Dr Stephanie Boye - The spy who looks behind the texts
Being labelled a spy is an unusual attribution for a literary scholar and ethnologist. But this is exactly how the Senegalese author Fatou Diome described it during the public discussion with Stephanie Boye at the University of Zurich, after she had learnt what Stephanie Boye's doctoral thesis was to be about: "She said I was a spy because I look behind the text - and at first I thought that spy didn't sound so nice, but actually that's exactly what I want to do. I would like to uncover something that is only implicitly woven into the text or behind the surface of the text."
She did achieve that! Stephanie Boye, academic coordinator at the ACT from 2020-2021, takes a closer look in her recently published doctoral thesis ‘Jom - dignité - honneur. Literary ethnological studies on a cultural concept from Senegal. Mariama Bâ, Ken Bugul, Fatou Diome and Marie NDiaye’. She literally looks behind the French-language surface of the novels and does so very successfully: Summa cum Laude! But her path there was anything but ordinary.
Secretary, mother, doctoral candidate: Stephanie Boye's path to academia
Born in Marburg in 1966 and then moving to Freiburg, Stephanie Boye first trained as a veterinary assistant and later as a foreign language secretary. But she wanted to leave Freiburg and travel the world. The plan was to spend three months in Senegal, but what began as a short trip turned into seven formative years. She met her husband there and worked as a tour guide and hotel manager. However, because of their first child, the young family returned to Germany, where Stephanie Boye worked part-time as a secretary, at first at the university hospital and then in Romance studies.
Her supervisor at the time, Prof. Dr. Thomas Klinkert, recognised her potential for science, something she had not seen in herself. He encouraged her to gain her university entrance qualification and start studying. From then on, she studied Romance studies and Ethnology alongside her job as a secretary and her life as a now single mother. "It was incredibly exhausting. People said: you'll never make it." But she managed it with full days between lectures, work, housework and bringing up children; always taking one step at a time.
When her Master's thesis, supervised by Prof Dr Gregor Dobler, was due, she was originally supposed to write a book about a Senegalese village - according to a villager's wish. But: "That would simply have been too much of my own voice!". She decided to let the people tell their stories themselves in a film. ‘The Book of the Senegalese Village of Guelakh‘ immerses viewers in the reality of the villagers’ lives for 70 minutes and was made in collaboration with the local people. Even then, the concept of reciprocity and Africa-centredness emerges in her research approach, even if this sometimes meant more effort: "We do it together, even if that means actively engaging with the community."
After successfully completing her Master's thesis, Thomas Klinkert, now Professor of French Literature in Zurich, offered Stephanie Boye the opportunity to write a doctoral thesis with him: "An incredible opportunity - who gets offered the supervision of a doctoral thesis just like that?" Prof. Dr. Gregor Dobler agreed to supervise the ethnological part of the dissertation project as a second supervisor. Stephanie Boye decided to take up this extraordinary opportunity, even though it was of course an even greater challenge - even more time commitment, another four years with virtually no free time between work, research and family.
The doctoral thesis: the unsaid, the concept of ‘Jom’ and the change of perspective
The theme of reciprocity came up again when finding a topic: "The important question is: what can I learn from the 'other'? The aim is to adopt as Afrocentric a perspective as possible in order to enable a new view of the literary texts and to shed more light on the socially relevant topics they contain."
Stephanie Boye is of the opinion that there is an inequality in the discourse between Europe and Africa - in one direction: "The European side has a strong discourse, everything is discussed, reflected upon, criticised, thematised, on all kinds of topics. In Africa, there are topics that are not discussed. And not discussing them is not good for either side." When asked what an example of a non-topic is, she laughs and points to the freshly printed book in front of her: that's exactly what the work is about!
The central question of her dissertation revolves around the concept of jom in Senegalese culture - an untranslatable word that encompasses various facets. Senghor calls it the ‘Senegalese sense of honour’. According to Boye's hypothesis, in some places in the novels examined, the concept of jom is translated by the words ‘dignity’ and ‘honour’ or ‘dignité’ and ‘honneur’. But these terms do not do justice to the concept of jom. Stephanie Boye's aim is not to explain the concept of jom, but to show that it has an important function in the novels of the Senegalese-born authors Mariama Ba, Ken Bugul, Fatou Diome and Marie NDiaye.
Stephanie Boye uses the method of ‘ethnocritique’ to adopt as Afrocentric a perspective as possible on the texts and to understand words and symbols that refer to African-Senegalese symbol systems through an interdisciplinary mix of scientific methods. As a result, the authors not only present the concept of jom in their texts, but also criticise it as a traditional cultural concept that needs to be renewed in order to remain valid. However, there is no open discourse about this concept in today's Senegalese society that examines "whether this traditional concept can still be valid today. Without discourse, however, it dies because it is unable to adapt to new social realities."
The story of the baobab tree
Stephanie Boye's analysis of the baobab tree in Ken Bugul's novel Le baobab fou is an example of a change of perspective and a critical view of jom. Boye explains: "From a European literary perspective, the story seems contradictory, because in the European literary tradition, trees always have a positive connotation; they stand for tradition, strength, protection, and so on. So why does the tree die at the end of Ken Bugul's novel?
If you look at the baobab from a Senegalese perspective, it becomes clear that this is not just any tree, but that it is the sacred symbol, the emblem of Senegal. Baobabs are closely linked to the storytellers, ambivalent figures who could tell both good and bad stories. They played (and still play) a special role in society and were both feared and respected. In earlier times, their corpses were laid to rest in hollow baobabs.
This perspective provides a new perspective on the narrative of the novel, as the mighty tree suddenly also reveals a threatening side. It symbolises ossified traditions that hold the first-person narrator captive. The lack of adaptability (due to the lack of social discourse) silences the baobab and with it the traditional concepts - e.g. jom - and so the tree dies at the end of the novel."
This new perspective on the novel remains hidden from classical, Eurocentric literary studies. Stephanie Boye is able to open up this perspective partly because she speaks Wolof. She has made the effort to be able to read and write this Senegalese language. Above all, the experiences she gained during her time in Senegal give her a special perspective on her literary texts: "I always say that I first studied life and then started studying at university."
Staying in Academia?
Stephanie Boye's research and the work of the ACT share a common goal: to understand African knowledge, to make it visible and audible. This is also reflected in the objectives and attitude of the ACT, which Stephanie Boye has helped to shape as scientific coordinator. She designed the logo based on the symbolic language Adinkra used in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana; it is a symbol for knowledge: "It's about reflecting on our assumptions, about working together and about understanding each other!"
Stephanie Boye has already come very close to this goal, not only with her doctoral thesis, but also with her unusual path to science and her personal history. When asked whether she sees herself working in science in the future, she says that she can well imagine working in science administration, research and teaching and also doing something artistic. Another collaboration with the ACT would of course be very interesting for her.
She would still like to take the next step with regard to her doctoral thesis: "I'm incredibly proud that I've managed to do it. Now I would just like to have the work translated into French so that it can be received in the francophone world - especially Senegal."
As the spy behind the texts, Dr. Stephanie Boye has shown that many discoveries can be made if we are prepared to open up unknown perspectives. In her research, she has approached the untranslatable, made the invisible visible and thus opened up new, different and valuable insights into African literature(s) and culture(s).
Dr. Stephanie Boye's work is available in german open access in the Nomos eLibrary:
The portrait is based on an interview conducted in german. All quotes have been translated by the ACT.
