La stagione delle prugne

Cameroon #2

by Patrice Nganang

Agosto 1940. Il mondo è sconvolto dalla Seconda guerra mondiale. La Francia ha appena capitolato di fronte all'invasione della Germania nazista e il generale de Gaulle cerca di organizzare la Resistenza. Ma che ne sanno a Edéa di guerre mondiali e di generali, lì la vera novità è il cenacolo poetico di Pouka. I suoi accoliti formano la compagine più disparata che si possa immaginare, dal balbuziente Philothée al giovanissimo Bilong, che insieme alla poesia imparerà anche le delizie dell'amore. Eppure il padre di Pouka, il veggente M'bangue, alla guerra ci pensa eccome, tanto da uscirsene con una profezia che lascia tutti a bocca aperta: Hitler si è suicidato. Ma siamo nel 1940! Nessuno crede alla predizione del Vecchio, neanche Pouka. E poi la guerra è lontana, un argomento che infiamma solo le discussioni tra amici. Fino al giorno in cui davanti al bar di Mininga non sbarca il colonello Leclerc e Edéa si trasforma in un vivaio di aspiranti fucilieri che andranno a combattere per la Francia inseguendo la chimera di una libertà di cui non godranno mai. "La stagione delle prugne" è un grande romanzo corale che canta le imprese degli eroi del Camerun ma anche dei tanti sconosciuti la cui memoria è stata inghiottita dalle sabbie del Sahara.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Cameroon, World War II, Contemporary, Novels

349 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2019

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second part in a trilogy about the role of Cameroon in WW II, the book tells the story of Pouka who comes back to his native village after being educated by the French (so the current colonial power) in the capitol city of Yaoundé. He is proud of his education and even starts a poetry group, but then Germany occupies France, and many members of the poetry club are recruited as soldiers. Much like the multi award winning (and better) "At Night All Blood Is Black" about Senegal in WW I, the novel proceeds to show how the colonial powers used African soldiers as cannon fodder to fight the Axis powers. As the book explains, all African soldiers at the time were referred to as Senegalese, because the colonial rulers didn't care where they actually came from, it was all the same to them anyway.

Nganang strongly relies on oral traditions when telling the stories of young men that were brainwashed and alienated in colonial education systems and then sent to die as second-class soldiers in a war they had nothing to do with, often signing up to flee their personal situation in hopes to be acknowledged by the French. I particularly appreciated that the book also talks about the women which stayed behind, vulnerable and with hardly any defense. In the background, the fact that Cameroon used to be a German colony looms: Older citizens still remember this, and perceive the absurdity that the younger generation fights for the new occupying force against the old colonial rulers.

While the narrative voice is of course right when it points out that the book gives a voice to the voiceless, the book does tend to over-explain, which takes away from its potential force. Still, an important and often fascinating read.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended.

In Ongola, the heart of the city of Yaoundé, one isolated building stands like a sly wink to history: the Central Post Office. Built for the speeches of heroes, with a platform right in front, rising above a wide boulevard adorned with a roundabout...it is where the dream of this country triumphs over its past and its present oppression..Ah! The roundabout in front of the Central Post Office is where the slumbering history of Cameroon is really on display--like the beauty in the tale we all know--the history of a people still waiting for its hero to arrive. Only then will the people rise up and open the floodgates of liberty. Yes, this public square has watched the heroes of history's liberation movements pass by. To think that it has in fact written the history of the liberation of the damned! Leclerc! De Gaulle! Um Nyobé! Ousandié! Pouka! Hebga! Who can top that?

Nganang has written a beautiful and powerful novel about a people conscripted to liberate France in Europe so that the 'mother country' can then go on to squash the nascent Cameroonian independence movement in its 'protectorate'. This also about a Cameroonian identity that is finding its leaders and intellect during World War II. I had no idea that Cameroon was the entry point to African battle fields for De Gaulle's laughably meager Resistance forces in 1939. A handful of De Gaulle's supporters, led by an enterprising low level officer named Leclerc, recruit a few African soldiers and by subterfuge and sheer bravado take Douala and then Yaoundé, the capital. Then they recruit more Africans, start training them with ancient rifles, and head north to the desert to fight the Italians. Again the self-promoted Leclerc defeats the enemy, and at last the Allies start to send supplies.

This story is only part of the novel. We witness it through the eyes of four Cameroonian men recruited haphazardly, with no idea of what they are getting into. We see the racism, the brutality, the wonkiness of leadership, in the French 'army,' and the comradeship and deepening affection of fellow soldiers. And how soldiers' personal demons can be co-opted by the military.

Earlier, we get to know the village they come from. It's not idyllic. There are superstitions, prejudice, misogyny, violence, but also much love and mutual support. A generous forest environment provides for farming and fishing. There is a seer who already foretells Hitler's suicide, some people content to live as they always have, the village bar and its young women servers. We've also been in Yaoundé, with the young men who have gone to the capital to live as westerners do, as clerks and would-be poets. We sit in on their endless evening debates about political theory and strategy.

The novel kicks off as the young poet returns to the village to start a poetry circle, a crazy idea if ever there was one. In the two or three weeks that he spends there, events generate the various plot threads for the rest of the book. Leclerc arrives from Douala on his way to Yaoundé, a mysterious murder occurs, and we are introduced to the characters who actually figure in Cameroon's mid-century struggle for independence. The most powerful woman in the village, who supervises the market, has to be replaced, and a younger woman starts to grow into this role. From then on, action keeps circling from the village to Yaoundé to the army's trek north to the desert, and back again.

The writing is terrific. Historical perspective, irony, mysticism and a sort of fantasy are woven into many of the descriptive passages, so that they are multi-dimensional and poetic.

He was part of the so-called Senegalese contingent, although in fact there were only a few Senegalese among them. The phrase tirailleur sénégalais was really just a lazy turn of phrase on the part of the French that no one had bothered to correct, because Senegal, still under Vichy control, hadn't yet given de Gaulle any soldiers...Still the very first contingent of soldiers to arrive in Chad came from Senegal. It's said that it's because those Senegalese soldiers didn't want to shoot at the ones from Chad, as their French officers had ordered them to, and so always missed their mark, that they were given the epithet of tirailleurs--bad shooters. Who knows--but that's what people say. Still, it remains that the French soon called all the African soldiers in the in their army "tirailleurs" and all the Africans they recruited were deemed "Senegalese." It just made things easier, simpler. Like any other insult.

and

Having rested in the tree's protective embrace, Ngo Bikaï was the only one who wasn't the color of the earth, whose body wasn't wet and muddy. She stood out among her women; she was their captain, like that fish one woman held up over her head. But water from the sky would link Ngo Bikaï to the mud of the river that had crowned her, because she, too was earth, nothing but earth; because she was also water, and nothing but water, because she was a woman, and nothing but a woman. The thunder's clashes could do nothing about it, nor could the gusts of wind that had the trees swaying left and right. and so, dancing and ululating, she was led back to the village, a woman among women, surrounded by her muddy pack.

This is the middle book of a trilogy. While I wait for the final installment, I will go back and read Mount Pleasant . We already know the fate of the Africans who were enticed into the resistance army to serve as cannon fodder, which gives some idea of what the attitude toward the French will be in 1946. The end of this book leaves us with expectations for the young professionals developing a liberation philosophy and strategy in Yaoundé. We also want to know what happens to the women facing the consequences of their growing autonomy.

I loved the writing, and admire the work of translator Amy B. Reid greatly. She has done an admirable job of giving a sense of the different registers in the speech of the characters, and including just the right amount of French and Bassa where it will work best. She absolutely captures the irony and the lyricism that must be in the original French. I believe she also translated Dog Days, a very different kind of book by Nganang that I read last year (it won the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar and the Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire). Nganang was born in Cameroon, and teaches at Stony Brook.

I also was very interested to learn more about forces that marched north from Cameroon early in WWII, and am eager to read about how the independence movement played out. I spent a week in Cameroon a couple of years ago, which made this especially interesting. I could picture the scenes in the forest and in Yaoundé quite clearly, which made the story even more immediate.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story that includes a lot of information about a country that may not be familiar to many people.

[Daniel Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I received a free ARC of this title in a Goodreads giveaway. I appreciate the opportunity to review this and give honest feedback.)

In 1940 Cameroon, Pouka, a poet, takes us on a journey to explore World War II and the stigma of colonialism in a deep, at times a bit dry, but ultimately satisfying perspective from a previously little hear voice.
Cameroon finds itself caught between two worlds. On the one hand, it wants to see itself as a free and independent nation. But, finding itself still a French dominion, it is forced into the burgeoning violent war between nations, in the process bringing innumerable bloodshed and violence.

This is the type of novel that requires a bit of fortitude and concentration. At times combining history with fiction, with a splash of philosophy, the story weaves a sometimes complicated path. Perhaps part of this may have to do with the fact it was translated from French, but it did provide a rather interesting perspective that I certainly had no concept of! When we think of world wars, we can’t help but assume that everyone was rushing into battle, looking to save the day. But as Patrice Nganang proves rather ably that we would be wrong to make that assumption so easily.

The best kind of historical fiction informs as much as it entertains, and in that “When The Plums Are Ripe” is a great example of a story that removes the weeds of ignorance and replaces with a crop of enlightenment that is definitely going to give you a welcome and fascinating perspective!

[Barred Owl Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume in a magisterial trilogy, the story of Cameroon caught between empires during World War II

In Cameroon, plum season is a highly anticipated time of year. But for the narrator of When the Plums Are Ripe, the poet Pouka, the season reminds him of the “time when our country had discovered the root not so much of its own violence as that of the world’s own, and, in response, had thrown its sons who at that time were called Senegalese infantrymen into the desert, just as in the evenings the sellers throw all their still-unsold plums into the embers.” In this novel of radiant lyricism, Patrice Nganang recounts the story of Cameroon’s forced entry into World War II, and in the process complicates our own understanding of that globe-spanning conflict. After the fall of France in 1940, Cameroon found itself caught between Vichy and the Free French at a time when growing nationalism advised allegiance to neither regime, and was ultimately dragged into fighting throughout North Africa on behalf of the Allies.

Moving from Pouka’s story to the campaigns of the French general Leclerc and the battles of Kufra and Murzuk, Nganang questions the colonial record and recenters African perspectives at the heart of Cameroon’s national history, all the while writing with wit and panache. When the Plums Are Ripe is a brilliantly crafted, politically charged epic that challenges not only the legacies of colonialism but the intersections of language, authority, and history itself.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoughts coming shortly

[Damien Travel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in Patrice Nganang's trilogy, « When the Plums are Ripe (La saison des prunes) » takes place during the second World War. In 1940, General de Gaulle needs to show to his English allies that he can bring French Africa to weigh in the balance of forces. In Cameroon, the colonial administration leans more towards the Vichy regime. Captain Leclerc, who would later become Marshal Leclerc, arrives in a pirogue in Edea, close to Douala. He recruits a few young men who will become the first volunteers for the « France Libre » in Cameroon. They are the main protagonists of the novel. With this group of soldiers, mistakenly called « tirailleurs sénégalais » in France, Leclerc would take over the capital city, Yaoundé, before heading North towards the Sahara and fight in Chad and Libya against the Italians and the Germans and collect the first victories for the Free French forces. So much for the official version of history. Reality was much more complex. For these young soldiers whose parents had sometimes served under the German uniform, after the euphory of entering in Yaoundé welcomed as heroes, it was mainly a matter of trudging in a desert of which they knew nothing and shooting at other African soldiers enrolled in the Italian army. Without surprise, among this young generation, the will to shake off the colonial yoke took root.

http://www.travelreadings.org/2021/11...

[Mary Beth Hustoles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrice Nganang takes his place among the best of political satirists with his historical trilogy on 20th century Cameroon. When the Plums are Ripe, second in the series, brilliantly displays the collision between cultures, language and the meaning of patriotism in the face of world war. When France is overtaken by the Germans and de Gaulle calls on Free French everywhere to rally to its aid, Colonel (and soon General) LeClerc comes to colonized Cameroon and enlists troops to fight the Axis powers. Cameroon is experiencing a nascent liberation movement of its own, and the reasons for joining to fight on the side of the French are complicated. Nganang’s narrator uses brilliant storytelling to describe his family of characters, some actual historical figures, as their small village implodes, losing its young men to serve as “cannon fodder” for a war far removed from their own daily concerns. Wickedly funny and scathing in its indictments of a system still in play, Nganang’s powerful voice is not to be missed.

[Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what was so compelling about this novel. The story starts in a Cameroonian village and centers on two young men both of whom end up joining the French army during World War II -- and on the women they love. These and many other characters are sympathetic and original. I'll not soon forget Pouka, an educated city-dweller who returns to the village to start, of all things, a poetry circle!

He chose poetry, Pouka repeated to himself.... He didn't forget what Philothee had shown him with just one or two words: that the alphabet can take possession of a soul. That letters are inscribed deep in a body's flesh. That words find their way out in bursts. That every sentence is a prayer.

I didn't realize how many Africans fought in WWII in support of their colonizers, and how meaningless the conflict was to them. Nor did I realize how much they were used as "cannon fodder." The story makes clear that colonizers never really understand the natives colonized and challenges our Euro-centric written history.

The narrator occasionally makes charming comments to the reader, bringing a bit of humor to the tale.

"I don't see any other explanation," Um Nyobe admitted, as I'm sure you recall, my dear reader. In case you've forgotten, it's in the chapter "Love's Living Room" of this very book.

And what was so compelling about this novel? I guess it's the beautiful, even stunning, language, and the exposition of a new way of looking at history.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from Goodreads and the opinions expressed are my own. This book was very thought provoking. It had a storyline written using the history of Cameroon during the 1940’s. The author used a poet (Pouka) and a poetry circle to tie the storyline together. I have to wonder if the author didn’t think of the tirailleurs (Cameroon soldiers) that Colonel Leclerc sacrificed where the plums thrown away that were ripe. The tirailleurs were harvested at the beginning of World War 2. Leclerc used the tirailleurs youth, inexperience and lack of education to place them in suicidal battle situations. Once the battles had been won, Leclerc started placing French, English and American soldiers (white soldiers) in more advance and lucrative positions, such as mechanics, even if they never worked on a motor, while tirailleurs stayed on the frontlines. I also don’t think it is a coincidence that Aloga, Bilong, Hebga, and Philothee were all blown to pieces like plums thrown away at the end of usefulness. The symbolism, philosophy, history and storyline the author uses is very interesting. I did have some difficulty understanding some of the wording in other languages and this might have affected my interpretation of the book.

[Pavuluzza Gnucca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo libro di Patrice Nganang, secondo di una trilogia sulla storia del Cameroun, ci racconta la storia del paese africano durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Il paese, che era all'epoca dei fatti una colonia francese ma che era stata in precedenza colonia tedesca, sembra essere emblematico di quel conflitto che si svolgeva a migliaia di chilometri di distanza in Europa.
I temi dell'identità, della conflitto tra tradizione e modernità, del razzismo, degli abusi e delle ingiustizie dei regimi coloniali, delle rivendicazioni politiche, dell'oscenitá della guerra, ci vengono raccontate da un narratore onnisciente che vede e ascolta tutti i personaggi, uomini e donne che vivono e si spostato tra Edéa, Douala e Yaoundé.
Nganang scrive in modo molto diretto, a volte brutale, ma sempre con sarcasmo e ironia. La scena della marcia trionfale del Generale Leclerc a Parigi, a cui non partecipano i soldati africani, rimandati indietro per proteggerli dal clima freddo della città, ne è un esempio.
Unico difetto del libro è quello di presentarsi un po' sfilacciato, con un concatenarsi di brevissime storie di cui a volte si fa fatica a tener traccia.
Il libro però è nel complesso molto interessante, da leggere.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In Cameroon, plum season is a highly anticipated time of year. But for the narrator of When the Plums Are Ripe, the poet Pouka, the season reminds him of the “time when our country had discovered the root not so much of its own violence as that of the world’s own, and, in response, had thrown its sons who at that time were called Senegalese infantrymen into the desert, just as in the evenings the sellers throw all their still-unsold plums into the embers.” After the fall of France in 1940, Cameroon found itself caught between Vichy and the Free French at a time when growing nationalism advised allegiance to neither regime, and was ultimately dragged into fighting throughout North Africa on behalf of the Allies. Moving from Pouka’s story to the campaigns of the French general Leclerc and the battles of Kufra and Murzuk, Nganang questions the colonial record and recenters African colonial history.

This was definitely a much better read. It flows nicely from the soldiers in the Saharan desert to the cities of Cameroon and how the war affected its citizens. Nganang does a good job of using both the written records and first hand accounts. I’m glad I stuck with the series.

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[Shannon Riehle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second book in Patrice Nganang’s trilogy about Cameroon’s history is a masterful work of art. I am learning a lot (and looking up a lot of dates and names!) as I read through his books - which is full of dark, pointed humor and commentary about the arrogant cruelty of the French and English in WWII for whom the African soldiers were nothing more than cannon fodder and African countries important only in the ways they serve to enrich them. Nganang’s rich, nuanced characters give voice to thoughts and experiences that often get silenced as we in the West celebrate the “heroes” in the African front of that war.

[BookBrowse · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Plums Are Ripe joins other global fiction now available in translation that illuminates places and cultures often inaccessible to and misunderstood by Western readers. Throughout his work, the poet-novelist traces out glimmers of hope in what he terms the "chiasmus" of war. This novel will likely appeal to readers who enjoy the intellectual scope and enduring, multicultural themes of authors like García Márquez, Murakami, Rushdie, Solzhenitsyn, or Soyinka.
-Karen Lewis

Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...

[Karen K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is set in 1940 Cameroon, in West-Central Africa which at the time was a French colony. Nganang, who was born in Cameroon, uses vivid storytelling and characters to explore what happens when the colonized people are called to fight to liberate France from the Nazis. A complex story, the second novel in an anticipated trilogy. A substantial addition to the canon of contemporary African literature. Thanks to FSG and NetGalley for an ARC. Read my full review on BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel has the unusual setting (for American readers, at least) of Cameroon, during the WWII, and critically explores colonialism, race, and politics as Cameroon finds itself between empires after the fall of its patron colonizer, France in 1940. Nganang uses a protagonist called Pouka, a poet, to bring us into the story, which in less capable hands might have suffered under the weight of so much polemics.. But it doesn't suffer a bit--it's a well-written, captivating tale about a little-known but significant slice of history in the 20th century. I recommend it.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second novel in the trilogy about Cameroon. Moving ahead in time to the Second World War and the recruitment (conscription?) of the young men of Cameroon, Nganang shows the world of women as well as men and how colonization by France pulled them into a war that was of little consequence to them, except insofar as they, the colonized, have grown to identify with the idea of France. It is a stunning book. I’m ready for the third one.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book via this post: http://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesda...

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[Jean Ivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting tale about Cameroon natives before during ww Ii . Interesting characters culturally specific descriptions. Drags sometimes.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for me to judge

To read Nganang is to have one’s view expanded. My role is to witness & absorb the story of Cameroon as told by a Cameroonian scholar.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6