The Continent of Everything and Practically Nothing
Will be published approx. on 6. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-80309-632-2 (ISBN)
Description
A Togolese novel that delivers a rich, intimate portrait of a scholar whose life is inextricably bound to Africa.
For the French ethnologist Maurice Boyer, Africa isn't just a place; it's a mirage, an enigma, a mirror reflecting his desires and doubts. The fieldwork he undertook in Tedi, Togo, where he lived for years among the Tem people and tried to understand their customs and rituals, has left him with questions that have lingered: Who was a friend and who was a foe? Which stories were true and which were illusions? As decades pass and the roles of Aurelie, his wife, and Safi, his former student, begin to shift, Boyer finds himself wrestling not only with his own choices but with the legacy of knowledge itself.
Through the lens of this profound postcolonial quest, Sami Tchak explores Africa's rich, complex reality through this intimate story of a scholar reconsidering his own understanding of culture, ethnology, and history. The Continent of Everything and Practically Nothing asks whether assembling more data can truly capture the complexity of a continent, and explores how academic ambition, history, and emotion shape how we understand the world, and how we live in it.
For the French ethnologist Maurice Boyer, Africa isn't just a place; it's a mirage, an enigma, a mirror reflecting his desires and doubts. The fieldwork he undertook in Tedi, Togo, where he lived for years among the Tem people and tried to understand their customs and rituals, has left him with questions that have lingered: Who was a friend and who was a foe? Which stories were true and which were illusions? As decades pass and the roles of Aurelie, his wife, and Safi, his former student, begin to shift, Boyer finds himself wrestling not only with his own choices but with the legacy of knowledge itself.
Through the lens of this profound postcolonial quest, Sami Tchak explores Africa's rich, complex reality through this intimate story of a scholar reconsidering his own understanding of culture, ethnology, and history. The Continent of Everything and Practically Nothing asks whether assembling more data can truly capture the complexity of a continent, and explores how academic ambition, history, and emotion shape how we understand the world, and how we live in it.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-632-2 (9781803096322)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Born in Togo in 1960, Sami Tchak is a celebrated novelist and essayist best known for his novel Hermina. Jeffrey Zuckerman is a translator of French literature, including works by the artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Dardenne brothers, the queer writers Jean Genet and Herve Guibert, and the Mauritian novelists Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, and Carl de Souza.
Content
0. Prologue: "Daddy the Ethnologist!"
The Golden Age of Impregnating and Impregnated Minds
1. Thanks to Georges Balandier
2. Safiou, My First Black Friend . . .
3. The Others We Love . . .
4. Lome: Brief Notes
In the Heart of This Village
5. And I Became Morou . . .
6. The Converts
7. The Blessing
8. Adultery
9. The Billy Goat and the Heifer
10. Close Enemy
11. The Imam and Me
12. Between Two Men
13. The Blood Stain
14. Delusions of Elephants
15. The Confession
16. The Thief and the Outsider
17. God Does Not Exist
18. The Imam's Crime
19. "What Do They Need?"
20. The Theft, the Qur'an, and the Fire
21. The Yam and the Needles
22. The Toad and the Trial
23. Letters from Georges Balandier
24. The Betrayal of the Body
25. The Beauty of the Night
26. The Man Who Saw Everything
27. The True Night Is Death
Lives and Speeches: Fermented Africa
28. Tedi in All My Dreams
29. Safiou to the End of the Night
30. The Anthropologist and the Poet
31. Safiatou Kouyate
32. Local Anesthesia
33. The Broker
34. Unending Vassalage
35. Speeches at Le Rostand
36. The Laugh of GauZ'
37. Aurelie and Me
38. Safi's Talk
39. Jacques and Maimouna
40. Without Beating around the Bush
41. My Future Bears Safi's Face
42. Fermentation Theory
43. "Trashcanning"
44. Babacar Ndiaye
45. Safi, the Sun of My Twilight
The Golden Age of Impregnating and Impregnated Minds
1. Thanks to Georges Balandier
2. Safiou, My First Black Friend . . .
3. The Others We Love . . .
4. Lome: Brief Notes
In the Heart of This Village
5. And I Became Morou . . .
6. The Converts
7. The Blessing
8. Adultery
9. The Billy Goat and the Heifer
10. Close Enemy
11. The Imam and Me
12. Between Two Men
13. The Blood Stain
14. Delusions of Elephants
15. The Confession
16. The Thief and the Outsider
17. God Does Not Exist
18. The Imam's Crime
19. "What Do They Need?"
20. The Theft, the Qur'an, and the Fire
21. The Yam and the Needles
22. The Toad and the Trial
23. Letters from Georges Balandier
24. The Betrayal of the Body
25. The Beauty of the Night
26. The Man Who Saw Everything
27. The True Night Is Death
Lives and Speeches: Fermented Africa
28. Tedi in All My Dreams
29. Safiou to the End of the Night
30. The Anthropologist and the Poet
31. Safiatou Kouyate
32. Local Anesthesia
33. The Broker
34. Unending Vassalage
35. Speeches at Le Rostand
36. The Laugh of GauZ'
37. Aurelie and Me
38. Safi's Talk
39. Jacques and Maimouna
40. Without Beating around the Bush
41. My Future Bears Safi's Face
42. Fermentation Theory
43. "Trashcanning"
44. Babacar Ndiaye
45. Safi, the Sun of My Twilight