The Franco-American Commission would like to honor the memory of its illustrious Alumna, Maryse Condé, who died at the age of 90 in the night between April 1, and April 2nd, 2024.
Born in Guadeloupe, Maryse Condé wrote several literary works. Among them, novels on colonialism, slavery, and the multiplicity of Black identities such as Ségou, les murailles de terre, Ségou la terre en miettes, or Moi, Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem.
She earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) University, and then became a university professor. Alongside her career as a novelist, she taught francophone literature in different colleges.
In 1985, Condé was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach in the United States for a year in Los Angeles at Occidental College. She then established herself durably in the United States as she regularly published literary works in the different presses of the universities she taught in such as UC Berkeley University, Virginia University, or the University of Maryland. She taught for a long time at Columbia University where she presided the Center for French and Francophone studies from its foundation in 1997 until 2002.
Maryse Condé therefore contributed to the acknowledgement of francophone literature in the United States. She left a long-lasting mark on the French and Francophone cultural landscape through a literature prize carrying her name, the Fetkann! Maryse Condé prize, Mémoires des pays du Sud, Mémoire de l'Humanité.
Maryse Condé was also decorated with the awards Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur, and was named Commander of Arts and Literature. She was also decorated of the Grand Cross of the French National Order of Merit in 2019.
