Gisèle HOUNTONDJI An author from Benin writing in French [Return to French — Page originale en français]

Gisèle Hountondji was born in 1954 in Cotonou. Her father was a railway's Inspector. She was brought up by her paternal aunt (who was married to a schoolteacher). She went to secondary school in Saint Jeanne d'Arc, in Abomey, before leaving Benin, at the age of eighteen, to pursue her studies at the Sorbonne. She has travelled extensively during her career, to France, England, the United States, Canada, Germany, Roumania, Spain, Holland and all the countries bordering Benin. Since 1984, she has lived in Cotonou where she has been working as an Interpreter.

Publications

Une Citronnelle dans la neige [Lemon grass in the snow]. Lomé: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1986. (188p.). ISBN 2 909238 075. Novel.

In Paris to continue her studies, Gisèle discovers that this capital city does not at all live up to the expectations inspired in her by her father, during her childhood. Some of the difficulties she must face include enrolment in her University courses, finding a room, and surviving in the cut-throat environment of the University. Moreover, a latent racism makes her attempts at integration and the pursuit of her studies more difficult. On top of all this, her meeting with Régis, whose friend she becomes, does not help matters...

Florent Couao-Zotti (coordinateur). La petite fille des eaux. Bertoua/Cameroun: Editions Ndzé: 2006. (96p.). ISBN: 2-9114-6412-5. Novel.

Editor ([email protected])
The University of Western Australia/French
Created: 18 February 1997
Modified: 18 November 2014
Archived: 18 November 2014
https://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/HountondjiGiseleEng.html