Satire in African Letters: Black Appraisals of White Ethnologists in the Works of Ferdinand Oyono, Tchicaya U'Tam'si and Yambo Ouloguem

Abstract

Among the black African writers who have singled out whites for satirical treatment, the novelists Ferdinand Oyono and Yambo Ouologuem and the poet Tchicaya U'Tam'si have focused on a certain type of ethnologist: the man who has come in the guise of explorer and scientist, but whose prejudices, ignorance, greed, presumptuousness and other negative characteristics are soon unmasked by his native hosts. In their works, we find portraits depicting the white ethnologist that are not only unanimous expressions of scorn and contempt, but also examples of the skillfull use of satire as a literary weapon. This article is available in Studies in 20th Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol4/iss2/9 SATIRE IN AFRICAN LETTERS: BLACK APPRAISALS OF WHITE ETHNOLOGISTS IN THE WORKS OF FERDINAND OYONO, TCHICAYA U'TAM'SI AND YAMBO OUOLOGUEM INGEBORG M. KOHN University of Arizona In West African literature of French-speaking authorship, there are numerous examples of humor and satire directed against the white man.' Rene Maran, in his prize-winning novel Batouala (1921), was among the first to incorporate satirical elements.' He bitterly condemns the French colonial system by revealing some of its most horrendous practices; at the same time, he satirizes individual members of the hated white community through comments aimed at their apparel, their customs,their idiosyncrasies. Almost sixty years later, Seydou Lamine's The African Princes (Les Princes Africains, 1979),' a violent denunciation of corrupted African leaders and their white mentors, again demonstrates the power of satire, and reminds us how skillfully and how diversely satire has been used since Rene Maran: as comic relief, as a didactic device, and as a weapon both before the liberation and after the beginning of self-rule by African states. Humour and satire embrace a multitude of aspects of the white presence in Africa. Their targets have been, for the most part, members of the local colonial administration; but visitors and temporary residents have been singled out as well. Among the latter, some of the most interesting examples are the portrayals of white ethnologists. Be it the professional researcher or the passionate amateur, their foibles and vices have inspired the African writer to counter with textual responses ranging from a contemptuous corn213 1 Kohn: Satire in African Letters: Black Appraisals of White Ethnologists Published by New Prairie Press 214 STCL, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Spring 1980) ment to a devastating caricature. Just how the white ethnologist is portrayed will be shown by an analysis of selected passages from the works of three prominent African authors: the poet Tchicaya U'Tam'si, the novelist Ferdinand Oyono, and the novelist-poet Yambo Ouologuem, to whom the major portion of this study is devoted. In his novel Chemin d'Europe,' Ferdinand Oyono takes up again the theme of his earlier novel Houseboy,s but adds a new element to his stock of characters which previously formed the nucleus of the colonial community: the tourist-both visiting explorers and travellers in search of picturesque Africa. The novel's hero is Aki-Barnabas, a very bright and opportunistic young native, who has also used the Catholic mission as a springboard for his advancement. His goal is to go to Eruope, to get an education and improve his fortune. To earn the money needed for passage, he becomes a tourist guide at the local hotel run by a French couple. It is through his eyes that we see his customers, most of whom arrive on the weekly flight: Every Thursday evening, there poured forth from the plane all these whites wild about the Africa of their dreams, which they had come to explore only to fill all those photo-albums destined to inflame the imagination of a multitudinous and sedentary European bourgeoisie yearning for adventure. (p. 221, my translation) At first intrigued and rather amused, he soon becomes scornful of th whole grotesque lot of them, «...adventurous knights of both sexes and of all ages,» as he calls them. They are always out of breath, weighed down heavily with cameras and binoculars, peering out from beneath enormous pith helmets; he describes them as being «...forever hot in pursuit of the noble savage or the secret ritual.» He observes them as they ecstatically adjust lenses and light meters in front of some poor old wretch or nude woman they have chanced upon. They are ever ready to take notes for that book they hope to write, the great authoritative study on Africa that the world has been waiting for. After all, in speaking of this continent, they considered themselves «capable of grasping immediately, and of explaining the unique, the essence of the uncommunicable» (p. 221, my trans.). Aki-Barnabas catches on quickly to the idea that there is 2 Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Vol. 4, Iss. 2 [1980], Art. 9 http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol4/iss2/9 DOI: 10.4148/2334-4415.1086