The Amputated Memory: A Song-Novel

by Werewere Liking, Michelle Mielly (Afterword), Marjolijn de Jager (Translator)

“….An expansive, eclectic, and innovative novel.”-- Women's Review of Books A modern-day Things Fall Apart , The Amputated Memory explores the ways in which an African woman’s memory preserves, and strategically forgets, moments in her tumultuous past as well as the cultural past of her country, in the hopes of making a healthier future possible. Pinned between the political ambitions of her philandering father, the colonial and global influences of encroaching and exploitative governments, and the traditions of her Cameroon village, Halla Njokè recalls childhood traumas and reconstructs forgotten experiences to reclaim her sense of self. Winner of the Noma Award—previous honorees include Mamphela Ramphele, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Ken Saro-Wiwa— The Amputated Memory was called by the Noma jury “a truly remarkable achievement . . . a deeply felt presentation of the female condition in Africa; and a celebration of women as the country’s memory.” Since 1978, Cameroon-born artiste extraordinaire Werewere Liking has been living in the Ivory Coast, where she established the Village Ki-Yi, a self-supporting center for the performing and fine arts. A singer, dancer, actor, playwright, songwriter, and author of two titles previously published in the United States, Liking has been honored across the globe for her writing and theater work; she has performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center. Marjolijn de Jager teaches French, Dutch, and literary translation at New York University and works as an independent literary translator, most recently on Assia Djebar’s Children of the New World . Michelle Mielly received her PhD from Harvard University and is now teaching in the Department of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University.

Genres: Africa, Cameroon, Fiction, Feminism, Womens

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

a self-taught painter, sculptor, writer and stage director. She took an interest at first in traditional literature and particularly in the rituals of the Bassa region. She then settled in Côte d’Ivoire , taking an enthusiastic interest in Malian, Zairian and Nigerian cultures. Liking is widely thought of as a pioneer in contemporary African creative expression, her works drawing attention to the potential of African literature to renew and regenerate its own forms. Her texts display the crossing of numerous genres and she explores stylistic features that are present in oral traditions, viz., praise-naming, lullaby, allegorical and etiological tales, proverbs, legends and myths. For her ‘poetry is the language of the heart and the mind; poetry is form, rhythm, sound and colour … that is why when poetry is written down with words, these words reveal easily the colours, the forms and sounds the musicality and the richness of which, when projected like pictures, cannot escape the person reading or listening to it’..

After six years of academic research and gaining experience from local and international tours, Liking’s concern has been to ensure that her research will be of widest benefit to African artists. In 1985, she created Ki-Yi M’bock in Abidjan, a pan-African artistic creation and production group covering every contemporary expression, including performing arts, literature and audio-visual arts. It was later to became Ki-Yi Village, a training centre for artists from all over the region. The Village was officially opened as Pan-African Ki-Yi Training Centre in 2001 where the internationally renowned group Ki-Yi M’bock worked. Loyal to the name of the group, “Ultimate knowledge of the Universe”, Ki-Yi artists promote a multidisciplinary aesthetic in conformity with African tradition .

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around the World Reading Challenge: CAMEROON
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3.5 rounded down

I enjoyed this one overall, but it also took me a lot longer to finish reading than it should have. It's set in a fictional country that is meant to be based on the author's home country of Cameroon, and I found the characters and customs very interesting. There are some difficult themes here, but it never felt overly heavy, and I really enjoyed the main character, Halla, as she recounted her life. The bulk of the book focuses on her time as a child and teen, and though the framing of the book as an 80-year-old Halla retelling her life story, I did feel like when it came to the vast majority of her life and her adulthood, the story becomes really choppy, disjointed, and rushed. I really was left with the sense of not knowing what really happened in her life after she got with her husband, beyond some thing that are briefly mentioned, and it ultimately felt a little unsatisfying and almost unfinished. Then again, the book was already quite long, so even though I thought there needed to be a lot more fleshing out of the later years, I also don't know that I'd have wanted to read the 200 pages that would have taken....

I'm glad to have read it, though!

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: The Amputated Memory by Werewere Liking. 03/06/2019

I have to say Liking‘s story is unique. It was a slow pace read but I’m glad I stuck to finishing it. I felt the the book is worth reading. It brings to life Liking’s African childhood and how she states how relatives and friends stuck with her through challenging turmoil. It was interesting to read her dynamics change as she moved form rural areas to an urban area. I thought there were a lot of feminism aspects as insightful of the lives of African women. Liking is a great writer, her work is understandable, and I enjoyed the poetic pieces she embedded within the story.

Liking’s autobiographical story started with a young girl named Halla growing up in Cameroon in the 50’s. The story is balanced very well, she deals with how education is vital, (Liking only had three years of schooling) and how having a voice, opinion, insight helps oneself to achieve true freedom. Halla Njoke’ recalls childhood traumas and she rebuilds forgotten experiences to create who she is now.

As Likings memories proceeds and shows her struggles for independence. The major issue is hoe Halla’s philandering father who had raped her at an early age and later tries to marry her off to a much older man. Her father’s involvement with the white settler leaders didn’t help supporting the local resistance. At some time she was able to move to the city and work as a singer in nightclubs. Liking had plenty to materialize in her past memories to write this book.

[Lalagè · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soms vind ik Afrikaanse boeken niet zo makkelijk door te komen, maar als het over een sterke vrouw als Halla gaat dan lees ik het met veel bewondering.

https://lalageleest.wordpress.com/201...

[Lerato Mogoatlhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that I cancelled all plans to read.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Poisonwood Bible at the end of last year -- centered around a disfunctional missionary family in a small African village. I liked reading the voice of an African woman dealing with the history of Cameroon. Sometimes Halla's path from poverty to opportunity seems a bit extreme, but it seems to follow the actual opportunities of the author, who implies that the upheaval following the end of colonialism provided unusual opportunities.

I loved the grandmother figure, which apparently is a recurring figure in Werewere Liking's novels. She uses the grandparents and a few village ritual ceremonies to show the way that village community was structured -- and how the expectations of caring for all gave a protection that was lost with modernization. But her experience with village culture and ritual also uniquely prepared the author for creative ventures later in life.

I'm curious to read another of Liking's novels at a later date.

[Shira · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Amputated Memory" is a fictional, autobiographical account of a young girl growing up in Cameroon in the 1950s. I want to say that I really like this book because the style and tone was unique -- the prose was interspersed with poetry and song -- and it was an example of woman writing herself through the autobiographical structure, and it dealt with the importance of education and of voicing oneself to achieve true freedom, and so on. For all those reasons I thought that I was going to really love this book, but it lacked a freshness and the story seemed to amble to a point rather than take a direct route and it took me an uncharacteristically long time to actually finish.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been better if this book was about half as short.