Colonial Violence and Psychological Defenses in Ferdinand Oyono's Une vie de boy

While suggesting parallels between ancient and modern tales of captivity and grief, Ferdinand Oyono's Une vie de boy anticipates the postcolonial abuses so passionately denounced by Wole Soyinka in The Open Sore of a Continent. A masterpiece of psychological acuity and ironic narration, the novel traces the short sorrowful life of Toundi, an African boy who leaves his native village to live at the French mission in a fictional town called Dangan. The tale is told by the protagonist, who changes his name from Toundi to Joseph when he goes to live among the colonizers. Unknowingly launched upon a journey that will lead to his own destruction, Toundi recounts his dreadful story in a naively optimistic voice that suggests the situation of a lamb thrown in among wolves dressed up in sheep's clothing. An early indication of his inclination to embrace the role of a victim is evident in Toundi's complacent acceptance of the "Christian" name Joseph. This propensity of the victim to identify with the aggressor is, indeed, the crucial element in Oyono's brilliant articulation of the correspondence between a brutally corrupt colonial administration and the ruinously compromised psychology of the colonized subject.

Like his biblical namesake, who was falsely accused of raping his employer's wife, Toundi falls into the orbit of a powerful woman whose illicit desires make her vulnerable to the punitive wrath of a patriarchal authority. Though Toundi/Joseph is not the object of his mistress's desire, and though he never testifies against her, his role as incidental observer of her indiscretions leads to his eventual arrest and torture by colonial agents who are just as adept as Potiphar's wife in projecting the blame for their own faults onto an innocent subordinate. In fact, there is an ironic disparity between the ominous implications of the biblical name and the naive optimism of Toundi's characteristic perspective. Toundi's curious complacency is defensive in nature, and entirely consistent with the psychology of an individual reacting to a context of unrelenting abuse.

The critical importance of Toundi/Joseph's name has been underscored by Anne M. Menke, who suggests that the significance of the biblical allusion may have to do with the "asexual" quality of the protagonist. Noting that both Joseph of the Old Testament and Joseph, "the titular husband of the Virgin Mary" were "exemplary asexual men," she speculates that "the loss of sexuality may be the price the colonized has to pay to be a hero in a Western story/structure" (21-22). Though this analysis makes the essential connection between Toundi's French name and his status as innocent victim, it is ultimately an oversimplification of Oyono's procedure in several ways. In the first place, it is worth noting that Toundi is only "asexual" if sexuality is defined as "actively engaging in sexual relations with other individuals." In fact, the ironic disparity between Toundi's passionate desire and his limited understanding is a crucial element of Oyono's depiction. The lyrical joy with which Toundi responds to his mistress's arrival in Dangan is clearly inspired by a passion which is at once profoundly sexual and essentially innocent:

J'ai serré la main de ma reine. J'ai senti que je vivais. Désormais ma main est sacrée, elle ne connaîtra plus les basses régions de mon corps. Ma main appartient à ma reine aux cheveux couleur d'ébène, aux yeux d'antilope à la peau rose et blanche comme l'ivoire. Un frisson a parcouru mon corps au contact de sa petite main moite.

I have touched the hand of my queen. I felt so alive. From now on my hand is sacred; it will no longer have anything to do with the lower regions of my body. My hand belongs to my queen with ebony colored hair...