Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is / Le crépuscule des âmes sœurs edited by Dzekashu Macviban And Nfor E. Njinyoh

Abstract

Reviewed by: Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is / Le crépuscule des âmes sœurs ed. by Dzekashu Macviban and Nfor E. Njinyoh Dominic Thomas Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is / Le crépuscule des âmes sœurs EDITED BY DZEKASHU MACVIBAN AND NFOR E. NJINYOH Bakwa Books, 2020. 430 pp. ISBN 9781733752626. This innovative bilingual anthology (English and French) of new Cameroonian writing, published in Yaounde, is all the more timely because of the recent polemic triggered by the choice of translators who, because of their identity, have been deemed incompatible with the project of translating the work of the American poet Amanda Gorman, selected to read at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. This controversy has opposed those for whom qualifications, skill, language competency, and cultural literacy are deemed of paramount importance and those who have raised issues and questions pertaining to the politics of literary translation. If the former are suspicious of essentializing writers and translators, reducing them and their work to questions of "identity," the latter bemoan the lack of diversity in the publishing industry and highlight examples of institutional and literary consecration that ignore systemic racism and the pernicious ways in which unconscious bias operates. These polarizing debates nevertheless underscore the importance of supporting measures that improve access to publishing, while fostering greater diversity in translation practices. To this end, the multilingual framework in the Republic of Cameroon is all the more compelling given that the two official languages—English and French—share a legacy and experience of colonial and [End Page 200] imperial rule and the fact that "the crisis currently rocking the country [stems] from issues of linguistic, cultural, and political identity and representation" (8). We cannot possibly seek to resolve all of these complex questions on this occasion, but this bilingual anthology offers a concrete example as to how a concerted and strategic effort to achieve greater inclusivity in creative engagements (writing and translation) can yield productive outcomes. As the editors underscore, "creative writing is, more often than not, likely to create empathy as recent studies have shown. Nevertheless, such empathy can only go so far as readers who can read the language in which the creative writing manifests itself. By recreating the essence of a work across languages, translation breaks linguistic barriers and gives us insight into the lives of others, thereby unveiling realities and conditions—shared or otherwise—that have the potential to be factors of rapprochement rather than rupture" (7). Translation is, as we know, concerned with conversion, transfer, and transformation, and this anthology is the outgrowth, the fruit of a remarkable collaborative project between Batwa Books (in Yaounde) and the University of Bristol, organized around a range of workshop and mentoring initiatives that brought into conversation a new generation of Cameroonian writers and translators and a project team composed of authors and pioneering scholars, as well as reputable international translators (of major authors such as Mwanza Mujila, Fatou Diome, Max Lobe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Nii Ayikwei Parkes). The anthology weaves together disparate stories that end up delineating the contours of contemporary Cameroonian life, exemplifying the endless challenges and possibilities across rural and urban settings, while also framing issues in a broader framework that connects with the Cameroonian diaspora. Stories feature revolt and insurrection, education, incarceration, fatherless children, abandoned mothers, failing marriages, social customs and mores, the shadow of religion, superstition and witchcraft, attempted suicide, and the persistent stigma of AIDS. A particular ecosystem shapes the stories, with references to food, ceremonial and religious practices, proverbs, geography, and shifting linguistic registers. Narrators formulate social critiques, often through recourse to irony, and in many instances these are evidenced in the words or thoughts of those who live on the margins, the underprivileged who point to discrepancies between living standards, "the little people" who struggle at the hands of a corrupt and powerful elite. The authors demonstrate mastery of the short story as a literary genre, offering examples of subtle character development, awareness of setting, development of intrigue, attention to stylistics, compelling dialogue, while considering structure, and producing self-contained and enclosed stories in which catalysts are carefully inserted, introducing unexpected plot developments, all...