Republic of the Congo / All works
Novel
Cœur d'Aryenne
Not translated into English
Jean Malonga · 1953
Synopsis
At Mossaka, a post in the Middle Congo, Roch Morax, a colonist who despises Black people and rules as master, takes on Yoka, a Likouba, as cook; Yoka's son Mambéké one day saves little Solange, the colonist's daughter, from the river. The two children, who are forbidden to see each other, meet in secret: she teaches him to read and write, he teaches her to swim and fish. They are separated and Solange is sent to a convent in Léopoldville; grown up, they find each other again and fall in love. Years later, Morax learns that his daughter has had a child by this young Black man.
Context
The novel appeared in 1953 in a special issue of the review Présence africaine, Trois écrivains noirs, alongside Eza Boto's Ville cruelle and Abdoulaye Sadji's Nini; some sources date it to 1954, and the volume was reissued in 1955. It did not appear on its own again until 2014, in Brazzaville, from Hémar and Présence africaine, with a preface by Henri Djombo. Its author, a man from the South, takes a hero from the North and highlights the Likouba language and the Mossaka region.
Who it is for
A short novel in French, sprinkled with Likouba words. It can also be read as a document on colonial racism.
Prizes and reception
Its publication is commemorated as the birth certificate of Congolese literature, whose sixtieth anniversary was celebrated in 2013.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.