16:00 - 17:30
Room: Arts – Lecture Room 5
Stream: Text, Paratext and Context in African Autobiographical Narratives
Chair/s:
Louisa Uchum Egbunike
Silence and elision in Laurent Gbagbo's Pour la vérité et la justice
Maggie Gamberton
University of York, York

Pour la vérité et la justice is an 'as told to' political autobiography of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Cote d'Ivoire and currently on trial for war crimes in the International Criminal Court in den Hague. It is a ‘banned book' in Cote d’Ivoire; bookstores are not allowed to import the book from France. Curiously, it is also the only book on the international interventions in Cote d'Ivoire which occurred between 2002 and 2017 to be found in the library of the Institut Francais, the official French academy in the heart of Abidjan. Pour la vérité et la justice serves as a strategic political narrative - produced and disseminated to achieve specific outcomes - rallying supporters, a call for international champions, as well as a vindication and defense of Laurent Gbagbo in the international court of public opinion as well as the ICC.

In this paper, I examine the historical and political context in which the book was produced and the distribution, dissemination, intended audience, and purposes of the book. I focus on the ways in which the authors use the methodologies of framing, direction, reversal, implication, elision, and silence to shape the narrative and define 'the truth' of the political conflict which led to Gbagbo's incarceration and trial.

I conclude by outlining the relationship between strategic political narratives, weaponized narratives, and master narratives, and the way in which this work is part of the contestation of master narratives of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourse regarding international intervention in Cote d'Ivoire and across Africa.


Reference:
Tu-A41 Autobiography 2-P-002
Presenter/s:
Maggie Gamberton
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Arts – Lecture Room 5
Chair/s:
Louisa Uchum Egbunike
Date:
Tuesday, 11 September
Time:
16:15 - 16:30
Session times:
16:00 - 17:30