Women Writers of Gabon: Literature and Herstory. By Cheryl Toman.

Abstract

In this new study Cheryl Toman contextualizes the historical, socio-cultural, and political settings that have delayed the visibility of Gabonese women's writing in the field of literary criticism. Taking us three decades back in time, Toman reveals the prevalence of women in the Gabonese literary scene through the fictional works of Justine Mintsa, Honorine Ngou, Sylvie Ntsame, and Angèle Rawiri, among others. Examining their novels, youth literature, and youth activism in their communities, Toman demonstrates the feminist vein in which these Gabonese women write. This is observed through daring themes (such as tribalism, prostitution, infertility, homosexuality, and third gender) that expose female characters having to negotiate complex issues of identity, sexuality, oppressive aspects of African tradition, and Westernization. These subjects are examined through critical readings of African feminism and Western radical feminism in order to expound the ways in which these writers provoke transnational and transcultural discussions on issues of race, gender, sex, and class. A very interesting segment of Toman’s study resides in a rare exploration of the role and importance of the Fang culture in Gabonese women’s writing. This extensive examination of a non-archival system of ephemeral and indecipherable transmissions from Gabon (and surrounding areas) echoes the notable work of performance studies scholar Diana Taylor, by stressing the ways in which the traditional ‘performatic repertoire’ (The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), pp. xvii and 4) makes us move away from an imperialistic frame of reference that locates the material (tangible) at the top of the line of dominance of Western logic. The traditional repertoire is thus analysed as a valuable form of knowledge (stretching from oral tales of the Fang and myènè, Mvet (epic oral literature), Fang myth and spirituality, birth and funeral rituals); it allows Toman to contend that these authors proceed to a literary decolonization of the African francophone novel. By elucidating their feminist rewriting of the Fang traditions (conventionally dominated by men), Toman guides our appreciation of the works and critical thoughts of these Gabonese women writers. Her scholarship contributes to recent critical works in the fields of literary and cultural studies on Afro-Diasporic traditional practices, bringing to the fore what Jeannine Murray-Román termed ‘performance events as ekphrases’ (Performance and Personhood in Caribbean Literature: From Alexis to the Digital Age (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016), p. 3). We also observe how the ‘performatic repertoire’ illustrates concerns and solidarity among various ethnic groups. Toman intersects genres and cultural and geographical boundaries by putting these Gabonese texts in rich conversation with the works of various critics and writers of the African Diaspora. For instance, the critical feminist dialogue with the works of Leopold Sedar Senghor (his poem ‘Femme noire’), Mabik-ma-Kombil (on storytelling), Werewere Liking (on the use of Bassa culture), and Berthrand Matoko (on issues of queerness) holds compelling comparative studies. While an in-depth conversation between Chantal Magalie Mbazoo-Kassa’s literary works with those of Mintsa and Rawiri would have been desirable, the book nonetheless remains a timely, much-needed, and resourceful study of Gabonese women's writing.