If Tierno Monénembo seems to be one of the most recognized francophone African writers, he remains very discreet in the literary and media space. Based on material from his publisher’s archive, his literary texts and his press dossier, this article uses this discretion as its main thread to study the literary trajectory and the public positioning of this author. The paper first considers the chronology of T. Monénembo’s « low noise » career, intertwined with his belonging to the wide Guinean diaspora and with the nature of his reception, more critical than commercial in the short term. Memory plays an increasingly central role in his literary work, which thus combines his geographical distance from contemporary Africa with a demanding and patient historical exploration. A harvester of an African memory scattered across three continents, T. Monénembo builds in this way the authority of his word as an intellectual, who does not hesitate to step out of his discreet silence to denounce the established order. Through an apparent paradox, this writer who has himself reflected on the bankruptcy of African elites embodies the figure of an exilic intellectual, as defined by Edward Said.