Poésie de la Négritude: approche structurale by Marcien TowaReview by: Fernando LambertCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 20, No. 1(1986), pp. 147-148Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/484722 .

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147 Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus

However, he brings to public notice some of the more obscure women writers and gives quite an up to date catalogue of the novels written by African women.

Mary Naana Nicholson Department of African Languages and Literature University of Wisconsin-Madison

Marcien Towa. Poesie de la Negritude: approche structurale. Sherbrooke: Editions Naaman, 1983. 3 19 PP.

Marcien Towa est bien connu comme philosophe et ses travaux sur la pensee africaine font autorit6. II a publi6 chez Naaman sa these de doctorat de troisieme cycle, Poesie de la Negritude. Si l'auteur de cette etude interroge les oeuvres poetiques de Senghor et de Cesaire, c'est pour decouvrir, a travers ce qui a 6te l'expression majeure de la Negritude, i.e. la poesie, "la vraie signification de cette doctrine philosophique" (9).

Le premier chapitre, "Esthetique kantienne et la theorie de l'art pour l'art," donne l'6tude de Towa un ton acad'mique familier. Ce qui 'tonne, c'est que les principes

poses ainsi au depart semblent ensuite peu relies l'atude elle-meme. La reflexion philosophique glisse de l'esthetique au politique. La demarche de l'auteur se comprend mieux lorsqu'on sait que Towa est un disciple de Lucien Goldman.

Les oeuvres de Senghor et de Cesaire sont donc scrutees en regard du contexte de leur production. Les rapports entre les 6venements du moment, l'inspiration poetique et les 6tats d'ame des deux principaux representants de la Negritude sont ainsi mis a jour et analyses. Cette perspective de l'6tude de Towa represente un apport tout a fait nouveau, plus important que la genese djai connue de la Negritude.

Par ailleurs, Towa est un philosophe "engage." Ses positions sur la Negritude s'&taient deja fait connaitre avant la publication de cette etude qui ne vient que les confirmer et les developper. Essentiellement pour Towa, la Negritude de Senghor est statique, sterile et meme nefaste, celle d'Aim6 Cesaire est dynamique et feconde. Le choix de l'auteur est sans 6quivoque. Le jugement porte est sans replique et il ne se perd pas dans les nuances.

I1 est assez clair que la Negritude de Cesaire rejoint tout a fait l'option de Towa. La conclusion de l'&tude qui pose le depassement de la Negritude, traduit cet accord pro- fond. La reaction poetique de Cesaire, selon Towa, n'exprime jamais un drame pure- ment personnel, elle repose plutOt sur la problematique de la lutte maitre / esclave qui est, en fin de compte, l'affrontement de "deux univers ennemis" (138). En effet, "le conflit depasse les hommes nus, les Negres et les Blancs de chair et d'os, et s'6tend a leurs cultures respectives, et au-dela, au Cosmos lui-mime" (139). Et pour chacune des reactions poetiques de Cesaire, et donc pour chacun de ses recueils, nous est donnee la description de la situation politique objective.

Par contre, la Negritude dite "biologique" de Senghor est violemment rejetee parce qu'elle enferme le Noir dans sa race, dans sa couleur et dans son 6motivit6, perpetuant ainsi l'inf riorit6 du Noir en regard du Blanc. Bien entendu, la Negritude ainsi conque est une "servitude" qu'il faut denoncer. Tres visiblement, ni l'6motion negre, ni le metissage culturel, ni le pardon "chretien," effectivement presents, entre autres, dans

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148 CJAS / RCEA XX:I I1986

la po6sie et la pensee de Senghor, ne se gagnent l'assentiment de Towa. La presentation de la Negritude senghorienne apparait ainsi s6rieusement reductrice.

Pour restituer l'6tude de Towa dans une plus juste perspective, il faut rappeler que sa these a 6te present~e en Sorbonne, en 1969 et que, si elle a 6te remaniee pour sa pub- lication en 1983, elle n'integre pas les etudes plus r6centes sur Senghor ou sur C6saire. Elle garde cependant sa valeur propre. Elle constitue un apport important qui devait etre mieux connu.

Fernando Lambert Faculte des Lettres Universite' Laval

Jose Luandino Vieira. Luuanda. London: Heinemann, 1980. 118 pp.

Pepetela. Mayombe: A Novel of the Angolan Struggle. London: Heinemann, 1980. 184 pp.

Luuanda and Mayombe, two novels about Angola, are united by a common quest for truth. The oldest of the two works of fiction is Luuanda, a book that is now fairly well known among students of African literature. The author, Jose Graqa, is simply known by his pen-name, Luandino Vieira. In the preface to her English translation of the book, T. L. Bender gives a useful summary of the events that marked the publication of Luuanda: the book appeared while the author was still in prison for anti-colonial activism; it won the prestigious Grand Prize of the Portuguese Writers' Society in 1965; the Portuguese government subsequently imposed seizure and banning orders on the book and the author was ultimately released from prison after eleven years.

Much has been said about the great skill with which Luandino Vieira creates and handles the illusion of oral narrative in his fiction. Vieira's innovation is dictated by the very reality he seeks to express. All three stories are about the slum dwellers of Luanda during Portuguese colonial days and how they saw and explained the events that rocked their daily lives. The writer's difficult responsibility is to bring order to this chaotic existence, and Luandino Vieira does this superbly through the eyes and in the language of the poor slum dwellers, thus bringing to the stories a higher degree of authenticity and credibility. Unemployment, hunger, and unfulfilled love relation- ships are recurrent images in these beautiful tales of pain and laughter. Above all, Luuanda constitutes a powerful denunciation of injustice in colonial Angola.

Unlike Luuanda, Mayombe is a novel of guerilla life set during the Angolan war for independence. The author, Pepetela, was born in 1941 in Angola. Like Vieira, he was an active member of the MPLA, and he served on the front during the war. His novel borrows its title from the Mayombe forest in the Cabinda region of Angola.

Mayombe comprises five chapters, each describing a particular event in the lives of the guerillas. The novel unfolds as a narrative of war and political education, under the dominant theme of the quest for truth and unity. Ethnic divisions tend to endanger the sense of unity which the guerillas experience as they collectively face numerous dangers at the base, a clearing in the dense Mayombe forest. The constant debate on and introspection of the men regarding the relevance or irrelevance of eth- nic loyalties is further exacerbated by the rivalry surrounding Ondine, a very

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