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Gaël Faye

A Conversation with Xavier Aldekoa

French-Burundian rapper and novelist Gaël Faye speaks with journalist Xavier Aldekoa, Africa correspondent for La Vanguardia. The search for the lost paradise of childhood is one of the central themes of Faye’s first novel Small Country (Hogarth, 2018), in which he re-creates his childhood in Burundi through the eyes of a boy called Gabriel who leads an ordinary, simple life until his small country is torn apart by war and he is forced to seek asylum in France. This novel, acclaimed by critics and winner of the 2016 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, is inextricably linked to the rap songs he composes, in which he also reflects on his mixed identity, the experience of exile, his arrival in France and the absence of his homeland.

Participants: Gaël Faye, Xavier Aldekoa

Related to Talks for secondary students, Conversation with Gaël Faye

15 February 2018