The Courier

The italian edition’s cover of The Plantation by Calixthe Beyala.

Putting Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, the unforgettable stars of Gone with the Wind, on the front cover of an African novel may seem a rather surprising editorial decision. However, by choosing to illustrate Calixthe Beyala’s novel La piantagione (translated from La plantation, Albin Michel, 2005) with one of Hollywood’s most famous kisses, the Italian publishing house, Epoché, is simply alluding to one of the central themes of the book by the novelist from Cameroun: the destiny of a young white African girl, Blues Cornu, who is faced with the collapse of a privileged world built on the spoils of racial discrimination. Like Tara under the yoke of the American Civil War (1861-65), the Cornu family also has to deal with a change in the course of history. In the year 2000 in the Zimbabwe of a “president democratically elected for life” (his name is not given), the bells are tolling for the rich white farmers who have been asked to leave the country to allow black Africans to take their place. And like Scarlett O’Hara, Blues decides to defend her land rather than devote her life to men as she is convinced that “tomorrow will be another day”. But the similarities stop there. While in the Hollywood production, the blacks only have minor parts, La piantagione does not give the main roles to whites. Admittedly Beyala, recognised for her fight against the racism of the Europeans, this time takes their side. But we cannot count on her good intentions in a portrayal full of anti-heroes. The disaster of Mugabe’s despoilment of white landowners has clearly persuaded the writer not to create a Manichean world. “No character,” she said, “is completely good. Everyone is made up of lightness and dark.” In La piantagione, Calixthe Beyala has avoided the pitfalls of racial identity to produce characterisation of men and women united by their connection to the African continent.

* Article written following the recent publication in Italy of the latest novel by Calixthe Beyala, La piantagione, Epoché, 2008 (La plantation, Albin Michel, 2005).