Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Novel:
Climbié by Bernard Dadié
(not available in digital form; checked out from Collin College Library)
Summary:
This book gives glimpses into the life of Climbié, a young
boy from the Ivory Coast as he attends colonial French school, and then follows
him to Dakar, Senegal where he finishes school and becomes a clerk. Upon his
return to the Ivory Coast, he begins to speak out against colonial oppression
and is imprisoned. Throughout the novel, the author attempts to show the
tension between Africans, Europeans, and the people who are caught between the two
worlds.
Response:
I really did not like this book. It does not have
a traditional plot, and the main character does not have any particular stated
goals or desires, except the desire to go to school, which he attains in the
first half of the book. The obstacle impeding his happiness is nothing in
particular, but is the whole oppressive system of colonialism.
There is no specific incident that occurs to demonstrate this oppression – in fact, it seemed to me that the
main character achieved everything he set out to achieve, which weakened the
novel’s message. In one passage, he mentions that he would have liked to have
been a doctor or a teacher, but that would have required more school. He didn’t
want to go to school any longer, so he became a clerk instead. This choice is presented
as a personal one – it did not stem from lack of opportunity or lack of means,
or seem limited by his race or social status – so I didn’t really have a lot of
sympathy for the character when he talked about being “denied his childhood
dreams.” It wasn’t clear what those dreams were, or why he was unable to
achieve them.
To his credit, the author paints a picture of African society
in which the colonial presence is always there, and which always makes things
harder than they need to be, whether because of the levels of bureaucracy or
the inequities in salary or the subjective enforcement of certain laws. The picture
that the book presents, though, is not clear. It’s like an impressionist painting,
where you can see the subject of the painting, but it is fuzzy around the edges
and doesn’t have a lot of definition. Even Climbié himself is more of an impression of
a person than a fleshed out character. I can’t name a single personality trait
that makes him seem like an individual person.
I realized as I read along that I don’t like “impressionism”
in novels, and certainly not in this one. Now that I say that, especially
seeing as how one of the central themes of the novel is the poor influence of
French culture on its African colonies, I wonder how Bernard Dadié would
feel to hear his writing compared to an essentially French art form. In any
case, I kept wanting Climbié to be a real person instead of a stand-in
generic African fellow. I wanted to know WHY he came back to Ivory Coast. I
wanted to know what he said and did that got him thrown in prison. I wanted to
know how he felt about things, and what he wanted to accomplish in his life,
and I wanted some kind of internal monologue about how frustrated he was –
something to fill him out and make him seem actually human. Instead, the novel
presents his life in a series of unexplained and even unrelated snapshots. One
minute he’s going on strike in Senegal, and the next he’s on the ship going
back to Ivory Coast – no motivation is given for the change. One minute he’s
writing political pieces and the next he’s in prison. And then he’s out of
prison. No details are given about the hows or whys, which I found frustrating, and I lost interest very quickly.
On the other hand, there was one particularly vivid image that
stuck with me as the author described the behavior of Africans under
colonialism. He compared Africans to crabs in a crab pot with a heavy bronze
lid.. Every once in a while, the lid comes off, and all of the crabs scrabble
all over each other trying to get a breath of fresh air or a bit of sunlight
before the lid comes down again. This passage is my favorite one in the whole
book, because it communicates a whole multitude of ideas: the oppression of
colonialism, the desperation of the native Africans, the degradation of relationships
caused by the oppressive atmosphere, and the exploitation of people and resources.
Such a powerful and sad image, and a fitting one for the overarching theme of
the novel.
Food:
Chicken with Egusi Sauce
http://globaltableadventure.com/recipe/recipe-smoked-turkey-with-pumpkin-seed-sauce/
The finished product:
The website I linked above is a fantastic one to read if you want to do
your own global cooking project. I consulted it constantly, although – as with my
reading project – I also tried to find different recipes and/or dishes to cook
since she had already done it. For certain countries, though, I just copied
what she did, especially if there didn't seem to be a definitive recipe for a particular dish. Her recipes are easy to follow and always turned out great.
I used chicken instead of turkey in my version, and I used
pumpkin seeds instead of melon seeds. This was during the first week of my project,
and I had not discovered the African or Asian markets yet! I had no idea it
would be so easy to get the melon seeds, but ah, well. The sauce was really
interesting and tasty, although I have no plans to make it part of the permanent
rotation in my kitchen, mostly because I have to go to a specialty market to
get the melon seeds. It was easy and quick to make, and it tasted very good, so
I recommend it!
Cocktail:
I based this cocktail on a cocktail
menu for a restaurant in Abidjan that I found on TripAdvisor. It is called a “Mojit’sap,”
and it is a spin on a traditional mojito, but it uses jus de bissap for a splash of color. Jus de bissap is basically hibiscus tea. When I was doing the food
project, I had a supply of dried hibiscus flowers that I would brew into a tea,
and it was delicious. For this cocktail, I used tea bags, which were fine, but
I admit they did not taste quite the same. The dried flowers had a
tart taste that did not come through in the processed tea. In any case, the
cocktail was delicious!
1 ¾ oz white rum
2 lime wedges
3-4 mint sprigs
¾ oz cane syrup
Fill with jus de bissap and a splash of soda for a nice fizz
Muddle the lime and mint with the
cane syrup in a glass. Add ice to the glass, then pour in rum, jus de bissap and soda.
Santé!
