gabon

the fury and cries of women

by angèle rawiri

translated by sara hanaburgh

Originally published in French and translated to the English by Sara Hanaburgh, THE FURY AND CRIES OF WOMEN was Angèle Ntyugwetondo Rawiri’s third novel and is considered to be the richest of her fictional prose. Born in 1954 in Port-Gentil, Rawiri was the first Gabonese novelist. This seemed like huge achievement to me—considering how difficult I’ve found it (in some parts of Africa) to find women’s writing that is not only recognized, but published and translated—but is something that Rawiri described, in a 1988 interview published in Amina Magazine, as coming to to her quite easily: “I must admit that it was rather easy. Friends who were journalists helped me out by putting me in contact with an editor,” and “I hadn’t thought about [becoming Gabon’s first novelist]. I was rather taken up by my reflections, my doubts, my worries, my fears. When the novel came out, I found out that I was the first.”

Rawiri’s writing resulted in three published novels, which are often presented as a trilogy although this does not seem to have been her intention and the books do not have much in common. THE FURY AND CRIES OF WOMEN was her last novel and is a feminist exploration of issues confronting women in Gabon, but also in many parts of Africa and the world. Set in Gabon in the 1980s, the novel tells the story of Emilienne, a modern, successful business woman, who challenges traditional values and seeks emancipation from them.

As with many of the books I’ve read that deal with the subject of polygamy, Emilienne’s biggest struggle is against the traditional societal expectation that she bear children, and her husband’s right to take another wife when she is unable to. Mariama Ba’s SO LONG A LETTER (Senegal), Adrienne Yabouza’s CO-WIVES, CO-WIDOWS (The Central African Republic), STAY WITH ME by Adebami Adebayo (Nigeria), all deal with this theme and the slow, corrosive effect polygamy has on a woman, a marriage, her relationship with her family members, and her ideas of herself as a fully-realized person.

Polygamy essentially reduces a woman to her womb. Despite all Emilienne’s successes, “She completes her university studies in Paris; marries…; becomes a leader in women’s liberation; enjoys professional success, even earning more than her husband,” it is her inability to fall pregnant that determines how she is loved and viewed by her family and her community. Her husband’s abandonment, encouraged and facilitated by her mother-in-law, is seen as Emilienne’s fault and perfectly acceptable under the circumstances.

There’s more to the book, but this overarching theme seems to be the main driver of the plot. The perspective shifts sometimes, so the reader is given insight into all the characters’ motivations and machinations, in the case of the mother-in-law! I found the emotion of the story in some situations to be a little melodramatic, and it was hard to connect with the characters in a way that made me really care for them. Mostly, I simply felt angry on Emilienne’s behalf but given the title, that outcome may have been precisely what Rawiri intended. Rawiri described using her writing as, “an outlet for exploring aspects of culture and society that bewildered or enraged her.”

Angele Rawiri lived in Gabon, France, and the UK, and described herself in the 1988 article in Amina Magazine as a “deracinee,” an uprooted woman. “I never felt at home on African soil and at the same time, I didn’t feel at home in Europe either.” Rawiri died in 2010, in Paris, France.