Houseboy (African Writers Series)

Rating:
Summary: Colonialism seen through one man's eyes
Review: As with much of African literature of its era (the mid-20th century) "Houseboy" by Ferdinand Oyono deals with the clash of African and European cultures brought on by European colonialism. The "houseboy", Toundi, is a rural youth fascinated by the ways of the whites in Africa. He first works for a priest, then a French colonial official, where circumstances bring about his downfall. "Houseboy", Toundi's diary, is an anticolonial novel, but a subtle one, with much wit and sarcastic humor. Ferdinand Oyono, the author of "Houseboy" and "The Old Man and the Medal", worked in the diplomatic corps of his native Cameroon, and as director-general of UNICEF.

Rating:
Summary: African Perspective of Colonialism
Review: Houseboy, was written from an African perspective of colonialism by Cameroonian-born Ferdinand Léopold Oyono and is an examination of the complex relationships between Africa's colonialists and catalysts for economic and social change. Considered risqué when first published in 1956, Houseboy added to the growing body of African political literature beginning with the Negritude Movement launched by the Francophone writers in the late 1930's which advanced the idea that literature could serve as an important ideological instrument for African emancipation.

Seemingly innocuous on the surface, the story is derived from the diary and observations of a rural African boy named Toundi Ondoua during the pre-independence period from the colonial and missionary occupation of Cameroon. The tale of a young man growing up during this historical timeframe is meant to be systemic of Africans in general, as they too struggle with the impact of colonialism on their identity, society and culture.

In conclusion, Toundi's story is ironic and tragic as he gives up his traditional identity and is inevitably drawn into the web of servitude, standing transfixed as his fate and ultimate demise approaches. Toundi's fragile self-esteem and idealistic preconceptions about the Europeans begin to flake and peel like paint from an ancient fula fula (taxi).. Toundi realizes in the end that he belongs not to the world of his village nor to the one of the whites, but is caught in the groundswell of those Africans whose fate became inextricably tied to that of the colonialists and the changing world. Toundi inquires on his deathbed...."Brother, what are we? What are we blackmen who are called French?"

Rating:
Summary: Perspective
Review: The setting is the Cameroons. Toundi Ondoua is to be whipped by his father and so he runs off to become Father Gilbert's servant. After Father Gilbert's death, he becomes the houseboy of the Commandant. From the Europeans he has acquired the name of Joseph. The Commandant's wife, Madame, arrives at the Residence. All of the white people desert the European Club for the reception at the Residence. Father Gilbert is referred to as a martyr because he died on African soil is the kind of talk overheard by the houseboy in his work at the Residence. He accompanies Madame to the Dangan market. She tells him his work is highly acceptable but then she accuses him of showing a lack of the joy ordinarily found in African workers. In Dangan the European quarter and the African quarter are quite separate. The houseboy knows Madame is having an affair with M. Moreau, the most distinguished European in the enclave, a prison director. The Commandant tells his wife all the houseboys in Dangan now know she sleeps with M. Moreau. The houseboy is falsely accused of a crime and is whipped. The false accusation emerges from the hysteria at the Commandant's house. The houseboy is taken to a hospital for his wounds, but he resolves to escape to the Spanish territory to save his life since M. Moreau is hungrily waiting for his release from the hospital to punish him in his own way. The novelist is an artist. The scenes presented are horrible, doom-ridden.