Novel
Tante Bella
Not translated into English
Joseph Owono · 1959
Synopsis
Friends gather to talk about the dowry, polygamy and the marriages that families arrange, as was done at the evening gatherings of old. One of them speaks up and tells the story of a woman who became a prostitute; the others comment, wander off into digressions and draw the moral of the tale. Through this story, the novel focuses on the place of women in Cameroonian society and on the abuses of custom, calling for their liberation.
Context
The book appeared in 1959 in Yaoundé, from the bookshop Au Messager, in 293 pages, with the subtitle roman d'aujourd'hui et de demain. Britannica regards it as the first novel published in Cameroon itself. Claire Dehon, who studied in 1989 the influence of the traditional tale on the Cameroonian novel, finds in it the evening gathering, the digressions and the episodic composition of oral speech, and notes that it describes customs without seeking their origin. A thesis defended in 1987 studies it with two novels by Oyono and Eza Boto as an example of Beti discourse in the French-language novel.
Who it is for
In French, nearly three hundred pages. It helps to know that the dowry is paid by the husband's family to the wife's.
Prizes and reception
No prize found. According to a critical study, the edition is out of print and the bookshop that published it has closed.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.