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Rabearivelo 1901 - 1937 (36)

All my thoughts tenderly surround my family.


QUOTES


Blue notebooks



Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1901 - 1937) was a poet from Madagascar; he is considered one of the first African poets of modern times. He was born in Tananari (modern-day Antananarivo) on March 4, 1901, five years after the island state was declared a French colony. He was the son of an unmarried mother, he was expelled from his school at the age of 13 because he refused to join the religious order. He did various job to make his living, as he was an avid book reader, in 1924 he started working as a text editor in a publishing house. For the first two years he was a trainee and had no salary. He continued to work in this position, with a very small salary, until the end of his life. At the same time he wrote poems and texts about life in Madagascar, influenced by French symbolists and surrealist poets. Many of his books were published by the publishing house where he worked and this was probably the reason why he stayed there. He published anthologies of Malagasy poetry and was active in two literary magazines. He wrote 20 literary works, about half of which were published until his death.

In 1926 he married and had 5 children. Throughout his life, he had accumulated debts and suffered from financial problems, which were exacerbated by his passion for gambling and opium, as well as by his love of buying books.

In 1937 he found himself in utter despair. He had to suffer the death of his younger daughter, while addicted to opium and financially exhausted; At the same time, Paris denied him his request to live and work in France.

On June 23, 1937, having left farewell letters, and after recording his last minutes in his diary (Blue Notebooks), he committed suicide by drinking cyanide.