CREATIVE
FORUM
Journal of Literary and Critical Writing
Special Issue: POPULAR CULTURE
STUDIES
Vol. 19 No. 1-2 Jan-Dec. 2006
CONTENTS
The Black man: Still a Savage in Condé’s Great
Black Hole
BUKOYE AROWOLO 143-154
The Black Man Still a Savage in Conde's Great
Black Hole
BUKOYE AROWOLO
The image of the Blackman in the French metropolitan novels
before 1945 is a study in European black stereotypes. These novels,
described as "romans blancs" by Sebastien Joachim portrays the bla'ck
man as a savage and the continent, Africa as a "dark continent"
(Dugaste-Portes: 1988,19). In the same vein, most black FrenchCaribbean writers not only portray the same age - old Eurocentric myth
of Africa as a black hole, and Blackman as a savage. They also
demonstrate the resentment and the spite with which they hold both the
continent and the race through their characterization and setting. The
unconscious symptoms of alienation alternate between the rejection of
assimilation proclaimed in one breath and, it was warmly embraced in
another. This is not surprising in view of the efforts of the colonizer to
make sure that the Caribbean Black maintains no cultural contact with
his African origin. Besides, the western stranglehold is so stifling that
he feels inferior because of his place in the hierarchical former slave
society. The French Caribbean intellectual finds it more convenient to
belong to the western civilization in order to curb the complex gnawing
at his being from within and without. Since he believes that he is nearer to
civilization than his African brother, he still feels superior to the latter
in spite of his intention to re- Africanize. His mythic glorification of the
race ends up having a negative effect since it hardly hides his occidental
up bringing. As a matter of fact, the latter exposes the former. Maryse
Conde confesses that the Caribbean Black is different from other
Blacks. According to he, the only thing that is black about him and in
him is the color of his skin. He has a 'white mind'. In her words:
Les antillais sont des negres a part. Des négres qui n’avaient que la
couleur que la peau, mats dont I'esprit etaient blanc.
[The Caribbeans are different Negroes. Negroes only in color of
the skin, but whose spirit is white] (Servet 1985, 26).
The acceptance of the myth of black inferiority makes the
Caribbean black a man of contradictions. His psyche oscillates between
the wish to become like the white man and behave like horn, and that of
adopting the "Sambo" image of himself and of his race. At the same time,
he desires to project a revalued ,albeit half- hearted image of the past life
of his African ancestors. What is important here is the indisputable fact
that ail myths are wittingly or unwittingly based on the western archetype
of his race.
As for the continent, the French Caribbean writers’ portrayal of this
responds to the idea that the African ancestors were slaves and uncivilized,
good for nothing people who were saturated through and through with
vices. The inferiority complex is assuaged by an anti-African feeling that
makes the Caribbean person to believe that he is superior to the
African. The African, he surmises, has not had the chance of escaping
from the savagery of the continent into (Western) civilization: the
repository of human culture. According to Fanon, this attitude is so
entrenched that certain Caribbean Blacks are always upset and annoyed
to be mistaken for Africans. He remarks:
nous avons connu et nous connaissons encore des Antillais qui se
vexent quand on les soupçonne d'être Sénégalais .
[we have known and still know the Caribbean Blacks who feel
insulted when suspected to be Senegalese] (Fanon 1952:20)
Most French Caribbean writers not only portray the same age-long
Eurocentric myth of savage Africa and Blacks but also demonstrate the
resentment and the spite which they hold both the continent and the
race. They are constrained from birth to see the continent through the
European image of savage fauna and flora, an obscure continent
inhabited by sub-humans.
Maryse Condé's novels, En attendant le bonheur (1976.1989)
(henceforth referred to as Bonheur) and Une saison à Rihata (1981)
(henceforth referred to as Rihata), present to us characters who are racial
archetypes. In the multiracial society, the White man, former master,
former colonizer remains dominant in spite of the abolition of slavery.
The new Negro- bourgeoisie, which was thrown up after the abolition of
slavery compulsively, seeks a new identity with the white master by an
absolute adoption of his culture and by doing things exactly like him in
order to change his own original image. To down play his assimilated
inferiority, he
wishes to make himself white and so gives himself, at ail cost, a shade of
whiteness, to be free from the denigration that the black color and white
attitude have destined for him. This seems to be the only way to get
accepted and be acceptable in the multiracial and racist society.
As a result, Veronica's parents (Bonheur), and especially her
father, whom she nicknamed marabout mandingue do everything to
resemble the white man and to live up to the expectations of a "civilized
family" in an area reserved essentially for mulattoes, and where the
only yardstick for social acceptance is the "whiteness" of one's skin.
Unfortunately, the mulatto neighbors at Pointe-à-Pitre reject Veronica's
family because of its blackness. Veronica herself contracts this virus of
inferiority through her training and experiences in the discriminatory
society. While attempting to get accepted by the mulatto society,
Veronica's parents exposed her unduly to ridicule, to the extent that she
confesses that she (Veronica) considers the mulatto woman more
beautiful because they possess a lighter skin pigmentation, which her
mother does not have. As a result, her mother's beauty was reduced:
Elles (les mulâtresses), me paraissaient plus belles parcequ
'elles étaient claires, possédant donc ce que manque à ma
mère pour qu 'elle fût tout à fait belle.
[They (the mulatto women) seem to me more beautiful because
they are light in color, having what my mother lacked to be
perfectly beautiful.] (Bonheur: 184).
Veronica's mother is ugly because she is black, even by her own
daughter's assessment. She prefers the light- skinned mulattoes to her
mother. She has an intense desire to "become" the small mulatto- girl
who performs with her during a poetic and song recitals in her church.
She feels ashamed of her black skin and thinks herself less human than
the mulatto-girl, more so that the girl receives a louder applause from
the mulatto-dominated audience for her recitals, even though black
Veronica's performance is better. It is important to note that this
performance marks the beginning of Veronica's compulsive search for a
change of identity. Concerning the incident and its consequences upon
her, Veronica recalls:
Une petite fille récitait un poème sur l'estrade ...et je
souhaitais passionnément ressembler à cette fille. Etre cette
petite fille.
[A little girl was reciting a poem on the stage ... I passionately
wished to be like this girl Be this little girl.] (Bonheur. 184).
Certainly, Condé's heroine, Veronica, feels ashamed after the
experience, but in her subconscious, as it is the reality with most other
Caribbean Blacks there seems to be no other way to be equal to the
White man than by being like him or imitating him. The Western culture
in which the Caribbean has been brought up has inculcated into him his
inferiority and mat of his race. The use of the literary techniques of
introspection flashbacks on the heroine's and childhood experiences
enables the reader to have a clear insight into the genesis of her unstable
personality. Throughout the novel, Veronica's mind swings between the
past in Guadeloupe and the present in Africa.
The black Caribbean bourgeois also does ail he can to identify with
the white skin to enable him boast of a "white" genealogy. He tries to
trace his ascendancy to see if, at one point, a Whiteman had raped one
of his grandmothers in order to pride himself over this "sperme blanc
égaré dans des vagins des négresses" ('white sperm lost in
Négresses' vaginas')
By this, black characters show that they are not totally black even
when the béké family concerned does not recognize the paternity of
such bastards. Veronica with use of irony highlights the attitude of the
black bourgeoisie in a way to show her distaste for this stupid tendency
using her mother's family, which tries to trace its origin to a White as an
example.
La famille de ma mère, non plus on n'en parlait pas beaucoup je
savais que ma grand- mère, Bonne Maman. ..était la fille
bâtarde, bien sûr, d'un Béké du nom de Sainte-Croix ... nous,
cette goutte, nous l 'avons enchâssée, embaumée.
[My mother's family, neither, one hardly spoke about it. Of
course I knew that my grandmother, Bonne Maman, is the
bastard of a White- man named Sainte- Croix ... this drop, we
hâve treasured and embalmed] (Bonheur. 33)
Veronica's parents here trace their origin to the shameful affairs that
linked the béké master with their great grandmother who made them
bastard children. What is important is the cherished "white blood" that
flows in their black veins, no matter how it gets there.
The mulatto- family of Alix, Marie - Hélène's mother (Rihata) is
against the marriage of their daughter with Simeon who is a "nègrenègre" that is, a black without any trace of white blood in his veins. The
marriage is seen as a mismatch because it lowers the social rank of
their daughter.
The mulattoes are full of antipathy for the black people and prefer
to associate with people of superior racial stock - the békés.
We interpret the association of Veronica, the heroine in Bonheur,
with the mulatto, Alexandre, and the white, Jean Michel in France, as
a subconscious acceptance of the inferior image of the Black and a
compulsive desire to elevate the race through sexual dealings with the
white and mulatto boyfriends whereby respectable children with lighter
skin can be produced. It is to be deduced that Veronica's decision not
have children expressed with so much anguish and bitterness: "je
n'enfanterais jamais" (Bonheur: 42), is made out of the negative image
of the black race and of herself. Having a child, who would resemble
her and have the same subhuman destiny as her mother, is acutely
undesirable.
Most of Condé's other black characters are archetypes of the savage:
libidinous, unfaithful and cannibalistic. (Nweze. 1978:55). The heroines
in the novels, Veronica and Marie - Hélène are nymphomaniac
.Therefore because of Veronica's compulsive sex- urge and unwholesome
affair with Alexandre, She was deported to France by her family as a
face - saving device. In France, the trend does not change as she
continues to behave like Marilisse and has a white lover, Jean - Michel.
Even on arrival in Africa, "a good fuck" constitutes for her a form of
tranquilizer each time she is in a psychological turmoil. She goes after
Ibrahima Sory, her minister - lover, for a dose of sex therapy when in
need. The affair cannot be disinterested since she sees in Ibrahima Sory,
the powerful minister, a physical and psychological protection. Veronica
would have loved to make a lover also of the revolutionary Saliou, the
director of the school in which ironically she teaches French
philosophy. But Saliou is too preoccupied with his revolutionary
activities to pay attention to such trivial things as an extramarital love
affair.
The unrestrained sexual promiscuity of Marie- Hélène, a chip of the
archetypal black heroine in Rihata, also shows Condé's bent for
presenting the black woman as libidinous and unfaithful. Marie- Hélène
cannot resist sexual advances from any man. Her sister, Delphine,
expecting a baby for her boyfriend Olnel, committed suicide on
discovering the secret sexual relationship between the latter and MarieHélène. Marie - Hélène accepts to marry Zek, the black African, not
out of love, but out of desire to permanently leave her country,
Guadeloupe and France. Due to her inability to resist love advances, she
gives in ail the time to Zek, her husband whom she really hates and, she
becomes virtually a sex- machine producing several children. Worse
still, her tendency for unfaithfulness is pushed a
little too far as she becomes the lover of Zek's half -brother, Madou. This
incestuous and abominable relationship leads to the rupture in the good
relationship of the two brothers.
Apart from the heroines, several other characters in the novels are of
"cuisses légères" like their simian brothers. In Bonheur the traits of sex
mania are portrayed in Tante Pau la with her several lovers. Marabout
Mandingue (Veronica's father), in his bourgeois hypocrisy, is caught
flirting with young ladies, even his housemaid. Ibrahima Sory the
minister, a married man has adulterous relationship with Veronica and
other young ladies, having left his wife in the far North of the country. In
the case of Simeon', Marie-Hélène's father, he is surrounded by mistresses
and bastard offsprings. Decent as he apparently is, Marie- Hélène's
husband is unfaithful to her. He goes to the brothel once in a while.
To drive home Condé's image of the savage, lascivious
Blackman, African leadership is portrayed as brutal, blood- thirsty,
violent and repressive. The brutish and savage leadership crushes ail
opposition, real and imagined. The new presidents in the African
countries of Condé's imagination are archetypes of cannibalism, They
enjoy spilling blood especially of those they see as opponents. In
Bonheur, several people are killed during demonstrations. The death of
Saliou, Biramelll and many other opponents are brutally stagemanaged by Nwalimwana and his régime. In Rihata, the list is longer.
Victor, the young revolutionary, Muti, wife of an old nationalist, Sory,
the musician, are assassinated by government agents.
The African leaders and intellectuals are locked in a violent and
bloody struggle for power that opposes even brothers and sisters. Hence
Ibrahima Sory does not see anything wrong in removing his brother- in law Saliou from his work and later killing him. Also Madou does not
regard it as indecorous to have affairs with his brother's wife. The law
that reigns, is that of the jungle: that of the survival of the fittest. In both
novels, several people get killed during violent protests.
The average black man is also dirty, dishonest and pleasure- loving
by thé image carved for him in Condé's novels. In Bonheur, Adama, the
white hotelier's black girlfriend "dégage une odeur". As it is
expected, Veronica's remark is not fortuitous; it emanates from the
"dirty nigger" image, which she has assimilated from the Western
culture. As a rider to this observation is the narrators retort " les nègres
puent c 'est connu" (the Negroes stink, it is a known fact) (Bonheur. 40)
As a result of what the narrators consider as the innate unsanitary
nature of a Blackman, the people in both the unnamed country of
Bonheur and those in Rihata live in squalor and are attacked by ail forms
of diseases. Illnesses are, no doubt a corollary to dirty environmental
habits. Children die in millions as a result of their unhealthy surroundings
and ignorance. Certainly, Saliou's decision to help his people is based on
his intention to deliver his people from ignorance and diseases, having
helplessly watched his mother die. (Bonheur: 125). Timbotimbo, a living
quarter in Rihata is described as a shameful place where it is impossible to
keep a child in good health. Ail kinds of epidemies are rife there. (Rihata:
17).
The black leaders in the novels are presented as pleasure- loving and
egoistic without any concern for the mass of the people. These leaders
live in villas with large lawns, ride the latest models of Mercedes Benz
cars and keep the most beautiful mistresses. Veronica, the heroine and the
narrator in Bonheur recalls with cynicism:
Ne disait-on pas qu 'ils s'étaient précipités dans les villas
luxueuses que les blancs avaient abandonées'.-1 Et que c'était
d'ailleurs pour cela qu "lia avaient pris leur indépendance.
[Was it not said that they rushed into the luxurious villas that thé
whites abandoned? And in any case, it is for that reason that
they asked for independence.} (Bonheur: 100).
Ibrahima Sory, other ministers and high government officiais in the
novels take over those luxurious villas that former colonialists left
behind. Also, Zek and other government functionaries inherit the same
kind of treasure in Rihata. Along with the villas and other colonial
benefits they inherit the former mistresses of the whites. The leaders are
more interested in the privilège of office than the responsibility for the
welfare of their people.
Even when the Caribbean Black comes to Africa in search of her
identity, her mental image of his people on the continent is already an
impediment to her integration. Condé's heroine believes in the myth of
history judging the evil rulers of the country for ail the blood they have
spilled. Veronica wonders if the black race really has any history. Since the
continent cannot boast of monuments as in France, therefore there
cannot be history. Furthermore, the Blacks still worship trees and
serpents, which is contrary to civilization. This is related to Césaire's
equation on the Black-White relationship in which Christianity equals
civilization and paganism, savagery. (Cesaire: 1956, 12). Also, MarieHélène considers all the sacrifices offered by Sokanbi, her mother- in law, for the benefit of her husband, Zek, as primitive and of no
civilizational significance. Veronica and Marie- Hélène lack the
understanding of African ways of life. Even their proclamation of the
African past does not prevent them from holding its tradition in disdain.
The western myth concerning black beliefs is more pronounced in
Moi, Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem, (1986) another of Condé's novels,
where Tituba, the heroine having been conferred with great traditional
and supernatural African power is regarded as a demonic and maleficent
witch. Even other blacks in the diaspora fear her because they see her as
evil. In spite of the fact that she uses her knowledge and power to heal
and help others, the Eurocentric community of Barbados considers her as
evil and Susannah Endicott, the mistress, owner of her slave husband,
sells her off with her husband to keep the witch far from her. It is
worthy of note that she has to be hanged eventually at Boston during a
witch- hunt.
The Sambo myth of the "bon nègre" "béni- oui- oui" and
simplistic black slave and servant, who not only serves his master well but
also enjoys suffering is adopted. So also are the Caribbean Blacks
presented as a community ready to satisfy the caprices of the "former
masters" by blind followership. Marabout Mandingue and others in spite
of their pretentious glorification of African past, in their actions and
attitude, are terrified by their inferiority and are doing everything to
make it up through discours glorificateurs de la race. The family of
Marie- Hélène's mother who would do everything to please their white
and mulatto neighbors adopts the same attitude while they despise their
fellow blacks. The black sweeper whose presence obsesses Veronica so
much is meant to incarnate the black image in the unconscious of the
white. He punctually and, without complaint, suffers the humiliation
of sweeping the university streets, a job that can only be reserved for
black underlings. It makes the recall of the slavery and colonial period
more satisfying for Whites that regard Blacks as hewers of wood and
drawers of water. The character of John Indien, Tituba's slave husband is
the archetype of un bon nègre. He is a comic character who entertains
his white mistress, Endicott with his clownish behavior. Even in
discussing the very serious issue of his marriage with his mistress, his
attitude hardly shows that he attaches any importance to it. He is carved
in the image of the eternally childish black that cannot be entrusted
with anything serious without being guided by the white master. The
Sambo image is extended to the black African ancestors talked about by
Condé's narrators and heroines in a sarcastic, in fact, cynical manner.
Veronica (Bonheur) imagines, with a caustic touch of irony, her
African ancestors who, by selling their children into slavery, have paid
due tribute to the new world: qui out pourtant payé tribut à ce qu'on
appelle le nouveau monde. This biting irony is mixed with disdain for a
continent that sold her children into slavery. But Veronica's disdain
does not end with the old ancestors who are guilty of the offence but
this extends to the modem African masses, who according to Veronica,
are sources of bad odor and only know how to laugh and sleep. In Most
French Caribbean writers not only portray the same age-long Eurocentric
myth of savage Africa and Blacks but also demonstrate the resentment
and the spite which they hold both the continent. Most French
Caribbean writers not only portray the same age-long Eurocentric myth
of savage Africa and Blacks but also demonstrate the resentment and the
spite which they hold the continent. Marie-Hélène (Rihata) holds in
scorn the communal togetherness that is the essence of the African life.
Her lack of understanding makes her to keep a condescending distance
such that the community calls her "Semela" that is, she that has come
from far away. (Rihata'. 27).
At the economic level, the independent African in the Condean
imagination is incapable of making any progress. In fact, the economic
structures built by the colonialist are being destroyed. The prosperity of
the colonial period has been transformed into poverty. The masses of
the people live in misery and want as a result of the incompetence of the
new African leaders. The suffering of the people is so much, that in spite
of Veronica's preoccupation with her own knotty identity problem,
the people's sorrow touches her so much that she exclaims: la tristesse de
cette terre me pénètre jusqu'à l'âme. Victor (Rihata) warns Inawale,
the minister's driver who shows off with his master's purse and money, to
keep the money well. This is a country where two out of three people
have nothing to eat, he says:
Frère, frère, cache cet argent: dans un pays où deux hommes
sur trois ne mangent a leur faim, lu pourras attirer des ennuis.
[Brother, dear brother, hide this money! In a country where
two thirds of the people cannot satisfy their hunger, you can
bring trouble upon yourself.} (Rihata;. 21)
The image of the black man and of Africa painted by Maryse Condé
through her characterization is borrowed from thé well - known Western
myths of the race and the continent. This negative image, we need to
repeat, is well entrenched in the Caribbean black's subconscious
through his education that seeks to devalue the black man and to justify
the old myths and the eternal domination of the black race by the whites.
Veronica and Marie-Hélène's experiences in their quest for identity,
a quest that leads them first to France and later to Africa is a literary
device by Condé to demonstrate the futility of both spatial and spiritual
search for identity outside the Caribbean context. In a moment of deep
reflection, after introspecting into her past life in Guadeloupe, Veronica
in a monologue affirms that she has made a mistake coming to Africa to
resolve her identity conflict. According to her, thé only way to make
peace with other Blacks and especially herself, is to return home:
Je commence à comprendre mon erreur. Si je voulais faire la
paix avec moi-même, nous, c 'est chez moi que je devrais
retourner.
[I begin to understand my mistake. If I wanted to make peace
with myself, that is, with us, I have to return home.} (Bonheur
10)
In Condé's novels which are set mainly in Africa, the image of the
continent alternates between that of the idyllic [the Utopian] where
everything goes on marvelously, a negritudist image and that of a dark
continent of savages where violence, disorder, ignorance and evil are thé
order of the day.
Veronica (Bonheur) and Marie- Hélène (Rihata) leave their
Caribbean native land for Africa in an attempt to re-Africanize and
rediscover their roots. The Africa of their dream, as against the
Caribbean Island they are rejecting, is the archetypal paradise, the
Utopia formed from a certain simplistic Eurocentric consciousness; the
type of Africa talked about by the late 19* century writers on Africa and
orchestrated by the Negritude movement. Deliberately, Maryse Condé
attributes a romantic image of Africa to her heroines because the
illusory Africa is no more.
Veronica, the heroine of Bonheur, searches for what remains of an
African past; a past that has a direct link with the present. She wants an
Africa that colonization has not reduced to a caricature, que t'Europe
n'avait pas reduit en caricature d'elle- même (Bonheur. 20). It is an
image of the continent before the colonial period. To sustain this image,
in her naiveté, she has chosen a part of Africa with the least contact with
the West, the Guinea of Camara Laye. She has come to Africa, a
Negro-African museum. She seals this dream on arrival by choosing
and identifying with the blood- spilling Minister of Defense and
Internal Affairs as her lover. The attraction is the old aristocratic lineage
of the Minister Sory Ibrahima, which will make her a proud black being.
Thanks to Sory with his long genealogy, predating colonization, she
would also be to acquire an identity. Marie Hélène also romantic and
idyllic in her imagination of the "new Africa", as a student in Paris,
goes from meetings to demonstrations in support of African liberation.
She signs petitions and pays subscriptions. (Rihata 21). Her enthusiasm
for the future of Africa surpasses that of Zek, the African who she
eventually marries. Marie- Hélène's principal concern is the future of
the African continent, the black man's progress and his place in the
world (le devenir du continent africain, le progrés de l'homme noir, sa
place dans le monde). Her idyllic image makes her dream of a free and
proud Africa that will show the way to other blacks (qui montrerait la
vois aux Antilles, entraînerait l'Amérique à son sillage) (Rihata'. 54). In
her child- like naïveté, she celebrates in advance the liberation of the
continent and contemplates independence us a 'marvelous birthday
cake'. Her love for Africa developed from her chimerical image of, and
her confidence in a free Africa that would give political and social
examples to the black in the diaspora attracts her to the continent, and
encourages her to come physically to lend a hand in the
development of the mother-continent. Africa has weighed heavily on
lier mind, and has become also to her a mother: mère aussi proche par
l’espoir et l’imaginaire (Rihata: 77).
The two heroines, Veronica. (Bonheur} and Marie- Hélène (Rihata)
choose to come to Africa having heen attracted by the image of
precolonial and Utopian - African, with which they can identify, and
which gives a solid base to their shaky personally. Veronica comes to
Africa as a "coopérant" to teach French philosophy She considers
Ibrahima Sory, the aristocratic minister as a relic of the idyllic past she has
come in search of. Marie- Hélène, also having formed the same image of
the continent, marries Zek, the son of a great man to be able lo come lo
the continent.
However, the myth of the continent developed by Condé's heroines,
Veronica and Marie- Hélène, dissipates shortly on their physical arrival on the
continent. Instead of the paradise of their dreams, they find hell on earth. The
paradisiacal archetype changes to that of elemental, climatic, vegetational
and bestial oppression. This is complimented by political and économie
neo-colortialism and social repression. Veronica and her colleagues at thé
institute where she teaches. see the whole country (continent) as an extensive
zoological garden and Veronica has no reason, according to her, co go several
kilometers merely to meet some wild animals (des kilomètres et des
kilometers pour rencontrer ne: à - nez quelques singes, dains, buffles ou
hippopotames) (Bonheur. 23) in a continent where primitive men and their
simian cousins live together harmoniously in primordial forests.
In reality, the African continent is full of violence and forces of
intimidation; it is a place where people are maltreated and arbitrarily
oppressed. Condé's narrator in Bonheur remarks this when she writes:
Ces états Africans sont des états policiers ou régnent
l'arbitraire, les emprisonnements sans cause- les tortures-lés
vengeances assouvies sur le travestie de la loi.
[These African states are police states where despotism is the
rule-imprisonment without cause, tortures, vendetta - ail
under the guise of keeping the law.] (Bonheur. 7).
The image is that of a dark continent where confusion and injustice are
the order of the day; a continent where might is right. The image in the
perception of the heroine Veronica is that of a big black hole (grand trou
noir), the dark continent where an influential béké can order the beating and
imprisonment of Amar, the shoe-factory worker just because Veronica prefers
him. The primitive government functionaries make Birame 111 to disappear
and assassinate Saliou pretending that he commits suicide. Muti, Victor and
several others become sacrificed on the altar of the blood-letting régime of
Toumany (Rihata). People are woken up in the night to be taken away never
to return to their homes.
This analysis of Maryse Condé's novels, En attendant le bonheur and
Une Saison à Rihata, has revealed some hidden features of the political
nature of the work. Maryse Condé, deeply influenced by her Western
upbringing, has treated in the novels themes that border on black inferiority,
incompetence and the generally evil nature of the race and the continent. An
examination of both the characterization and settings of the novels has yielded
results that confirm a deep-rooted prejudice against the black race from her
own deported children.
WORKS CITED
Césaire, Aimé, 1956. Discours sur le colonialisme, Paris, Présence
Africaine.
______ „ 1987.£« attendant le bonheur, Paris, Seghers.
______ , 1981. Une Saison à Rihata, Paris, Chemin d'identité.
______ , 1986. Moi, Tituba, Sorcière noire de Salem, Paris Marcure de
France.
Dugaste-Portes, Francine, 1988. "Héros noirs, romans blancs dans la
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