Women Writers of Gabon: Literature and Herstory by Cheryl Toman (review)

Cheryl Toman has rendered an invaluable service to the field of women’s studies, most particularly in regards to women writers of the francophone world, with her Women Writers of Gabon: Literature and Herstory, the first-ever comprehensive and extremely well-researched examination in English of Gabonese women’s writing. Moreover, despite the fact there are some analyses in French of Gabonese women’s writing, not one of them is as comprehensive as Toman’s. For example, Toman provides a thorough treatment of such major Gabonese authors as Angèle Rawiri, Justine Mintsa, Sylvie Ntsame, Honorine Ngou, and Chantal Magalie Mbazoo-Kassa as well as an introductory primer on emerging authors, such as, to name but just a few, Edna Merey-Apinda, Alice Endamne, Nadia Origo, Miryl Eteno, and Elisabeth Aworet, second generation authors who are quickly establishing their rightful place in African literature. In asserting that “while it is still common to hear African literatures described as ‘young’ despite the recognition long ago that African oralities are indeed literary genres” (40), Toman brings much needed attention to Gabon’s oral literature, one of the best documented oral literatures in Africa:

In Gabon, oral literature is rich with all ethnic groups having their own origin myths and stories. These oralities recount the existence of indigenous groups in Gabon and Central Africa since time immemorial and thus studying such oral literature leads to a better understanding of the published African literature of the same region. By blending new literary forms with old ones, Mintsa and Ntsame have managed to produce the most significant Fang literature since the introduction of the celebrated epic poetry known as the mvet.

(40)

Equally fascinating is Toman’s treatment of how women writers appropriate the male-centered mvet. She begins by pondering the question of whether or not the mvet can be modernized so as to include women and answers her own question by closely examining the words of the celebrated Tsira Ndong Ndoutoume:

Tsira Ndong’s words imply one of two messages: either he uses his authority as a revered master of the mvet to welcome the contributions of others—including women—into the art form, or rather he is simply stating that change is inevitable and beyond anyone’s control; literature in Gabon will continue to evolve, and the mvet is no exception.

(41)

It is exactly with this type of careful critical approach that Toman succeeds in exposing the “invisibility” of women (e.g. historically, politically, and cross-culturally) in Gabonese literature while at the same time, she addresses the emergence of the Gabonese novel in all its uniqueness (e.g. traditions of the Fang ethnic group). Indeed, across her introduction (“Assessing an ‘Absence’ of Literature in Gabon and the Invisibility of Women”), five chapters (“Emergence of the Gabonese Novel: The Works of Angèle Rawiri,” “Justine Mintsa and Gabonese Writers of Fang Heritage: Orality, Culture, and Tradition,” “Fang Culture, Bwitifang Spirituality, and the Mvet in the Novels of Sylvie Ntsame,” “Gender and Sexuality in Selected Works of Honorine Ngou,” and “Taking Literature to the Schools: Gabon’s Children and the Contribution of the Woman Writer”), and conclusion (“Affirming One’s Place in African Literature: Gabon’s Second Generation of Women Writers Forges Ahead”), Toman very eloquently and adeptly justifies why Gabonese women deserved to be respected and recognized as a highly significant force in African literature.