I have not simmered dish these days, so I go out of my fridge ( my freezer I should say) that I warmed dish especially for you, especially because the novel in question said Africa and Africans in a way encouraging.
For the love of Mukala novel by Theresa Zossou ESSEM is a short story that reads like listening to a grandfather tell us a fairy tale. Yal'intervention wonderful because of facts that are beyond reason, things that are mystical as the men with a double and dying animal when it is killed. This belief, widespread in Africa, is the subject of the novel Memoirs of Porcupine Alain Mabanckou. Wonderful too because it feels that despite the incidents, despite the terrible hardships which the two main characters, Daniel and Yvonne also called Dika Mukala, face, in this novel as in the tales, all's well that ends well.
This novel reads as if it was also the preferred ear of a friend who confided in us, we shared his memories, his hopes, his view of life and Africa.
Ode to life
's novel Therese Zossou ESSEM is indeed like a hymn to life, a call to always fight to give him the upper hand. We need to make life beautiful, to fight for it. We see progress during the three quarters of the book, the relationship between the two main characters, who inhabit the same residence hall, that of Antony in the Paris region. Gradually they come together, fall in love. But things are not so simple. Each has experienced the worst of events: the disappearance of a loved one. What makes Daniel questions the meaning of his life, wonders why have ambitions and efforts, as his sister, who was his accomplice, the exits. As for Yvonne, she lost the father of her child in tragic circumstances, she does not deliver his heart easily. But they end up opening to one another and unite their lives. Then follow moments of bliss. But the climb to the summit of happiness is abruptly interrupted, they are faced with adversity: health problem leading to loss of sight for Yvonne and especially loss of the little girl who was born of their union. This dark period of their life is condensed into only two chapters, as if to show how evil tightens the noose around their neck to strangle them. But the two young people bouncing, they decided to get out. And the end of the book is like a return to the initial happiness.
Another image of the African
Theresa Zossou ESSEM wants to give another image of the African residents in Europe, if not in France. Today it is rather seen as a profiteer, like the one recently requisition allowances and hearts, love abusing a naive white or white to get papers. In the novel Hearts Paper Christian Mambou was also this will give a different image of Africa. For the love of Mukala gives an example of young Africans who do not take advantage of opportunities that may present themselves to them. They decide to return home, graduation, because everything is there to build. Despite the poor working conditions, lack of equipment, the two heroes put their acquired knowledge in Europe at the service of their country. The book was certainly written in the 80s, and expresses the dream of all Africans in their continent: that it can be built through his children. Now what we notice today is the increasing brain drain, because of existing political regimes, which do nothing or do not create the conditions for a homecoming of''brain'' the country.
Africa values
The author also wants to show in his book that Africa, even if it did not want this development that the Western countries, however, has a rich corporation that makes it so unusual, and that it may lose if not careful. If Daniel and Mukala fare, mostly because they are supported by family, by friends. They are not alone in their misery. This novel gives importance to the family, human relations. The entourage, whether family, friends, neighbors or acquaintances, is a bulwark against depression. While Africa suffers from underdevelopment, in Europe it often suffers from loneliness, there was sometimes no one to turn to. The elderly, even with children who work and housing, are found in homes, men and women are homeless (homeless) even though they have brothers and sisters or even parents who could accommodate them while waiting to find a stable situation; youth suicide because they can not bear the weight of their suffering when they could share them with others ... This is not to say that Africa does not know these tragedies, but the impact is less important because it is surrounded.
But some young Africans, especially those who grew up or lived in Europe, sees the family of another eye, it becomes a burden, because it takes care of all these people. Teresa Z. ESSEM wants to put things in context and show that we can do it without feeling like breaking the bank. It also highlights some know-how Africans, in the case of health for example. There are cases of disease or the science of White fails. This happens when Mukala loses his sight, but the wisdom of the ancients, the mobilization of the family, to be due to his disability.
short, For the love of Mukala means another Africa, and rightly, that this novel was published in the collection "Writing Africa" L Publishing Harmattan.
The Author: Therese Zossou ESSEM was born in 1952 in Mbanga, Cameroon. She is a professor of German at the EFE Montaigne Cotonou.
For the love of Mukala , L'Harmattan, 2007, 130 pages. Find this article on Afrik.com:
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