The article analyses the intertwinement between documentation and creative intuition in Gaston-Paul Effa’s novel Rendez-vous avec l’heure qui blesse (2015). The work is centred on a character emblematic of colonisation, the veterinary Raphaël Élizé, a descendant of slaves and first black mayor of a rural French community, a victim of Nazism, who becomes a hero of the French republic. The analysis highlights the characteristics of a ‘mirror’ narration, where the protagonist’s biographical events reflect milestones in the History of humanity. The narration brings into play both black and Jewish memory, slavery, colonialism, and holocaust in the background of power relationships amongst men, which are compared to those between men and animals.
