Chapter 3: The Translation of Cultural Categories
4.2. Synopsis and structure of Oyono Mbia’s plays
4.2.1. Trois Prétendants…Un Mari
This play is a comic satire that treats the theme of marriage within a traditional cultural context where the woman has no choice and is refused the right of expression by her male counterpart. Juliette’s father sends her to secondary school despite objections from the rest of the family members, who believe that such education will only help to make her headstrong and disobedient. While she is away in school her parents begin to make arrangements to give her away in marriage, first to Ndi, a prosperous farmer, and then to Mbia, a civil servant, depending on how much bride price each of them is ready to pay. Coincidentally, Juliette arrives back from school on the same day that Mbia, the second suitor, is expected in the village. She is informed about her great fortune and worth as there are already two suitors vying for her hand in marriage. The exasperated Juliette expresses her indignation and frustration as she exclaims: “What?
Am I for sale? Are you trying to give me to the highest bidder? Why can’t you ask my opinion about my own marriage? (TPUM:14). This remark prompts the following response from Abessolo, her grandfather, who is strongly against new and strange ideas: “Your opinion? Since when do women speak in Mvoutessi? Who teaches you girls of today such disgraceful behaviour? Why are you always trying to have a say in every matter? Aren’t you happy that your whole family made such a wise decision in your favour?” (TPUM:14).
The culture of silence which traditional society is propagating against the womenfolk is obnoxious to Juliette who, due to the training she has received at school, believes in individual liberty and freedom of choice. As a result, she has been making her own arrangements to marry a peer who does not have any money at all. Confronted with the opposition from her entire family, and aided by Kouma, one of her cousins, Juliette hatches a plot in which she steals the money which her father has already received from the first two suitors and hands it over to Oko, her fiancé, who, pretending to be a
strange suitor, comes in grand style with an orchestra and praise singers, to pay the money to Juliette’s desperate family.
Oyono Mbia dramatizes this story in five acts with no subdivisions into scenes. As regards the place and time frame of action, the events take place only in Atangana’s residence, even though the action proper alternates between the yard in front of the house and in the kitchen, while all the events take place in a single day.
Concerning the material presentation of the work, immediately following the title of the play there is a clear indication by the author that the play is a comedy presented in five acts. Then there is a rather lengthy and elaborate five-page preface to the play in which the author gives the genesis of the play, outlines his objectives in writing the play, states what he expects from stage directors and actors, and provides other practical information with respect to the setting and staging of the play. Following the preface and before Act One is a wordy and explanatory dedication to his mentors, secondary school teachers and classmates for their contribution to the writing of the play.
At the end of the play, there is a glossary which defines and explains some of the local words and expressions whose meanings cannot be readily grasped in context or which could be wrongly interpreted. There is also what the author himself refers to as a
“Traduction approximative des chansons” (i.e. approximate translation of the songs) in the local language into French accompanied by supplementary explanations on their significance as well as analysis of their rhythm and poetic port.
Finally, there is a section titled “Dossier” whose purpose is stated as follows:
Le present Dossier ne se veut pas une étude exhaustive de l’oeuvre. Il vise plutôt à présenter au public certains faits et repères utiles pour une bonne compréhension de la pièce, de son contexte, et de ses personnages (TPUM:123). [This Dossier is not an exhaustive study of the play. Rather it aims at presenting to the public certain useful facts and landmarks for a better understanding of the play, its context and its characters.]
In effect, it analyzes in detail each of the acts as well as each of the characters of the play.
All the above metatextual authorial comments accompanying the text of the play proper are thus definitely quite useful to both the stage director, actors, readers, critics, researchers, students or any other persons interested in this play.
4.2.2. Jusqu’à Nouvel Avis
Like Trois Prétendants…Un Mari, Jusqu’à Nouvel Avis is set in the author’s village, Mvoutessi, where Abessolo’s family is expecting the visit of their daughter, Matalina and her husband. The couple who have only recently returned from France are living in Yaounde where Matalina’s brother, Mezoe, has already visited them and experienced the opulence and luxury in which they live. It is Mezoe who informs the gullible villagers of Mvoutessi that Matalina’s husband, who is a medical doctor and who would like to work in the bush, is likely to be appointed a minister, a job he does not seem to appreciate very much, although one which could make him boss over everyone else. Apart from the doctor himself, the rest of the people in this society are only thinking of the advantages they would reap from his appointment. In the long run, a driver and his companion arrive in a vehicle to announce to the villagers that Matalina and her husband will not be coming until further notice because he has finally accepted the appointment as Minister of Health. This of course is most delightful news for the villagers who immediately begin to make plans to decamp from the village from time to time in order to spend a few months in Yaounde, and now and then eat vitamins with seven forks like rich people do.
With regard to the structure of this play, the author ignores the classical division into acts and scenes and rather dramatizes the action in one long sequence. The action takes place in one location, Abessolo’s home, and the entire events evolve within a time frame of an afternoon. Concerning metatextual comments, unlike the first play, this second play includes only a brief dedication to a friend and a brief preface outlining
the genesis of the play as well as providing an interpretative insight into the title of the lay.
4.2.3. Le Train Spécial de Son Excellence
The third play is a social satire which focuses mainly on the unbecoming behaviour of government employees towards their less fortunate compatriots in the cities and villages throughout the country. Oyono Mbia identifies the source of the malaise in his society and proceeds to caricature it so that the problem can be seen in its stark enormity and ultimately bring about change in the guilty parties. Although this play, like the first two, is set in the village, the villagers have gained more knowledge about the activities of government servants. The characters are made to volunteer information about themselves and about other people with earnest naivety. Yet behind this is the biting satire of the author.
The central theme of the play is His Excellency’s supposed visit to the village which does not take place, although through a process of mistaken identities he is thought to be in the village. Because of the misinterpretation of information received through his transistor radio, Bikokoe Mendegue misleads the other villagers into feverish preparation to impress the visitor from the city, a man of hardly any consequence who is mistaken for a high government official who must be impressed so that development can come to the village. Oyono Mbia’s message here is very clear: duty consciousness should not only be exhibited to impress a superior, and development in different parts of the country should not be limited only to the visit of top government officials to those places.
Taking refuge behind such trivialities as the dice game and the quality of news coming from various sizes of radios, the playwright engages himself in battle against such malpractices as corruption and moral decadence, particularly in high places, prostitution and skin bleaching in young women, excessive lust and greed for money, abusive use of power, the lack of duty consciousness in workers, hypocritical
behaviour, etc. He equally criticizes the prevalence of unemployment, low wages, the almost complete absence of such basic facilities as roads, hospitals and schools, and the prevailing misery of the rural masses.
It is in this play that Oyono Mbia comes closest to commenting on the political and economic situation of his society. However, due to the prevailing oppressive socio- political climate (cf. section 2.2.1 above), rather than present the situation as being orchestrated by a central political machinery that is morally depraved and absolutely decadent, the author chooses to give his audience glimpses of diverse tableaux of such abuses and the corrupt use of power by taking advantage of the fact that the various evils and shortcomings are already common knowledge.
In this two-act play all of the action from the beginning to the end takes place in a few hours of a single day. The action is chronological and without any complexities, yet one action follows upon another, resulting in a closely woven and tight plot without any loose ends. The action is concentrated in the railway bar which is run by Missa Majunga, and the railway station which is administered by the Station-master. These two characters are the moving force behind all of the action and even the structure of the play bears witness to this, with each of these two characters presiding in his own domain.
With respect to metatextual comments this play, like the first two, also has a preface giving the genesis of the play and in which Oyono Mbia dwells lengthily on his understanding of drama whereby he asserts especially that:
…It is almost impossible to give a play its final publishable shape without one actually seeing it on stage and adding such essential things as adequate stage directions without which no producer, however imaginative, could properly tackle a piece of drama. Let us not therefore glibly talk and write about insufficiencies or inadequacies in the field of dramatic writing without paying attention to the vital problem of the absence- and keenly felt absence too- of theatre buildings. There should be at least one such building in every major centre in Cameroon.
(HEST:11)
Still on the performance dimension of the play, and this time directing his attention to those who might only be interested in reading the play instead of watching it performed on stage he states as follows:
His Excellency’s Special Train is a play and should be treated as such. I have tried to give as many detailed stage directions as possible to make it clear to the casual reader that he is not normally expected to get much out of the work if he does not also try to see it on stage, or at least to visualize it as something that was essentially meant to be performed (HEST: 10).
The above authorial comments and others included in the prefaces clearly situate the context of the plays and give focus to the way the author expects the plays to be comprehended, appreciated and exploited by all interested persons.