Beyala: Writing on the Edge

Calixthe Beyala is not Africa's first female novelist. Previously, two other Cameroon authors, Marie-Claire Matip (Ngonda, 1958) and Thérèse Kuoh Moukoury (Rencontres essentielles, 1969) had already written "romanticised autobiographies". On an African level, international recognition of Black African female writers starts with Mariama Bâ, author of Une si longue lettre (1979). Her novel denounces the female condition in Senegalese society. However, despite the tone of revolt that runs through undercurrent o revolt, this work, written in a classic style, remains essentially intimate. It is not until the appearance of Calixthe Beyala's first novel, The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me (1988), that French African feminine writing fulfils its "duty of violence". Firstly, this works on a linguistic level, since Calixthe Beyala lays claim to " brutal, deliberately provocative writing that adopts the vividness of the spoken word … " . Secondly, the narrative space highlights this - a shanty-town in Yaoundé called "HQ" . Finally, this violence is inherent to the protagonist, Ateba, the daughter of a prostitute who's father is unknown.
The novel is audacious in that it portrays a totally marginal world. This possibly explains why The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me (1988), and Beyala's works in general, are so well received in France and the United States. However, this subversion poses a problem in that it is not always accompanied by a true work of literary writing. "Calixthe Beyala is a disputed writer, who does not abide by the rules implicit to the literary world. You could therefore say that she is a popular writer who knows how to interest her public by striking the page and hitting hard. It just happens that in so doing she brings out the essence of the world and beings that she wants to bear witness for. They are frustrated, brutal, pathetic and disturbing. Maybe this writing style (or absence of style) is most appropriate for depicting the catastrophic Africa of the 1980s and the downward spiral of unclassifiable sections of a partially civilised French society?"
Denise Brahimi's point of view is shared by Ambroise Kom, who considers Calixthe Beyala's writing to be an essentially functional, "given her realistic style, and the vigour and greenness of many of her descriptions, we can assert that Beyala's writing is essentially functional and practical: denouncing the patriarchal order which governs relationships between men and women in contemporary societies."
This (possibly) explains why Calixthe Beyala's books are published in the paperback collection J'ai Lu, which is generally devoted to "paraliterature".
The second questionable aspect of Calixthe Beyala's novels is the highly ambiguous relationship that she maintains with Western readers. In his famous article L'écrivain africain et son public , Mohamadou Kane has clearly shown how the African writer is torn between a reader of the heart (African) and a reader of the mind (Western).
As the latter type of reader benefits from established cultural traditions, they constitute the writer's principal audience and major client, to the extent that they provide thematic guidelines for the writer's work. To illustrate his point, Mohamadou Kane cites the example of an African author to whom a British editor returned his manuscript with the following comment: "Excellent novel, but not very African!", that is, not very exotic.
The issue of exoticism is the basis for the reproach made by Cameroon critic, Ambroise Kom, of her compatriot, Calixthe Beyala: "Beyala does not hesitate to use stereotypes, no matter how abominable, to speak out against the perfidiousness of women and to show how they have fallen into men's traps (…) and it is quite understandable why the critics are so quick to accuse Beyala of throwing herself into pornographic writing, a technique intended to attract readers in search of cheap eroticism and exoticism. Especially as in the Cameroon writer's work, sexual promiscuity touches all races and almost all ages: "I like really dark chicks. It's exotic and it excites the Whites" . (Maman a un amant, p. 165).
The moral of the story is that Calixthe Beyala seems to be far more popular with Western readers than with her compatriots: "Calixthe Beyala's novels take pride of place in certain big supermarkets in France and have also edged their way onto the list of texts studied in numerous Western universities, especially in North America, and even in scientific conferences discussing Women's, African and/or Development Studies. However, surprisingly, African readers and academics largely ignore Beyala. Even in Cameroon, the country she was born in and the world chosen for a number of her works, it would seem that - other than her flamboyant appearances on national television during her occasional trips back to her home country - Beyala and her works go completely unnoticed."
However, it should be stressed that exoticism is a danger to all African writers. The danger even goes beyond fiction and affects "academics".
When pondering the situation of African anthropologists within the context of international research, Beninese philosopher, Paulin Houtondji notes that all African scientific works operate like an exportable product. For Houtondji, contemporary African anthropologists produce an extraverted discourse. They write for a non-African readership which is both wider and more reliable but also carried certain expectations and requirements.
For this reason, the danger of exoticism is quite clearly not only affects Calixthe Beyala but is almost inherent to all African writing.

Boniface Mongo

Bibliography
Gallimore, Rangira Béatrice, L'œuvre romanesque de Calixthe Beyala, le renouveau de l'écriture féminine en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne , L'Harmattan 1997.
Houtondji, Paulin J., Combats pour le sens, un itinéraire africain , Les Editions du Flamboyant, Cotonou 1997.
Awa Thiam, La parole aux négresses , Denoël 1978.