Novel
Awu's Story
Histoire d'Awu
Justine Mintsa · 2000
Synopsis
In Ebomane, in northern Gabon, Awu, a seamstress and the only woman in the region to have obtained a diploma, becomes the second wife of the schoolteacher Obame Afane, widower of a first wife who died without giving him a child and whose memory he keeps. Around the couple lives Obame's family, including his sister Akut, who has neither husband nor job. Ada, Akut's daughter, a good pupil, becomes pregnant at secondary school and has to leave; her mother throws her out, and Awu's household must cope.
Context
The novel was published in 2000 in Paris in the Continents noirs series, which honoured its author in 2025, on its twenty-fifth anniversary, as the first woman from sub-Saharan Africa it had published. The narrative sets the old traditions of the north of the country against modern ways, even in the names: the linguist Marie-France Andeme Allogo notes that Ebomane means “the encounter” and that Meyos designates Libreville under a distorted name. The same reading sees in it a challenge to the violence done to pupils and to the heaviness of administrations.
Who it is for
A short novel of one hundred and sixteen pages about the condition of women in a Gabonese village; it can also be read in English.
Prizes and reception
Translated into English by Cheryl Toman in 2018, with a preface by Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury, one of the first women novelists of French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa; the subject of studies by Gabonese linguists.
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