Reviewed by: La Parole indomptée/Pawòl an mawonnaj. Memwa baboukèt/Mémoire de la muselière by Tontongi Flore Zéphir La Parole indomptée/Pawòl an mawonnaj. Memwa baboukèt/Mémoire de la muselière. By Tontongi. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2015. ISBN 978-2-343-05393-6. 276 pp. €28. From the very beginning, the title of this collection of essays, which translates to English as “the untamed or unmuted word,” informs the reader that the author will speak straightforwardly about his preoccupations. Poet, essayist, and social critic Tontongi places Haiti in the context of a “universal human project” that seeks to restore to the oppressed their rightful position in humanity (245–264).1 La Parole indomptée is a condemnation of oppression and exclusion in all facets of Haitian society. As a member of the literary community, Tontongi sees his role and duty as a keeper of collective memory, which for him is the conscience or the moral compass of a people. This moral compass is there to underscore wrongdoings, injustices, and inequalities and to spur writers to rectify them through their work. In Tontongi’s own words: “Une oeuvre littéraire qui n’exprime pas l’humanité souffrante qui n’en rend pas compte est un échec ontologique cuisant” (8). One of the mechanisms of exclusion in Haitian society has been the traditional relegation of Haitian Creole, the language spoken by 100 percent of the population, to simply vernacular status. Tontongi strives to correct the subordinate position attributed to the Haitian language. [End Page 166] By dividing his book into two sections—one written in French (La Parole indomptée, occupying pages 7–154) and the other in Creole (Memwa baboukèt, 155–269)—he sends an “untamed” message to his readership that Haitian Creole is a perfectly legitimate language fully equipped to handle such sophisticated subjects as literary criticism. In fact, in both sections he discusses several of the literary figures (Haitians and non-Haitians) who made a profound impact on his own thinking about issues of social justice, liberty, and equality. For example, he discusses the ideas of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre significantly and eloquently in both French and Creole. This should put to rest the question of whether or not Creole can offer the academic repertoire necessary to engage in such serious and substantive conversations. Indeed, the essays in Memwa baboukèt offer a powerful rebuttal to such claims. In La Parole indomptée, Tontongi removes the baboukèt or muselière (muzzle) that has been placed on Haitian Creole for too long. As he states, “Pour ma part, pour aider à reverser la situation d’oppression où l’on a tenu la langue et la culture créoles en Haïti, j’essaie de produire tant que possible des œuvres en créole haïtien, certaines en édition bilingue ou plurilingue” (15). In so doing, he also removes the muzzle from the mouths of the Haitian people, who should be free to raise their unmuted voices without fear as they fight for their basic human rights: equality, justice, and freedom from discrimination and oppression. In his strong desire to inscribe Haiti in a universal human project, Tontongi presents an overview of the authors he admires and respects the most for who they are (were) and for the level of “ideological comfort” that unites him with those authors (14). For example, he eulogizes Sartre for his stance against human oppression and imperialist domination and exploitation as well as for his support of revolutionary leaders (Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, among others) in their struggle for liberation throughout the Third World. According to Tontongi, if Sartre were alive today, he would have stood in solidarity with all the oppressed of the earth, including the Haitian people, in their arduous fight for the dismantling of an oppressive system that marginalizes them and takes away their human dignity (40–56). Tontongi, of course, understands that a literary critic cannot honor Jean-Paul Sartre without honoring his life companion, Simone de Beauvoir. In the Creole section of the book, he calls de Beauvoir “yon fanm vanyan total-capital” (190). He considers her to...