9. In his essay entitled “Le roman gabonais des origines à nos jours” (The Gabonese novel from its origins to the present), Jean Léonard Nguema Ondo refers to Rawiri’s three works as “sa trilogie romanesque,” or, “her novelistic trilogy.” The various announcements in the Gabonese press of Rawiri’s death in 2010 also consistently identified her works as a trilogy. To cite just one example, see the article “Gabon: Le soleil s’est définitivement couché sur Angèle Rawiri” (Gabon: The sun sets forever on Angèle Rawiri) on the website of Gaboneco for 29 November 2010, describing Rawiri as “the author of a novelistic trilogy that led us to reflect upon the status of women in contemporary African societies.” Many literary critics tend to group the three novels together in their analyses, focusing more on their similarities than their differences. Nicolas Mba-Zue states, “The three novels of Ntyugwétondo (or Angèle) Rawiri walk us through this same universe of literary devices” (44).
10. In Le deuxième sexe, Simone de Beauvoir speaks about “la servitude de la maternité” (“the servitude of motherhood”) (56).
11. The well-known Nigerian feminist novelist Buchi Emecheta wrote an essay entitled “Feminism with a Small ‘f’,” in which she compares monogamy and polygamy in terms of the time women devote to a husband, concluding in the end that in a bad marriage, polygamy would at least allow for a woman to have time for herself while her husband is away with a cowife as opposed to her being alone with him all the time. In the essay Emecheta advocates neither polygamy nor monogamy specifically but writes a brilliant essay dramatically different from those that predictably compare a bad polygamous marriage with an idealistic monogamous one, with the logical conclusion being, of course, that monogamy is always preferable.
12. I state that Kuoh-Moukoury searched for a publisher for Rencontres essentielles for thirteen years before the novel was finally published in 1969. Kuoh-Moukoury actually completed the manuscript in 1956. Thus, there is a more significant time gap to be noted between the actual writing of Rencontres essentielles and the publication of Rawiri’s Fureurs.
13. In the same interview, Beyala quite aggressively denies the existence of homosexuality in traditional African societies. Her comments represent a very common reaction among African writers, especially at the time of this interview in the late 1990s. When pressed about her implying that traditional African society excluded all homosexual activity, Beyala’s reponse was, “As I already told you, I can’t claim to hold universal truth in regard to certain data. I therefore cannot know if other African societies indulge in homosexuality. I am convinced however that my own doesn’t practice it” (199).
14. In “Écriture et discours féminin au Cameroun” (Writing and feminine discourse in Cameroon), Joseph Ndinda states, “Ateba’s homosexuality is an extreme reaction of those who no longer want to be exploited” (12). In The African Quest for Freedom and Identity, Richard Bjornson states, “Beyala’s lesbian approach to the reality of contemporary Cameroon is unusual within the context of the country’s literate culture” (420).
15. Gallimore’s work L’oeuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala (The novels of Calixthe Beyala) discusses this on page 132. Hitchcott’s work Women Writers in Francophone Africa discusses this on page 138.
16. For a more thorough analysis of Beyala’s two works cited here, refer to Toman’s Contemporary Matriarchies (2008), and specifically to chapter 4, which is dedicated entirely to Beyala.
Bibliography
Ambourhouet-Bigmann, Magloire. “Naissance d’une littérature.” Notre librairie. 105 (1991): 37–39.
———. “Où est le roman gabonais?” Africultures. 36 (March 2001): 18–19.
Aidoo, Ama Ata. Changes: A Love Story. New York: Feminist Press, 1993.
Bâ, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Trans. Modupe Bode Thomas. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1989.
———. Une si longue lettre. Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1986.
Beauvoir, Simone de. Le deuxième sexe. Paris: Gallimard, 1949.
———. La femme rompue. Paris: Gallimard, 1967.
———. Tout compte fait. Paris: Gallimard, 1972.
Beti, Mongo. Cruel City. Trans. Pim Higginson. Bloomington, IN: 2013.
Beyala, Calixthe. C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée. Paris: Stock, 1987.
———. The Sun Hath Looked upon Me. Trans. Marjolijn de Jager. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
———. Tu t’appelleras Tanga. Paris: Stock, 1988.
———. Your Name Shall Be Tanga. Trans. Marjolijn de Jager. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
Bikindou, F., and L. Baker. “Angèle Rawiri Ntyugwétondo, Première femme-écrivain du Gabon.” Amina. 224 (Dec. 1988): 12–16.
Bjornson, Richard. The African Quest for Freedom and Identity: Cameroonian Writing and the National Experience. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991.
Boto, Eza. Ville cruelle. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1954.
Boukandou, Annie-Paule. “Personnages et discours féminin dans le roman gabonais.” Les écritures gabonaises: histoires, thèmes, et langues. Ed. Pierre Ndemby-Mamfoumby. Yaoundé: Éditions Clé, 2009. 101–24.
Brière, Eloise, and Rangira Gallimore. “Entretien avec Calixthe Beyala.” L’œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala: Le renouveau de l’écriture féminine en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997. 189–204.
Cazenave, Odile. Rebellious Women: The New Generation of Female African Novelists. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1999.
———. Femmes rebelles: Naissance d’un nouveau roman africain au féminin. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1996.
Clerc, Jeanne-Marie, and Liliane Nzé. Le roman gabonais et la symbolique du silence et du bruit. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008.
d’Almeida, Irène Assiba. Introduction. A Rain of Words: A Bilingual Anthology of Women’s Poetry in Francophone Africa. Eds. Irène d’Almeida and Janis A. Mayes. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009. xix–xxix.
Emecheta, Buchi. “Feminism with a Small ‘f’.” Criticism and Ideology. Ed. Kirsten Holst Petersen. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1988. 173–85.
Gallimore, Rangira Béatrice. L’œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala: Le renouveau de l’écriture féminine en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1997.
Hitchcott, Nicki. Women Writers in Francophone Africa. Oxford: Berg, 2000.
Kassa, Chantal Magalie Mbazoo. La femme et ses images dans le roman gabonais. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009.
———. Sidonie. Libreville: Maison Gabonaise du Livre, 2005.
Kuoh-Moukoury, Thérèse. Essential Encounters. Ed. and trans. Cheryl Toman. New York: MLA Texts and Translations Series, 2002.
———. Rencontres essentielles. Paris: Adamawa, 1969, 1981. L’Harmattan, 1995.
———. Rencontres essentielles. Ed. Cheryl Toman. New York: MLA Texts and Translations Series, 2002.
Mba-Zue, Nicolas. “Une littérature en quête d’identité.” Notre librairie. 105 (1991): 46–49.
Mendame, Jean-René Ovono. “Gabon: Naissance d’une littérature: Chantal Magalie Mbazo’o Kassa, une romancière en pleine croissance.” http://www.africultures.com/php/?nav=article&no=4348]. 10 March 2006.
Midiohouan, Guy Ossito. Interview by Chantal Magalie Mbazoo Kassa. La femme et ses images dans le roman gabonais. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009. 219–21.
Mintsa, Justine. Histoire d’Awu. Paris: Gallimard, 2000.
Ndemby-Mamfoumby, Pierre. Les écritures gabonaises: Histoires, thèmes, et langues. Yaoundé: Éditions Clé, 2009.
Ndinda, Joseph. “Écriture et discours féminin au Cameroun: Trois générations de romancières.” Notre librairie 118 (1994): 6–12.
Ngou, Honorine. “Le tribalisme: Le virus qui tue la paix.” Libreville: Multipress, Gabon, 2003.
Ondo, Jean Léonard Nguema. “Le roman gabonais des origines à nos jours (2005).” http://crelaf.tigblog.org/post/34503?setlangcookie=true. 25 January 2006.
Powrie, Phil. “Rereading between the Lines: A Postscript on La femme rompue.” The Modern Language Review. 87, no.2 (April 1992): 320–29.
Rawiri, Angèle. Fureurs et cris de femmes. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989.
Rawiri, Ntyugwétondo. G’amérakano: Au carrefour. Paris: ABC, 1983.
———. Elonga. Paris: Editaf, 1980.
Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Feminism in Our Time: The Essential Writings, World War II to the Present. Ed. Miriam Schneir. New York: Vintage, 1994. 310–26.
Toman, Cheryl. Contemporary Matriarchies in Cameroonian Francophone Literature: ‘On est ensemble.’ Birmingham, AL: Summa, 2008.
Volet, Jean-Marie. La parole aux Africaines ou l’idée de pouvoir chez les romancières d’expression française de l’Afrique Sub-Saharienne. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993.
Zotoumbat, Robert. Histoire d’un enfant trouvé. Yaoundé: Éditions Clé, 1971.
Recent Books in the Series
CARAF Books
Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French
Jacques Stephen Alexis
In the Flicker of an Eyelid
Translated by Carrol F. Coates and
Edwidge Danticat
Gisèle Pineau
Exile according to Julia
Translated by Betty Wilson
Mouloud Feraoun
The Poor Man’s Son: Menrad,
Kabyle Schoolteacher
Translated by Lucy R. McNair
Abdourahman A. Waberi
The Land without Shadows
Translated by Jeanne Garane
Patrice Nganang
Dog Days: An Animal Chronicle
Translated by Amy Baram Reid
Ken Bugul
The Abandoned Baobab: The
Autobiography of a Senegalese
Woman
Translated by Marjolijn de Jager
Irène Assiba d’Almeida, Editor
A Rain of Words: A Bilingual
Anthology of Women’s Poetry in
Francophone Africa
Translated by Janis A. Mayes
Maïssa Bey
Above All, Don’t Look Back
Translated by Senja L. Djelouah
Yanick Lahens
Aunt Résia and the Spirits and
Other Stories
Translated by Betty Wilson
Mariama Barry
The Little Peul
Translated by Carrol F. Coates
Mohammed Dib
At the Café and The Talisman
Translated by C. Dickson
Mouloud Feraoun
Land and Blood
Translated by Patricia Geesey
Suzanne Dracius
Climb to the Sky
Translated by Jamie Davis
Véronique Tadjo
Far from My Father
Translated by Amy Baram Reid
Angèle Rawiri
The Fury and Cries of Women
Translated by Sara Hanaburgh
The Fury and Cries of Women Page 25