Affaire Fatou Sissi Ngom vs Felwine Sarr : Un nouveau rebondissement judiciaire
The case between Senegalese writer Fatoumata Sissi Ngom and essayist and academic Felwine Sarr has taken a major turn with the verdict handed down by the Paris Criminal Court. The court acquitted Ms. Ngom of defamation charges involving plagiarism and identity theft, while giving her a suspended sentence for insults related to certain terms used in correspondence dated April 2023.
At the heart of the dispute is the novel "Le Silence du totem" (The Silence of the Totem), which Fatoumata Sissi Ngom sent to Felwine Sarr in December 2017 for professional review. The book addresses the issue of the restitution of African artworks, a subject on which Mr. Sarr was subsequently called upon to work publicly, notably in the context of the Sarr-Savoy report published in November 2018.
Over the years, various cultural events and educational projects surrounding the restitution of her works have reinforced the author's concerns about the visibility and integrity of her work. Among these events is the adaptation made by French middle school students in the film "Les statues vivent aussi" (2021–2022), presented at FESPACO, without any formal association of her name with the project.
These elements were examined by the court in order to understand the context in which Fatoumata Sissi Ngom had expressed her concerns.
A procedure initiated in 2023
In April 2023, Fatoumata Sissi Ngom sent an email to a group of intellectual, institutional, and media figures, in which she leveled several accusations against Felwine Sarr. He filed a complaint for defamation and slander, contesting all the accusations while maintaining the strictly professional and limited nature of their exchanges.
The court issued a two-part ruling. Total acquittal for defamation: "The statements in question were deemed not defamatory, either because they were based on sufficiently substantiated evidence, or because they were made in good faith, thus excluding their criminal nature."
The other aspect concerns the suspended sentence for defamation: certain terms used by the author were deemed offensive on procedural grounds, regardless of the substance of the debate. Furthermore, in July 2025, the novel "Le Silence du totem" was selected as a dictation text for the national BFEM exam in Senegal, reinforcing the work's institutional recognition.
Commentaires (22)
avec un charabia qu’il est le seul à comprendre)
Un rebondissement est toujours nouveau !!!!
Wax fëgn
Nous passons un temps considérable à nous déchirer autour d’idées liées à notre histoire et à notre culture, alors que le reste du monde avance à toute vitesse sur l’innovation, la recherche et les progrès scientifiques. Sans nier l’importance de ces questions mémorielles, il serait temps de mobiliser nos grandes voix intellectuelles sur les enjeux qui conditionnent notre avenir : technologies numériques, intelligence artificielle, énergie, santé, éducation scientifique
L’IA, justement, aurait pu aider à trancher en quelques secondes certaines polémiques en comparant des textes et en objectivant les ressemblances, plutôt que de laisser ces affaires empoisonner le débat public.
J’aimerais voir nos penseurs et nos universitaires se positionner davantage sur ces défis scientifiques et techniques, afin que l’Afrique ne soit pas seulement un terrain de bataille symbolique, mais aussi un lieu de création et d’innovation.
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