Writing through the Visual and Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean ed. by Renée Larrier and Ousseina Alidou (review)
- Writing through the Visual and Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean ed. by Renée Larrier and Ousseina Alidou
Writing through the Visual and Virtual focuses on examining the various cultural, rhetorical devices that are used in communities of the diaspora. The authors examine how different aspects of visual and virtual rhetoric serve as an integral part of their community for social progress. The text begins with a discussion on the importance of International Women's Day pagne. The IWD pagne is produced in Central Africa. The process of manufacturing these commemorative cloths involve intricate dye designs. The pagne is a visual expression, particularly for Muslim women, to express their "plural histories of struggle, strength, and aspiration" (6). The pagne is a symbolic outfit worn by women at "… workshops on violence and reproductive health … legal clinics on women's rights and peacemaking … [and] … marches" (7).
Banoum and Rice discuss the idea that the pagne is a form of living text that women use to make rhetorical statements within their movements. These outfits are designed according to the United Nations' general theme. The design features "women across class, region, and language…" (7). Authors observed the various styles from 2010 to 2012. Each year, these cloths represented a different symbol of women's empowerment. The authors understand that expressing themselves through these living texts in a country as patriarchal as Cameroon. However, these women find strength in telling their story of struggle, empowerment, and equality through these visual expressions.
The use of language is particularly highlighted in this book, as it serves as a regional rhetoric that is used, such as gawlo used by the griots to "… address appropriately internal sociopolitical tensions and dissensions … through the adoption of the griotic rhetoric and language" (33). The use of griot rhetoric has been used by "masters in the 'art of eloquence'" that encompasses "praise singers, entertainers, genealogists, diplomats, and advisors in the circles of West AFrican empires and kingdoms" (33). The text even identifies "Zora Neale Hurston and Aime Cesaire['s] use [of] griotic rhetoric in their literary works" (34).
Hurston, in her works, implemented elements of Griotic rhetoric in her literary works and had "managed to turn effective literary and performance art-materials non-literate folk traditions she set out to popularize" (35). Both Cesaire and Hurston used these elements of Griotic rhetoric to influence the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. By doing so, they transformed what we consider today as African American literature.
The authors continue to discuss how oral literature, such as testimonies and folklore, help keep social crises and injustices that plague West African countries. Not only is oral literature a way to preserve history, but to support progessive [End Page 238] movement in the region. While it has its drawback of "collective memory," it serves to give context for change (49).
Part II discusses the body culture of diasporic nations. Particularly in the Caribbean, the Creolization of the nations has been visually expressed in dance, music, and voice that "…mirrors the hybridity of its sociocultural context" (61). How identity is expressed through visual performance and storytelling is a strong theme in Writing through the Visual and Virtual. Les Retifs is a performance that portrays its characters "as a web of sisters, neighbors, mothers with their personal share of happiness and trials" (66). Here, they are able to write the narrative of their struggles and shape the perception.
The authors continue to discuss visual rhetoric and how it's applied to health and awareness. The HIV-AIDS epidemic has plagued large parts of Africa since the 1980s. The clash between public health and religious conviction has made this health crisis particularly difficult to tackle in parts of the African continent. Activists such as Adboul Salam of Nigeria creates HIV-AIDS dance songs to spread awareness. Through his artistic works, he is able to reconcile the Muslim ideology with education on sexual health. This allows for an understanding...
