Getting to the Roots of Francophonie: Women Writers of Cameroon

Abstract

296 Getting to the Roots oîFrancophonie: Women Writers of Cameroon Cheryl Toman Millikin University and Cécile Dolisane Ébossé Université de Toulouse II and Yaounde I The roots of Cameroonian feminist literature can be traced to the manuscript of a 48-page novella written by Marie-Claire Matip in 1955, Ngonda. When translated from her native African language, Ngonda means "young woman at her rebirth." This seems to be a most appropriate title for a work which was to give rise to a literature created by the African woman. Although the novella has remained virtually inaccessible even to those in her own homeland, it cannot be denied that Matip has made a tremendous contribution to African literature. Her novella is the earliest known published work not only among Francophone feminist writers, but also among all African women writers in general. Like Matip, Cameroonian authors such as Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury, Lydie Dooh-Bunya, Werewere Liking, Philomène Bassek, and Calixthe Beyala have expounded on the idea of the empowerment of women through African tradition. The writers who have followed Matip continue to develop the idea of the Cameroonian woman in transition and a definition of African feminism which is distinctive from, yet complementary to, feminism of the Western world. Ngonda would be all but forgotten if it wasn't for the perseverance of Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury. Kuoh-Moukoury is credited with being the first female novelist of Cameroon and of all of Francophone Africa for that matter, but she will not allow others to forget the origins of her nation's feminist literature. Perhaps this is due to her own struggle to gain appreciation for her work. Kuoh-Moukoury actually finished Rencontres essentielles in 1956 at the age of 18. The novel would not be published, however, until 1969. African and Western critics alike paid little attention to the novel and favored the more overt anti-colonial messages of Cameroon's male writers. Matip and Kuoh-Moukoury essentially became the first two links in the chain of Cameroonian women writers, and were thus responsible for demonstrating the value and necessity of feminine expression. WOMEN WRITERS OF CAMEROON297 After Kuoh-Moukoury's Rencontres essentielles, Cameroon's women seemed relatively silent in terms of literary expression. In 1977, Lydie DoohBunya published La Brise dujour which became the best known feminist novel from Cameroon in that decade. Nana-Tabitha Youko's La Reine appeared in 1972 but received little attention outside the country. It was not until the 1980s that the works of Werewere Liking, Delphine Zanga-Tsogo, and Calixthe Beyala appeared, paving the way for a more prolific period for Cameroonian feminist writing from 1987 through 1995 which featured works by Philomène Bassek and Evelyne Mpoudi Ngolle among others. This ebb and flow of Francophone feminist writing was a consequence of Cameroon's transition from a French colony to an independent state. Cameroon's first writers such as Matip, KuohMoukoury , and Dooh-Bunya hailed from families of the intellectual elite who had strong convictions to educate both male and female children and who had access to schools under the colonial system. After independence, however, such opportunities disappeared, and it would be some time before Cameroon's leaders advocated equal education for males and females. Further challenges were posed by traditions of village life which often did not value formal education for females. These first writers therefore reflect the image of the educated woman and her integration into contemporary African society. Their works tell of women's emancipation in an era in which women express themselves freely using words of empowerment. Cameroonian feminist literature reveals the psyche of the African woman, her emotions and her life's experiences as one sees in ZangaTsogo 's Vies de femmes and in Dooh-Bunya's La Brise du jour. These writers are ambitious in expressing their philosophy of life, their vision for Africa, and their hopes for building open, equal relationships with men as seen in KuohMoukoury 's Rencontres essentielles. Many writers uncover an underlying matriarchal social structure which empowers women in contemporary urban society as it once did in traditional African villages. This matriarcat nouveau of sorts is evident in...