Dystopia
Philip A. Ojo
Born of Nigerian parents, Ramonu Sanusi grew up in Togo and had his education up to the Baccalaureate level in French, specializing in biological sciences. When he returned to his homeland of Nigeria, circumstances led him to study French at the University. This career choice took him to several higher institutions in Africa, Europe, and the United States where he bagged a Ph.D. in Francophone Literature. Sanusi is the author of several creative writings including Mama Tutu et Cris Nègres (2003), The Spirit Child (2005), and Septième Printemps [Seventh Springtime] (2006), a collection of poems. Le Bistouri des larmes [The Scalpel of Tears] (Les Editions du Pangolin, 2005) confirmed his steady progression to become an established novelist with a perfect style, thanks to his love for rhythm and phrasing.
Le Bistouri des larmes is a perfect example of new trends and prospects in African literature, including postcolonial reassessments, an appraisal of national cultural heritage, a depiction of social behavior and customs, conflicts between tradition and modernity, gender issues, and innovative aesthetics. The daring disclosures contained in Le Bistouri des larmes are indicative of the social, cultural, political and economic realities of everyday life in Africa, which are narrated from a combination of personal experience, intellectual perspective and stories told by elders in Sanusi’s native village.
Set in Africa, Le Bistouri des larmes is the story of a woman who was subjected to genital mutilation when she was a young girl and the resulting complications of this practice for her life – and for society generally. Thanks to the the intervention of some French missionaries, Yetounde miraculously survived this ritualized female circumcision, which unfortunately resulted in sterility. In an attempt to stop the practice and as a revenge for the reproach she has to suffer for the rest of her life, Yetounde shoots two assistants of the now-deceased herbalist who performed the procedure on her. She is arrested and sentenced for premeditated murder. Some of the prison inmates are intellectuals, politicians, and businessmen, who were jailed for being critical of the military government. The prison experience allows her to have a better understanding of social, political and economic travails in her beloved country. Upon her release, she fights through legal means for social and economic justice and the banning of the life-threatening procedure of genital mutilation, which is still practiced in many communities where traditional cultural values are stronger than the most effective legislation.
Yetounde’s captivating story provides a space for the articulation of traditions which the Mandibous, like many other African communities, have kept for generations. These traditions include greeting customs, birthright and respect for elders; moral values of compassion, kindness, love, hospitality, hard work, patience, and perseverance; social values of communalism and solidarity in happiness and in sadness; sacrifices to chase away evil spirits and solicit protection and blessings from the gods; beliefs regarding life and death including reincarnation as embodied in the name of the heroin ‘Yetounde’ (literally, mother has reincarnated); as well as ceremonies and rites of birth, naming, wedding, planting, harvest, death and funerals, tribal identity marks, circumcision, and genital mutilation.
Le Bistouri des larmes is first and foremost a critical mediation in which Sanusi specifically denounces genital mutilation. This customarily mandatory procedure performed by archaic herbalists under unhygienic conditions exposes the victims to untold mental and physical torture. It has taken many lives and has rendered many people like Yetounde sterile and deformed. Hence, Sanusi asserts that such unhealthy cultural practices must be revisited and subsequently abolished through a process of concerted dialogue and education.