ISBN 9789956558094
Pages 332
Dimensions 216 x 140 mm
Published 2007
Publisher Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon
Format Paperback

Tale of an African Woman

by Thomas Jing

The village of Yakiri has been cursed by ancestral wrath because of the treatment of Yaa, the first girl who wrestled her male goatherd peers to earn the right to be initiated into the society of manhood. Her struggle is taken up generations later by Yaya, the granddaughter of Tafan and Wirba. Orphaned like her forebear, Yaya becomes a star student in the village's primary school and promises to go far. But, ask the villagers, is it right to invest in an education for an African girl who may become the property of another village? An educated woman will abandon the farm where she is needed, wear high heels and try to order men around! In the midst of it all, one Irish missionary, living in Africa and for the most time with Africans, literally wiggles his way into hearts and minds. With his intervention, Yaya leaves the village to school in the city, but her troubles as a woman have not really begun. Yarns of cultural borrowing, indigestion and transcendence reveal the simple and complex ways in which community matters are confronted and decided. This happens in shrines where seers are consulted and cowry shells thrown, in palm wine houses, but also around the school and presbytery. The untold stories and perspectives of girls and women burst through in illuminating and uplifting ways. Quarrels, squabbles, near collisions and mutual conversions give way to innovative traditions.

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About the Author

Thomas Jing

Thomas Jing est traducteur, écrivain, enseignant-chercheur, opérateur économique et entrepreneur culturel. Il est titulaire d’un Doctorat (PhD) en sciences de l’éducation, obtenu à l’Université de Regina au Canada où il a rédigé une thèse afrocentrique sur les enjeux de l’application des danses folkloriques africaines dans le contexte scolaire. Jing est né à Ndop, une bourgade non loin de Bamenda au Cameroun. Après ses études primaires et secondaires, il s’inscrit au Cameroon College of Arts and Science à Kumba. Fort d’un diplôme de General Certificate of Education Advanced Level, il s’immatricule à l’Université de Yaoundé, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines. Il en sort trois ans plus tard avec une licence en histoire. Il est recruté par le Ministère de l’Education Nationale comme professeur d’histoire et de français, et est affecté à un C.E.S. au village de Nyasoso dans la région du South West. Reçu un an plus tard au concours de traduction lancé par la présidence de la république, il part pour l’Université de Montréal au Canada. Il termine son M.A. en traduction et retourne au Cameroun en 1989, où il travaille au Ministère de l’Elevage, des Pêches et des Industries animales à Yaoundé comme traducteur principal et chef de service de la documentation et des archives. En 1996, Il quitte le Cameroun et s’installe en Afrique du Sud où il travaille avec les Jésuites dans leur projet pour les réfugiés et aussi avec les défenseurs sud-africains des droits de la personne. Il vit actuellement à Regina, capitale administrative de la Saskatchewan. Il publie son premier roman intitulé Tale of an African Woman chez Langaa Research and Publishing CIG, en 2007. Testament d’un patriote exécuté est ainsi son deuxième roman, mais le tout premier entièrement rédigé en français.

Thomas Jing is a translator, a writer, a teacher, a researcher, a businessman, and a cultural promoter. He holds a PhD in Education from the University of Regina in Canada where he wrote an Afrocentric dissertation on the relevance of African folkdances in North American school setting. Jing was born in Ndop, a district not far from Bamenda in Cameroon. He attended Government Primary School Bamunka and Sacred Heart College Mankon before heading to CCAS Kumba where he obtained his Advanced Level Certificate. He enrolled in the Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences at the University of Yaounde where he graduated three years later with a B. A. in History. He was hired by the Ministry of National Education as French language and History teacher and sent to Government Secondary School Nyasoso in the South West. A year later, he wrote and passed the government competitive examination in translation organized by the Presidency of the Republic and received scholarship to study at the University of Montreal in Canada. After obtaining an M.A. in Translation, he returned to Cameroon in 1989 where he worked with the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries. In 1996, he left Cameroon for South Africa where he worked with the Jesuit Refugee Services as well as some South African Human Rights Organizations. He currently lives in Regina, the administrative capital of Saskatchewan. He published his first novel Tale of an African Woman with Langaa in 2007. Testament d’un patriote execute is his second novel, but the very first one written in French.

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