The Fury and Cries of Women - (Caraf Books) by Angèle Rawiri (Paperback)

About the Book

In her forceful portrayal of one woman's life in Central Africa in the late 1980s, Rawiri prompts us not only to reconsider our notions of African feminism and the canon of francophone African women's writing but to expand our awareness of the issues women face across the world today in the workforce, in the bedroom, and among family and peers.

Book Synopsis

Gabon's first female novelist, Angèle Rawiri probed deeper into the issues that writers a generation before her--Mariama Bâ and Aminata Sow Fall--had begun to address. Translated by Sara Hanaburgh, this third novel of the three Rawiri published is considered the richest of her fictional prose. It offers a gripping account of a modern woman, Emilienne, who questions traditional values and seeks emancipation from them.

Emilienne's active search for feminism on her own terms is tangled up with cultural expectations and taboos of motherhood, marriage, polygamy, divorce, and passion. She completes her university studies in Paris; marries a man from another ethnic group; becomes a leader in women's liberation; enjoys professional success, even earning more than her husband; and eventually takes a female lover. Yet still she remains unsatisfied. Those closest to her, and even she herself, constantly question her role as woman, wife, mother, and lover. The tragic death of her only child--her daughter Rékia--accentuates Emilienne's anguish, all the more so because of her subsequent barrenness and the pressure that she concede to her husband's taking a second wife.

In her forceful portrayal of one woman's life in Central Africa in the late 1980s, Rawiri prompts us not only to reconsider our notions of African feminism and the canon of francophone African women's writing but also to expand our awareness of the issues women face across the world today in the workforce, in the bedroom, and among family and peers.

Review Quotes

Sara Hanaburgh's translation of Angèle Rawiri's Fureurs et cris des femmes--a novel and author that truly deserve more attention--has a great pace and manages to convey a sense of loss, anxiety, and increasing despair as articulated in the original text. Not only does the book not age or feel dated; it also brings out aspects of work and ethics and of ethnicity and group conflicts that are very timely.

About the Author

Angèle Rawiri (1954-2010) was a translator, interpreter, model, and actress in addition to being a novelist. Her death in Paris reinvigorated interest in her work and dismay that she had not known greater success during her lifetime. Sara Hanaburgh is Assistant Professor of French at St. John's University. Cheryl Toman is Associate Professor of French at Case Western Reserve University.