but simply of two men in a Banda village fighting over a woman. The ethnographic details and perceived aesthetic portrayal of African-ness were much appreciated by the intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance, who drew Maran into their circle. Batouala contributed to the emerging concept of a transatlantic African diaspora. The book's illustrator, Miguel Covarrubias—a celebrated Mexican painter, illustrator, and ethnologist—belonged to the same circle of Harlem intellectuals as Maran. The first edition of Batouala was text only; the illustrations were commissioned for this limited edition.