Le Christ selon l’Afrique par Calixthe Beyala (review)

Reviews 187 la matière intéressante et capter l’attention des lecteurs. Mis en confiance, ses interlocuteurs s’ouvrent à elle parce qu’ils sentent qu’elle saura exprimer leurs sentiments et que, somme toute, il reste quelque espoir! University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire Dominique S. Thévenin Beyala, Calixthe. Le Christ selon l’Afrique. Paris: Albin Michel, 2014. ISBN 978-2226 -25601-0. Pp. 265. 19,50 a. Not quite parable or allegory, this colorful story presents Douala, and particularly its slums, through the eyes of Boréale, an intelligent and rebellious young woman who has a secondary education but not the test results required for an office job. Widespread government corruption in Cameroon lets the politicians and functionaries line their pockets and keeps the poor in slums like Kassalafaim, where Boréale lives. How can Africa be saved from impending economic and social disaster? Doctaire,a physician, argues on a street corner for science, but the man Boréale calls Homotype disputes with him, claiming that all knowledge and civilization come from Africa. Homotype was Boréale’s lover until she became disgusted by his promiscuity, but his masculine aura and his soulful singing of popular songs still attract her. Boréale’s mother belongs to the Catholic church, whose most prominent local figure is the “prophète” Paul, many of whose followers are awaiting the end of the world, while he practices rigged faith healing, demands tithing from the faithful as “le prix du salut” (21), and takes sexual advantage of his followers. Given the atmosphere—“l’Afrique cherchait ses origines à travers une spiritualité insolite” (203)—it is no wonder that Boréale is a mass of contradictions. She is wittily skeptical about nearly everything, but she also wants to be rich and to dress stylishly. To do so, she just needs to bear a child on behalf of her mother’s sterile sister Dorota, with the sister’s wealthy husband as its father. Boréale’s impoverished extended family thinks this is a wonderful idea: everyone will be able to feast on the uncle’s bounty. The Christ of the book’s title enters into events not only through the phony prophet, who proclaims “la puissance du Christ!” (197), but by way of a white man who claims his name is “Christian, Christ pour les amis” (141) and, later, through the baby of dubious parentage which Boréale finally produces and whom Dorota names Christ. The book’s characters, all of whom are painted in broad strokes, also include Boréale’s white expatriate employer, two other household employees, a brothel keeper, and the mairesse of the elegant Maképé quarter. Boréale is the only complex figure until, near the end, her mother and Homotype seem to change, though maybe it is Boréale who is finally seeing others in a more nuanced way. Just as Cameroon-born Beyala herself is both a novelist and a political activist, this book is part novel and part political propaganda, its characters and events serving to condemn corruption and inequality in Cameroon and to point to hope for its future. Boréale thinks that her baby may bring about“un monde plus juste”(259)—“Peut-être s’instruirait-il sur le secret des coups d’État réussis et renverserait-il les régimes corrompus” (259–60)—becoming Africa’s longed-for savior. College of San Mateo (CA) Susan Petit Biancarelli, Marc. Orphelins de Dieu. Arles: Actes Sud, 2014. ISBN 978-2-33003593 -8. Pp. 240. 20 a. Vénérande et son frère Petit Charles vivent reclus leur quotidien de damnés depuis que le chemin du jeune homme a croisé celui des trois frères Santa Lucia et de leur acolyte Le Long. Ce jour-là, les quatre pillards, Cavaliers de l’Apocalypse, ne se sont pas contentés de voler quelques brebis à Petit Charles mais l’ont également défiguré après lui avoir coupé la langue. Vénérande s’occupe depuis de son frère, s’abîmant dans la folie qui a déjà emporté Petit Charles tout en s’accrochant au dernier sentiment qui la relie à ce monde de violence...