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Eine Liebe In Duala
English, French (translation)
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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February 14, 2019
A story of tensions between old ways and new in an African village. Even in the 1960’s, when this story was written, times were changing. The main character, a young fisherman, is a wrestler and the strongest boy in the village. He helps the village chief stand up to white men who come every weekend to the jungle near the village to shoot monkeys. The village leaders do manage to get some compensation, but the young man serves two weeks in jail. But his courage attracts the attention of the most beautiful girl in the area, from a neighboring village.
The young man and young woman become an informal couple and want to get married but there are two problems. First the young man was betrothed to marry another young woman even before his betrothed was conceived. She’s still only 13 years old now, so he will still have to wait two more years to marry her. (He’s 22.) This pledged was made by his father on his death bed to his father’s best friend: “My son will marry your first daughter.” Second, the beautiful young woman (who is 17) is considered promiscuous because she goes into town to “go with white men.” The boy’s mother is dead set against any involvement of her son with her. Fortunately, the villagers allow polygamy but there’s still a lot to work out. His fellow fishermen tell him “…when you are married, you will understand how it is; you will gradually lose your natural gaiety.”
In fact, polygamy is related to how the beautiful young woman went astray. The village tradition is that if a first wife does not produce a son by the third-born child, the man will marry again. The beautiful woman (Agatha of the title) was the third daughter in a row. Her father was furious and would have nothing to do with her. Her mother became ill and died of an illness aggravated by the grief of having birthed three girls. So Agatha essentially grew up as an orphan with no parental guidance.
The tension between old and new is shown in a variety of ways. People half-believe in the old ways - why not, what harm can it do? So when the fisherman does marry, his wife has to go to the local herbalist woman to receive various drinks and lotions to ward off evil spirits. The young man is free to reject the pledge of his father, endorsed by the village elders, but only by leaving the village. A new well installed in the village square is convenient for the women but many dislike “the white man’s water” because the gossip around the well sows discord.
We learn lot about the local customs at that time, such as the bride negotiations involving the whole village; celebrations of marriage and traditional spiritualists rituals. On all special celebrations by the men of the village, the most important item is a bottle of Johnny Walker scotch: “the white man’s bottle.” When autos start to drive through the village on the mud that constitutes the road, the entrepreneurial villagers make sure the ruts are always deep enough that the passing white men will have to pay to get pulled out. It is said of a wealthy African man in the village, whom everyone dislikes because of his shady financial dealings, that he “had forgotten to turn white.”
The story is set in Cameroon, in west Africa, east and south of Nigeria. The village is a suburb of Douala, once the capital and still the largest city of the country. The author (1929-2001) grew up in Douala and later attended university in Paris. He taught at several American and European universities. In addition to his writings, he was a musician and a sculptor.
Photo of Douala from popupcity.net
Map from infoplease.com/atlas
Photo of the author from allmusic.com
The young man and young woman become an informal couple and want to get married but there are two problems. First the young man was betrothed to marry another young woman even before his betrothed was conceived. She’s still only 13 years old now, so he will still have to wait two more years to marry her. (He’s 22.) This pledged was made by his father on his death bed to his father’s best friend: “My son will marry your first daughter.” Second, the beautiful young woman (who is 17) is considered promiscuous because she goes into town to “go with white men.” The boy’s mother is dead set against any involvement of her son with her. Fortunately, the villagers allow polygamy but there’s still a lot to work out. His fellow fishermen tell him “…when you are married, you will understand how it is; you will gradually lose your natural gaiety.”
In fact, polygamy is related to how the beautiful young woman went astray. The village tradition is that if a first wife does not produce a son by the third-born child, the man will marry again. The beautiful woman (Agatha of the title) was the third daughter in a row. Her father was furious and would have nothing to do with her. Her mother became ill and died of an illness aggravated by the grief of having birthed three girls. So Agatha essentially grew up as an orphan with no parental guidance.
The tension between old and new is shown in a variety of ways. People half-believe in the old ways - why not, what harm can it do? So when the fisherman does marry, his wife has to go to the local herbalist woman to receive various drinks and lotions to ward off evil spirits. The young man is free to reject the pledge of his father, endorsed by the village elders, but only by leaving the village. A new well installed in the village square is convenient for the women but many dislike “the white man’s water” because the gossip around the well sows discord.
We learn lot about the local customs at that time, such as the bride negotiations involving the whole village; celebrations of marriage and traditional spiritualists rituals. On all special celebrations by the men of the village, the most important item is a bottle of Johnny Walker scotch: “the white man’s bottle.” When autos start to drive through the village on the mud that constitutes the road, the entrepreneurial villagers make sure the ruts are always deep enough that the passing white men will have to pay to get pulled out. It is said of a wealthy African man in the village, whom everyone dislikes because of his shady financial dealings, that he “had forgotten to turn white.”
The story is set in Cameroon, in west Africa, east and south of Nigeria. The village is a suburb of Douala, once the capital and still the largest city of the country. The author (1929-2001) grew up in Douala and later attended university in Paris. He taught at several American and European universities. In addition to his writings, he was a musician and a sculptor.
Photo of Douala from popupcity.net
Map from infoplease.com/atlas
Photo of the author from allmusic.com
April 28, 2012
I have often heard that every writer has a unique style of writing and in Africa, the main role or writers is not only to depict life as it is, or could be but to do so without losing touch of culture and the people's beliefs and that's exactly what Francis Bebey does in this book.
The story follows a man, La Loi, who loves Agatha, the girl everyone deems a prostitute and he in time marries her and makes her his wife-but with all this his first wife, Fanny, has a child with his best friend-at such deception, he still raises the boy because his adviser King Solomon as he is known tells him so-makes him see the sense in it.
Agatha has a child in time, and the greatest deception of all comes from her when the son she bears him is white-because she had an affair with a white gentleman behind La Loi's back. In reading this book I kept asking myself if La Loi could take one more deception from his wife, and when he agreed to raise the child-it made me ask why? What became of his relationship with Agatha? Did he as a result believe and confirm all the village talk about her?
It's the story that is told with such wit, truth and also honesty-the writer does not miss a few words, or rush through a scene, rather he lets you encounter each scene and his use of African proverbs is good, he's the first writer from Cameroun, whose book I have read and loved.
The story follows a man, La Loi, who loves Agatha, the girl everyone deems a prostitute and he in time marries her and makes her his wife-but with all this his first wife, Fanny, has a child with his best friend-at such deception, he still raises the boy because his adviser King Solomon as he is known tells him so-makes him see the sense in it.
Agatha has a child in time, and the greatest deception of all comes from her when the son she bears him is white-because she had an affair with a white gentleman behind La Loi's back. In reading this book I kept asking myself if La Loi could take one more deception from his wife, and when he agreed to raise the child-it made me ask why? What became of his relationship with Agatha? Did he as a result believe and confirm all the village talk about her?
It's the story that is told with such wit, truth and also honesty-the writer does not miss a few words, or rush through a scene, rather he lets you encounter each scene and his use of African proverbs is good, he's the first writer from Cameroun, whose book I have read and loved.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews