Novel
La Croix du cœur
Not translated into English
Charly-Gabriel Mbock · 1982
Synopsis
The villagers of Song Mboua wonder whether the cross is not an inverted sword that would maim Africans of themselves. A stranger nicknamed Corn Beard invites them to Christianity; after a pact with the spirits of the ancestors and a representative of the traditional cult, the missionary sets about building a church, and the Christians cut down the trees of the sacred hill of Hikôamadje. The new faith divides the village between zealous believers, sceptics of good sense and the lukewarm, while others defend their gods: without the god of the clan, the church would be built on sand.
Context
The novel was published in Yaoundé in 1982 by CLE, in 227 pages, four years after Quand saigne le palmier, its author's first novel with the same publisher. According to the publisher's presentation, it explores the misunderstandings and inconsistencies that weigh on faith in Africa and the question of adapting the Gospel to the cultures of the continent, in a lively, vivid language. Pierre Martial Abossolo, who studies the figure of the sacred tree in the novel and short story of Francophone Africa, reads in it the search for an accord between the cross and the totem.
Who it is for
In French, in a richly figurative language. It helps to know that in the village the sacred hill is the domain of the clan's gods.
Prizes and reception
No prize found. The novel has remained in its publisher's catalogue, which has reissued it in electronic format.
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