Félix Couchoro (30 January 1900 – 5 April 1968) was a Togolese writer and educator.

Biography

Couchoro was born on 30 January 1900 in

Ouidah Ouidah () or Whydah (; ''Ouidah'', ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' by the French; ''Ajudá'' by the Portuguese; and ''Fida'' by the Dutch) and known locally as Glexwe, formerly the chief port of the Kingdom of Whydah, is a city on the coast of the Repub ...

, Dahomey, to Dahomeyan parents. He attended primary school and secondary school respectively at the Catholic mission in

Grand-Popo Grand-Popo is a town, arrondissement, and commune in the Mono Department of south-western Benin. The commune covers an area of 289 square kilometres and as at the 2013 Census had a population of 57,636 people. The term "Grand-Popo" is a Europea ...

and the Minor Seminary of St. Joan of Arc in Ouidah from 1915 to 1919. He taught at the Catholic school in Grand Popo from 1919 to 1924. Between 1924 and 1939 Couchoro managed a branch of the Société Commerciale de l’Ouest Africain (SCOA). In 1929, Couchoro's first book, ''L'Esclave'', was published in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, the second novel published by an African in French, but the book remained obscure for years. He edited the newspaper ''Éveil Togolais'' from 1931 to 1933, which was renamed ''Éveil Togo-Dahoméen''. In the paper, he advocated for greater freedom of trade between Benin and Togo. Couchoro invented Onitsha-style chapbooks during this time. In 1939, police harassment forced him to take refuge in Aneho in Togo. From 1939 to 1952, he worked as a business agent in Anecho and became a nationalist in the Committee of the Togolese Unit (CUT), Sylvanus Olympio's party. He began publishing books in serial form in the newspaper ''Togo-Presse'', beginning with ''Amour de féticheuse'' in 1941. He worked on the editorial team of several newspapers that advocated for decolonization. However, he soon became the target of police repression again. After a riot in Vogan in 1952, he escaped to

Aflao Aflao is a town in Ketu South District in the Volta Region on Ghana's border with Togo. Aflao is the twenty-eighth most populous settlement in Ghana, in terms of population, with a population of 96,550 people. In the 18th century, Aflao serve ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

, to avoid being jailed. His business failed and he was frequently low on money in Ghana. He returned to Togo in 1958 and found a job in

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

. When Togo became independent in 1960, Couchoro was appointed an editor at Information Service. He retired from this post in 1965, and died on 5 April 1968 in Lomé. Professor Martin Gbenouga, head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Lomé, said that Félix Couchoro "is an author sufficiently rich but not famous enough." In 2015, more than eighty years after it was written, his second book ''Amour de Féticheuse'' was published.

Works

*''L'Esclave'', 1929 *''Amour de féticheuse'', 1941 *''Drama d'amour à Anecho'', 1950 *''L'héritage cette peste'', 1963 *''Amour de Féticheuse'', 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Couchoro, Felix 1900 births 1968 deaths Togolese writers 20th-century Togolese writers Academic staff of the University of Lomé