Charles Masson

> Soupe froide
« Soupe froide », de Charles MASSON. L’auteur, médecin, fréquente les SDF qui viennent se faire soigner en hôpital pour des problèmes d’alcoolisme et de tabagisme. De ces rencontres, il a décidé de faire une histoire en bandes-dessinées en essayant d’imaginer ce qui pouvait passer dans la tête d’un SDF, au dernier stade du cancer, qui quitte une maison de repos pour revenir à l’hôpital, après qu’on lui ait servi une soupe froide, comme à un chien. Cette BD-Roman, avec un dessin peu sûr, mais une grande maîtrise du noir et blanc, est bouleversante. De quoi porter un regard plus tolérant sur le prochain clochard que vous croiserez. Ed. Casterman (2003), 136 p. FV. --Revue S!lence, fév. 2004. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.revuesilence.net/numeros/307-Ecocites-Vers-des-villes-plus-ecologiqu...… (mehr)

l’histoire est pas écrite. Ça peut être à nous de résister, comme dit Deleuze. Et pas les laisser, eux, écrire l’histoire. These words spoken by Jeff (p. 240) could be placed as a motto to this bandes dessinées.

Charles Masson is a medical specialist by profession. Here he sketches and dramatises in a dozen or so episodes the lives of the people of Mayotte within the political and sociological context of the year 2005 (the bd was drawn and written in 2008). Mayotte is the only island within the Comoro archipelago in the Indian Ocean that choose in the 1970s not to severe its link with France (since 2011 an overseas department of France), hence now more prosperous than the other islands. The narrative is set in the capital Mamoudzou and at the hôpital du sud in the village of Mramadoudou ca. 20 km to the south. The year is 2005, around the time when the ‘Sécurité sociale’ is introduced on Mayotte and the clandestine immigrants no longer receive free medical treatment (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayotte#Santé).

The Mamoudzou population falls into three groups and classes: the black Comoran population, white French who come to work for some years or may have settled; more than a third of the population are clandestine immigrants who embark, in search for a better life, in fishing boats called kwassa-kwassa in the hope to reach Mayotte - and not drown or being caught by the gendarmerie and immediately sent back. [see: Laura Philippon, « Anjouan-Mayotte : la mer Méditerranée n’est pas le seul cimetière maritime de migrants » [archive], sur la1ere.francetvinfo.fr, 21 avril 2015.]

In the first episode we are on a kwassa-kwassa with a young woman called Anissa, in a later one Yasmina attempts the crossing, heavily pregnant like so many wishing their baby to be born on French soil and thus gaining French nationality by the ‘Droit du sol’ [alas, no longer: see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouvement_social_de_2018_à_Mayotte ]. Yasmina is pictured on the cover. We will meet her again when she gives birth to her son Brice.

Then we see Danièle, sage femme (midwife), being greeted by a hospital staff member on arrival at Mamoudzou airport. Her kids have left home, her estranged husband is left behind in France, she is still young and adventurous and ready to start a new life. We get a first glimpse of Pierre, still unnamed, who tries to escape an unsatisfactory relationship back in Paris - his story is told later - to work at the hospital; he and Anissa will become lovers. Then we encounter the French Jacques and Jeff (with beard) going fishing for tuna and Serge, unprepossessing and desperately in search of a woman, working in the SFR store (a French telecommunications company) who tries to seduce Lucie, a young, black and beautiful Comoran with braided hair ending in little cubes and riding a vespa. These are the main characters; flashbacks let us glimpse something of their past lives. To Masson’s great credit, they are presented in all their human complexities and contradictions.

Then there are cameo appearances:
In a jump to Paris we encounter Berline, Pierre’s partner he is tired of and tries to break-off with, and his painter friend Edwart (305-8, 394-7, he and Thibault, another Parisian friend - more of Berline really -, make already a brief appearance in a flash-back p.171f) who tells him some truths. We encounter ….

We are introduced to the ex-pat community - not always a pretty sight …

These are lively black and white sketches. C.M. knows how to draw expressions!
Like a film, there are cuts, flashbacks and visualised thoughts, memories and dreams; it can become complicated, so view it again. (XIII-18)

reviews:
https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2009/04/09/droit-du-sol-de-charles-masson_...
http://www.histoire-immigration.fr/droit-du-sol

Entretien avec Charles Masson à propos de sa BD, Droit du sol :
https://www.cairn.info/revue-sens-dessous-2010-2-page-93.htm… (mehr)