Some time last year, I tweeted that I was looking for books by women from certain African countries, someone recommended this book, and it doesn’t disappoint.

In a Nutshell:

Awu’s Story is a story of Awu and her marriage to Obame, and of old traditions in Northern Gabon grappling with the change of modern customs in today’s Gabon.

Themes:

Love, old vs new, marriage, identity and the role of men and women within a traditional society.

Observations:

Mintsa was appointed director of culture in Gabon’s Ministry of Culture and Arts from 2000-2009. Then from 2012-2016, she was the head of the Department of Culture, Education, Youth and Sports and in this role, she served as an advisor to Gabon’s Prime Minister.

Gabon is a country whose women writers have far surpassed the overall productivity of their peers in other African nations.

Gabon is an exception in the history of literature, it is the only country worldwide whose first novelist was female.

A Quote:

“Awu has been provided with a healthy dowry- and for good reason. She was the only woman in the entire region who held a degree! She was certified to teach elementary school and she was also a master seamstress! How could you not give a proper dowry to such a rare specimen?”

Details:

Book: Awu’s Story

Author: Justine Mintsa

Translator: Dr Cheryl Toman

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Publishing Date: 01/05/2018

Author: Justine Mintsa

Justine Mintsa  is a Gabonese author and, before her retirement in 2016, was an English professor at Omar Bongo University in Libreville. She has also worked in Gabon’s Ministry of Culture and the Arts for sixteen years. In 2012 Mintsa was named advisor to Gabon’s prime minister and head of the Department of Education and Culture. 

Translator: Dr Cheryl Toman

Dr Cheryl Toman is a professor of French and the chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at the University of Alabama. Dr. Toman’s area of research is African women’s writing with a special emphasis on authors from Gabon, Cameroon, and Mali. She also has a secondary interest in women in the Arab world, specifically of the Middle East. She is the author of Women Writers of Gabon: Literature and Herstory. Dr. Toman’s new edited collection, Bilinguisme, Multilinguisme: Mythes et Réalités was published in March 2023 with the Presses Universitaires de Montréal.

A bit about me!

Here I am with my husband visiting one of our favourite places in the world, the Westonbirt Arboretum!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.