A Philosophical, Cultural, and Literary Critique of Mental Illness in Birago Diop’s “Sarzan”

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper is another contribution to the long list of articles and book chapters written about Birago Diop's work, “Sarzan.” Unlike most if not all interpretations of the eponymous hero's mental illness, this article reads Sarzan's nervous breakdown as an invitation to services, which are radically different from the ones he is mandated by the French administration to perform, yet integral to the customs of his village. To many critics, the mental degradation witnessed in Sarzan, is an ancestral correction inflicted to Sarzan following his desacralization of rituals and sites sacred to his community. But however, legitimate this interpretation may be, it is quite limited in light of various forms of recuperative rituals practiced in traditional Africa to address and cure disturbances related to the mind.</jats:p>