Mema
by Daniel Mengara
(Heinemann African Writers Series)
Women worldwide have fearlessly fought against sexual discrimination and maltreatment. Daniel Mengara, a Gabonese author, champions their outcry with his novel Mema, which adroitly portrays the gloomy life many African women lead. For instance, they are supposed to kowtow to their in-laws, regardless of the in-laws’ age or relationship proximity.
Elang Sima, the narrator of Mema, passionately eulogises his mother’s mental dexterity, stoicism, bravery and defiance. He reminisces poetically about her tribulations and her sagacity. Mengara brilliantly mirrors the locale and the characters: a reader who has never been in Africa could get a strong sense of life in a typical African village merely by perusing the pages of this novel.
Here, the villagers congregate at medzos or meetings, held in the aba, a space judiciously situated at the centre of the village. Here the sages display their mastery of telling tales, proffering proverbs to the youth. Torrential disputes are solved here daily.
Elang’s story vividly depicts his tigerish mother, Mema, widow with two sons, who she dotes on and pampers. Her in-laws firmly believe her responsible for the death of her husband and two daughters, and feel she should be dispossessed of the young sons because, in their view, their lives are in danger. The matter is taken to the village meeting, but Mema prejudices her case by brandishing a machete and threatening to murder the in-laws!
The fact that Mema is legally her in-laws’ inferior means that their case is stronger in the long run. Elang is sent away to a new home, where he becomes obsessed by daydreams, believing he will eventually return in triumph to his home town. But he is a victim of his new foster parents’ violence, and has to put all his hopes in education.
This novel has breathtaking moments, but can also be very tedious: the writer seems fond of shunning conventional prose styles and turns instead to an excessively poetic manner. This transforms the novel into a labyrinth of panegyrics and platitudes. Yet, despite that drawback, Mema deserves applause and is well worth reading.