TCHICAYA U TAM'SI

born Aug. 25, 1931, Mpili, near Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa [now in Congo] died April 21 or 22, 1988, Bazancourt, Oise, Fr. pseudonym of Grald Flix Tchicaya Congolese French-language writer and poet whose work explores the relationships between victor and victim. As the son of the Congolese first deputy to the French National Assembly, Tchicaya finished his secondary school in Orlans and Paris. When Belgian Congo became independent, Tchicaya went to Lopoldville (now Kinshasa) as chief editor of a new daily paper (which lasted one week). From 1960 he worked with UNESCO in Paris. Tchicaya's poetrymuch influenced by Surrealism and Negritudeincludes Le Mauvais Sang (1955; Bad Blood), Feu de brousse (1957; Brush Fire), triche-coeur (1960; A Game of Cheat-Heart), pitom (1962), Le Ventre (1964; The Belly), L'Arc musical (1969; The Bow Harp), Selected Poems (1970), and La Veste d'intrieur (1977; The Inner Failure). He also published Lgendes africaines (1969; African Stories), a collection of folktales. His later works include a book of short stories, a novel, and two plays. His poetry relates, through rich and varied imagery, the broken heritage of the African present and the roles of the Roman Catholic church, French colonialism, and education. Through fierce and startling symbols repetitively used like devices in oral African literature, Tchicaya expanded his verse to make large statements about life.