Your Name Shall Be Tanga

by Calixthe Beyala

In a West African prison cell a young woman, Tanga, is dying. Her only companion, Anna-Claude, is on the brink of madness. Anna-Claude retells Tanga's grim story of incest, betrayal, prostitution, bereavement, and crime. As Tanga shares her tale with Anna-Claude, the older woman progressively becomes Tanga, fusing the two identities. Through this physical and spiritual communion, Calixthe Beyala underlines the solidarity that unites women across racial, religious, class, and national lines.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Cameroon, France

137 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Calixthe Beyala (born 1961) is a Cameroonian-born French writer who writes in French.

She grew up in Douala with her sister. In 1978, she left Cameroon for France. She married, and has two children.

(from Wikipedia)

Calixthe Beyala est née à Douala au Cameroun. Sixième d'une famille de douze enfants, elle a été marquée par l'extrême pauvreté de son milieu. Calixthe Beyala a passé son enfance séparée de son père et de sa mère qui sont originaires de la région de Yaoundé. D'un tempérament solitaire, dit-elle, elle a grandi seule avec une soeur de quatre ans son aînée qui l'a prise en charge et l'a envoyée à l'école. Calixthe Beyala a été à l'école principale du camp Nboppi à Douala. Ensuite, elle a fréquenté successivement le lycée des rapides à Bangui et le lycée polyvalent de Douala; elle aimait tout particulièrement l'étude des maths. Calixthe Beyala a quitté Douala à 17 ans pour la France. Elle s'y marie, passe son bac pour ensuite effectuer des études de gestion et de lettres.
Avant de s'installer à Paris où elle réside actuellement avec ses deux enfants, Calixthe Beyala a vécu à Malaga et en Corse avec son mari. Elle a également beaucoup voyagé en Afrique, en Europe et un peu partout dans le reste du monde. En plus du Français, elle parle l'Eton qui est sa langue maternelle, ainsi que le Pidgin, l' Espagnol et quelques langues Africaines.
Calixthe Beyala a écrit son premier livre à vingt trois ans:

Reviews

[Catalina · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s strong writing happening here but I just could not follow the storyline at all. Could benefit from some serious structure.

[Maroua · Rating 1 out of 5]

Originally written in French, Your Name Shall be Tanga is a story of a seventeen-year-old girl, Tanga (obviously) who's on her deathbed in a prison cell, in Cameron, West Africa. Her only companion is a French-Jewish woman named Anne-Claude whom Tanga confides her life story to.
If you want a real description of the novel then it zould be like the following, the protagonist is a prostitute, her mother, too, her grandmother, greatgrandmother, her sister later on, the girls on the street..etc.. everyone.. and she means it, a real job.
the novel is disturbing.. I would also add painful, but I was more disturbed and disgusted than I was sad. It was needed tho to tackle the sexual abuse and violence Tanga went throu. Also, Maroua went through all this trouble to be dissappinted at the end, the novel SHOULD NOT HAVE ENDED IN THAT AWFUL WAY!!!!!!!!! MAROUA NEEDS TO KNOW HOW DID SHE END UP IN THAT SITUATION!!

[Freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is beautiful in a haunting way, highlighting the ugliness of human cruelty. To me it captures well the protagonist's struggle to find happiness and beauty in a world that is relentlessly harsh and horrible.

[Ifeanyi Ukpabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your Name Shall Be Tanga is a nightmare. Tanga, on her dying breath within a horrific prison, imparts her biography, a story of continuous misery, to her cellmate, Anne - Claude, whom she forms an instantaneous bond due to their shared experiences of gendered violence and damnation. What prevents Tanga from becoming a deprivation-porn narrative is its soaring, beautifully lyrical prose and its illumination, a delicate acknowledgement, of the faint light of humanity. Tanga is not a pleasurable read, but it rewards with a thoughtful portrayal of women fighting to maintain a semblance of hope within a world of patriarchal hell.

[Jose]

An incredibly painful read.. The realities that it makes one face are perhaps too much for the year, or my nerves, or maybe I am simply a coward.
Maybe at another point in my life I will be able to read this through, but for now it was impossible.

[Meaghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Apparently a lot of people think it's awesome, and it had some really good turns of phrase, such as "Her frizzy hair, drenched in sweat, looks like the vomit of a disemboweled armchair." But I simply couldn't figure out what was going on half the time. I was in a fog from start to finish.

There are two protagonists, both of them locked in a godforsaken West African prison. One, a teenage girl, is dying (of what cause, it doesn't say) and tells her life story to the other, a French woman who's in for speaking against the government. It's a bleak story full of violence and rape and deprivation. One gruesome scene after another.

I think I'm just not the kind of person for this kind of book. So far I've liked almost none of the African fiction I've read.

[☁️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

extensive in a tiring way — probably due to the choppy memory recalling and also because i find the topic of the book so difficult to digest (i didn't know the book was about sexual assault before i picked it up)

the book portrays extremely disturbing child labour, the effects it has on the child & also the familial relationships envolved. i always love the idea of sharing someone's story to keep people alive in our memories for the future but this book was just alright

[Janine R. Lutchman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a raw, intense read. The author creates an atmosphere heavy with hopelessness and despair which mirrors Tanga's reality. The storytelling is fragmented but I believe this was purposeful to pull readers deeper into Tanga's story of suffering. It's not an easy read but it opens up conversations about cycles of trauma in the lives of women.

[Afaf Aneflous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le style de Beyala est très touchant .. Bravo chère révolutionnaire africaine.

[Milyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai lu ce livre pour une de mes dissertations. J'ai trouvé le livre bien triste. Je pensais que l'histoire serait différente. Je ne suis pas très sure d'avoir compris la fin.

[Heed Reez]

One of the best Literatures for contemporary African Literature class.

[Katie]

Terrible.

[Luis Felipe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hasta ahora, ninguna maravilla. Aunque la personaje francesa tiene una locura bastante detestable y encantadora.