REPRODUCTIVE AND DEPRESSIVE CHALLENGES IN SELECTED FRANCOPHONE AFRICAN WOMEN’S NOVELS

Abstract

Reproductive challenges, like infertility, and depression constitute some of the thematic concerns in African literature. Existing studies in Francophone African literature have examined various social problems like oppression, child abuse and women victimisation with less attention paid to issues of reproduction and depression among women. This study was, therefore, designed to examine reproductive and depressive challenges in selected Francophone African women’s novels, with a view to establishing their causes and the characters’ coping strategies.

Alice Walker’s Womanism and Cognitive Behavioural Theory served as framework. The interpretive design was adopted. Eight francophone African women’s novels were purposively selected based on their treatment of women’s reproductive and depressive challenges. They were Evelyne Mpoudi Ngolle’s Sous la cendre le feu (Sous), Thérèse Kuoh-Moukoury’s Rencontres essentielles (Rencontres), Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre (Lettre), Fatou Keita’s Rebelle, Adelaide Fassinou’s Modukpé, Le rêve brisé (Modukpé), Angèle Rawiri’s Fureurs et cris de femmes (Fureurs), Azaratou Baboni’s Vie de femme, vie de sang (Vie), and Philomène Bassek’s La tache de sang (Tache). The texts were subjected to textual analysis.

The female protagonists suffer emotional and traumatic experiences as a result of family dysfunction. Infertility, miscarriage, polygamy, violence, gender inequality, incest and child marriage are depicted as the causes of reproductive and depressive challenges. In Fureurs and Rencontres, infertility results into Emillienne’s and Flo’s marital crises. In Lettre and Sous, Jacqueline and Mina experience mental disorder, while Ramatoulaye suffers solitude and persistent sadness, respectively, due to their husbands’ infidelity. Fatou and Emillienne are depressed by their husband’s infidelity in Vie and Fureurs. Fanta, Malimouna, Mama Ida, and Modukpé, endure physical violation, miscarriages and depression in Rebelle, Tache and Modukpé. While Malimouna contend with exile and its destructive dynamics, Fanta suffers imprisonment which leads to the death of her daughter, in Rebelle. Fatou and Ramatoulaye undergo economic violence and deprivation, while Assiatou, in Lettre is forced to leave her marriage when her husband takes a second wife. Many of the female characters are able to overcome their challenges through several coping strategies. Mina, Ramatoulaye and Malimouna deploy narration, letter writing and social works in Sous, Lettre and Rebelle, respectively, to manage their traumatic experiences. Mina, Modukpé, Jacqueline and Malimouna address mental disorders by recollecting their past encounters in order to make future projections in Sous, Modukpé, Lettre and Rebelle. In Vie and Lettre, Ramatoulaye and Fatou deploy modelling, reading, going to the cinema and watching plays to treat and heal depression. Malimouna and Emillienne use education to challenge female subjugation and forced marriage in Rebelle and Fureurs. Fatou and Mama Ida, in Vie and Tache, employ family planning and contraceptive, respectively to promote birth control, while child adoption is employed in Rencontres by Flo and in Sous by Djbril.

Family dysfunction causes reproductive challenges, which often result in depression. Female characters draw on education, dialogue and artistic therapy to resist reproductive and depressive experiences. Therefore, reproductive challenges could be healed through the characters’ coping strategies deployed in the selected novels.