Ferdinand Oyono

This book is written in the form of a diary kept by Toundi, an innocent Cameroonian houseboy who is fascinated and awed by the white world, the world of his masters.

Houseboy

A fierce satire on the colonial situation; the story is that of an old villager who is suddenly awarded a medal.

The Old Man and the Medal

Writing in French in the 1950s, Ferdinand Léopold Oyono (1929–2010) had only a brief literary career, but his anticolonialist novels are considered classics of twentieth-century African literature. Like Oyono’s Houseboy, also available from Waveland Press, this novel fiercely satirizes the false pretenses of European colonial rule in Africa. Meka, a village elder, has always been loyal to the white man. It is with pride that he first hears he is to receive a medal. While waiting for the ceremony, however, Meka’s pride gives way to skepticism. At the same time, his wife has realized that the medal is being given to her husband as compensation for the sacrifices they have made. The events following the ceremony confirm Meka’s new estimation of the white man. Both subtle and oftentimes humorous, this beautifully told story lays bare the hollowness of the mission in Africa. It fuels opportunities for discussing colonial politics around class and race as well as for exploring indigenous Cameroon life and values.

Un jeune Noir élevé par un Père Blanc a pris, à l'instar de son maître, l'habitude de tenir un journal. Dès lors, il enregistre tout ce qui se passe dans le milieu des colons où, malgré lui, à la mort du Père Blanc, il est devenu le "boy" de l'administrateur des colonies, le "commandant" de l'endroit. Rien ne lui échappe. Il découvre deux mondes nouveaux, foncièrement différents, aveuglés par leurs préjugés, et amenés à coexister : celui du Quartier Noir, un village pauvre dans la ville, celui de la Résidence, une ville opulente, la ville blanche. Mêlé à la vie de tous, il rapporte les actes et les conversations de ses maîtres et de leurs amis, les jugements de ses camarades domestiques à la Résidence, les drames et les passions des uns et des autres.

Une vie de boy

Toundi Ondoua, the rural African protagonist of Houseboy, encounters a world of prisms that cast beautiful but unobtainable glimmers, especially for a black youth in colonial Cameroon. Houseboy, written in the form of Toundis captivating diary and translated from the original French, discloses his awe of the white world and a web of unpredictable experiences. Early on, he escapes his fathers angry blows by seeking asylum with his benefactor, the local European priest who meets an untimely death. Toundi then becomes the Chief Europeans boythe dog of the King. Toundis attempt to fulfill a dream of advancement and improvement opens his eyes to troubling realities. Gradually, preconceptions of the Europeans come crashing down on him as he struggles with his identity, his place in society, and the changing culture.

First published in French in 1960, this novel is the story of Aki Barnabas, a young Cameroonian scholar who seeks to become someone by using the rules of the colonial system to his personal advantage.

Road to Europe

John Reed

Cameroonian houseboy Toundi dreams of advancement and so studies the world of his white masters closely. "Gradually his eyes are opened to its realities, and in the end this leads to tragic consequences because the Europeans cannot endure the gaze of the man they have destroyed.

Ferdinand Oyono

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