Daniel Mengara is a Gabonese author and academic writing in both English and French. For a time he was in exile from Gabon - where he campaigned against the dictator Ali Bongo. When Bongo was deposed Mengara returned to Gabon and participated in the post-despot politics. He is currently (as of 2025) professor of French and Francophone studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Mema is is first novella.
It is unsurprising that many novels written by west African authors draw on the regions rich traditions of oral story telling. The potential trouble with this is that, when committed to paper, the oral style can come across as a little trite. Devested of the orators delivery what is left can be almost simplistic. Various authors remedy this with varying degrees of success with different methods - melding this very African form of story-telling to what is essentially a western construct. Mengara is incredibly successful with this blend. The novel both retains the distinctive voice of the narrator as if being delivered orally, but still has the meat of a literary novel. Whilst the tale is told more or less chronologically, there are various asides where Mengara, digresses into various facets of Gabonese life. But he never preaches. The novel touches on themes of modernity vs tradition and occident vs orient, but does so merely by shining a light on the life as poor Gabonese villagers experience it, at no point does it get as blatant as denouncing one aspect, or ever showing either side of the disparity to be wrong or right - this is merely how it is and we can make of it what we will.
The only criticism I can really level at the novel is that it ends rather abruptly. But then I wonder if this is a deliberate device, so that we can reflect ourselves on what the novel was saying, rather than have it tied up neatly for us, as we are told that children should do when told a story by their elders.
★★★★★
Comments
Post a Comment