Marcel Cabon

Marcel Cabon (pseudonym, Jacques Marsèle ) (February 29, 1912 at Curepipe - January 31, 1972) was a writer, journalist and poet.

Life

Young Cabon grew up in the village of Petite Rivière Noire, in the west of the island. He began his writing career in 1931 with the publication of his first verses in L'Essor . He traveled to Madagascar between 1946 and 1947 as a journalist. Local journalists did not give him a warm welcome. The authorities eventually deported him in 1947 to Mauritius. From this stay, Marcel Cabon was inspired to write Kélibé-Kéliba in 1956.

After a radio stint as a presenter, he returned to the print media where he became editor of the Mauritian in 1956 . Subsequently, he held the same post on the daily Advance, a pro- labornewspaper.

It is especially his novel Namasté which has assured Maurice the literary reputation of Marcel Cabon. The hero is a young Indo-Mauritian, Ram, who quickly became the soul of the village where he lives, on a piece of land he inherited. He encourages the peasants to help each other, to build a school, to open a road. But his wife dies, killed by the collapse of his house during a terrible tropical storm. Ram will lose his reason. Namasté was reissued in 1981, followed by many reprints, to meet the needs of the education that has included this novel in its programs.

He left the management of Advance to become the Chief of the Information Service of the Mauritian Radio-Television, ancestor of the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, in 1970 .

Works

• Namaste , novel ( 1965 ). Port Louis : Eds. of the Indian Ocean, 1981 .
• Brasse-au-Vent , novel ( 1968 ). Port Louis: Eds. of the Indian Ocean, 1989.