Augustine H. Asaah

To Speak or Not to Speak with the Whole Mouth Textualization of Taboo Subjects in Europhone African Literature

Taboos, since the dawn of time, have been used by human societies to regulate behavior and discourse. African writers are aware of these codes that regulate conduct, supposedly in the name of the common good. The article discusses taboo adherence and taboo violation in respect of death, madness, sex, and incest in Europhone African literature and concludes that African writers largely display a certain dynamism in their reaction to taboos.

Veneration and Desecration in Calixthe Beyala's La petite fille du reverbere

The Franco-Cameroonian novelist Calixthe Beyala has, in recent years, made a name for herself as a radical feminist novelist. Her anti-patriarchal and anti-establishment attack takes on an obsessively sacred coloration in her eighth novel, La petite fille du rèverbère, for, while venerating herself, Grandmother, and earth-bound Africa, she systematically desecrates what appears to her as incarnations of the inimical hydra-headed Father: imperialists, negligent genitor, opportunistic fathers, Fathers-of-Nation, sexual taboos, the sky-God, and literary critics who accuse her of plagiarism. Using as a point of departure the notions of the sacred embedded in collective and contemporary consciousness, the essay examines the dual process of sanctification and profanation at work in the novel.

Postcolonial Relations with Suns: A Comparative Study of Palangyo’s Dying in the Sun and Kourouma’s Les soleils des indépendances

(2007). Postcolonial Relations with Suns: A Comparative Study of Palangyo’s Dying in the Sun and Kourouma’s Les soleils des independances. Journal of the African Literature Association: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 113-129.

Of Pacts, Trickster Ethos, and Impact: A Reading of Ahmadou Kourouma's Les Soleils des indépendances

The article seeks to use the pact factor to interpret Kouroumas ground-breaking novel, Les Soleils des indépendances. The sinister figure of the predatory trickster is discernible in the profiles of the crafty man of religion and the wily dictator, both using myths of legitimization to enhance the success of their pacts with others. A pattern of deceit can also be observed in various societal compacts. In the authors use of language, storytelling techniques, and rapport with the reader, however, he arrives at a happy mean between conflicting exigencies.