Naidine Conde
Final Essay
Houseboy and the unrealistic belief of assimilation
France was one of the key players during the scramble for Africa in the early 19th century. Many of the ideas, rhetoric, and policy consideration which drove the partition of Africa had been present since the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century. This lead to longer-term trends of scientific interest, stamping out the slave trade, a desire to “modernize” Africa, Christianity and the civilizing mission, and racist assumptions. The only change that came about was a new “slave rhetoric” and that was called colonialism.
The nature of the global economy and commercial relations between Europeans and Africans, along with hardening of racial attitudes over the 19th century created a climate in which formal colonization took place. French colonialism can be described as “out with the old, and in with the new,” or formally referred to as assimilation.
Assimilation required Africans to leave behind their own rich culture, arts, religion, politics and overall way of living, and embrace a new European lifestyle. Essentially Africans were expected to reject their roots and overall identity, to adopt the French lifestyle. Colonizers consistently referred to Africans as a bunch of “savages” and they believed the only way to “save them” from their primitive ways would be to transform them into proper European men.
African scholar, politician, and author, Ferdinand Oyono, wrote a revolutionary novel that denounced colonialism titled Houseboy. This piece of literature offers a glance into Cameroon shortly before it declared its sovereign independence from France. The novel was written in 1956, four years before Cameroon achieved independence. Although this is a fictitious story, it is still a good representation of the anti-colonialist literature that was prevalent at the time in both the Cameroons and all of Africa. This piece of art explores themes of colonialism, race, and faith, in the face of suffering. It is considered a classic amongst anti-colonialist literature, providing a strong African voice in a time of great turmoil. Oyono’s literary work is also recognized for a sense of irony that reveals how easily people can be fooled, and the protagonist in Houseboy is no exception.
Houseboy is composed as a coming of age story, centered around the themes of colonialism, following an African boy who is navigating life living through French assimilation. The book is told through a series of diaries, known as exercise books, written by the protagonist, Toundi. The novel serves as a framework to navigate the various strategies and tactics the French used to enforce assimilation amongst their colonies.
One of the ways the French would have Africans assimilate to their culture is through religion. Toundi’s story starts with him running away from his abusive father and unstable household. He’s able to find refuge with Father Gilbert, a kind priest who lives in the area. Despite his father's attempts to convince Toundi to return home, he refuses and rejects his family, embracing Father Gilbert as his new father. Under Father Gilbert’s care Toundi learns to read and write, making it possible for him to advance his education. One of Father Gilbert’s core lessons was the Bible and Catholicism, converting Toundi into a firm believer in no time. However, his faith and how it dwindles over the course of his life is a key element in Toundi’s story.
In many ways, Christianity was the first wave of the European imperialist invasion. Christian missionaries spread the word of God to African children through sugar cubes and threats of hellfire. Although Father Gilbert appears to be benevolent and having good intentions, he represents the “white savior” rhetoric in this novel. He is an elitist and patronizing white man, who without a second thought, took the poor black boy away from his family. It may appear that Father Gilbert was educating Toundi, but it can also be said he trained Toundi to become what he believes to be perfect specimen of African possibility, or as he called it, “his masterpiece.” Father Gilbert goes so far as to show off “his boy” to the other white colonists, treating him as if he were an exotic animal, or a pet. The once seeming helpful French priest no longer seems so different from his colonizing French counterparts.
The other African boys envied Toundi who had many new found privileges and opportunities handed to him through his acceptance by the whites. Oyono’s use of Christian paternalism paints a clear image of how Christianity was being presented to Africans. This goes back to how Christian missionaries spread the word of God to African children through treats, trinkets and threats of of eternal damnation, during the first wave of missionaries. The young and naive were the missionaries’ first conquest in Africa, converting them without them even knowing where or why they had abandoned their traditional religions in the first place. European paternalism is obvious throughout the novel, but it is emphasized with Father Gilbert’s death. Killed by a falling branch while he hurried to retrieve mail from his native land, he is called a martyr. “I suppose because he met his death in Africa,” Toundi says. “A martyr: killed in action on the front lines of the heathen world, I suppose.” After Father Gilbert’s funeral, Toundi is changed. “I have died my first death,” Toundi says, as he sees his innocence die with Father Gilbert. He mourns his adopted father, but through this, he mourns himself. There is not only a shift in Toundi’s character, but his story as well.
Oyono drew from a lot of truth when crafting Toundi’s story and experience with colonialistic religious imposition. Commerce, Christianity and civilization was the guiding ideological framework of imperialism, and religion was the centerfold of it all. Europeans saw Christianity as more acceptable practice of religion than Islam and for that reason missionaries wanted to do away with many African cultural practices. They held a strong Christianity was divinely ordained to vanquish "false" religions, so too Europeans were meant to rule nonwhite peoples. The missionary's sense of spiritual superiority easily shaded into racial and cultural arrogance. White was the color of moral and spiritual purity – and of racial superiority. Moreover, the missionaries confused Christian doctrine with Western culture: Christianity had, in effect, become a European religion. There was also a clear lack of separation from church and state with these missionaries at the time. Unable to operate freely unless the imperial army subdued the native population and the civil administration imposed "discipline,” in return for their protection by the state, the missionaries encouraged a passivity in the people, directing their thoughts to wealth, dignity, and freedom in the next world. The missionaries were not very successful in winning converts at first, but in the end their ability to provide sanctuary for social outcasts, improve African's literacy, and access to commercial networks won them over.
As our protagonist is passed from the church to the state at the suggestion of Father Vandermeyer, Toundi finds himself within another realm of European hypocrisy. The colonized people of Africa were taught that by learning to speak, act, and believe like a Frenchman, they could indeed become French. But, Toundi quickly realizes that may not always be the case. Black men and women were still being mistreated by the French and were not seen as deserving of receiving the same treatment from the colonizers who promised them acceptance with assimilation. Toundi raises an important question in the novel in response to this mistreatment of Africans, “I thought of all the priests, all the pastors, all the white men, who come to save our souls and preach love of our neighbours. Is the white man’s neighbour only other white men?”
Toundi posing this question is Oyono’s critique of assimilation and the injustices of the French colonial policy of assimilations. Whether the French believed it or not, neither their hearts nor their country would open to include their colonial subject. No matter the rank, education, poise, or beauty of the Africans who wished to assimilate, they remained lower even than the most unsavory and downtrodden white Frenchman. No matter what an African did, he was still black, and there is no hope for them to overcome this hurdle of acceptance into French culture.
Through this truth Oyono reveals the inherent racism within the imperialistic colonizers. Even when Africans adopted European ideals and assimilated into their culture, they still weren’t good enough. Africans don’t get the same respect as the French, or even as a human being, Throughout the novel the French treat the Africans as animals. Toundi at one point calls himself the “King of the Dogs,” being the servant of the Commandant, was as privileged as an African man could be, always the Africans are emasculated and infantilized. “I am the thing that obeys,” Toundi says, accepting his fate from a young age. “What are we blackmen who are called French?”
Another telling cultural piece of art that analyzes these similar hypocritical themes is Sembene’s film Camp de Thiaroye. Sembene unveils the common injustices that many West Africans faced post World War II. The film highlights the protest at Camp de Thiaroye in Senegal by ex-POWS in December 1944. Much like in 1940s and 1950s African colonies, the soldiers in this film faced discriminatory treatment, shortages of food and other resources, and false promises of assimilation. There was a rhetoric of assimilation during the war, but lingering racism among European commanders and units, this was no different at Camp de Thiaroye.
The protagonist of the film, Sergeant Diatta, would be a great poster child for assimilation. He received an education in Paris, has a French wife and child, and fought alongside the French in the World War defending a country he called home. Nonetheless he still struggles to be treated the same as his French counterparts and is seen as “less than,” in comparison to the French soldiers. Throughout the film he seems to almost have an identity crisis because while he does identify as a Frenchman, the others don’t see him as that. Diatta was torn at a crossroads and felt that his French qualities should not take away from his blackness. He was very prideful of his African roots and where he came from and strived to live a life that blended both cultures he grew to respect and immerse himself in, but in return he was shamed for this. Diatta is a prime example as how the system of assimilation is flawed and may not always benefit Africans in the way they imagine. Africans were being expected to assimilate into a society that would never accept them to begin with because the racial divide is so large there is no room for complete equality.
It can also be said that this educated class of elite Africans (whom Europeans viewed as being non-threatening and more “relatable) ended up being one of the biggest threats to colonial order. The thought that Africans could be anything more than a savage scared the Europeans into further oppressing them in anyway possible. The colonizing Europeans clearly had some form of inferiority complex, which is why in the end they did all they could to ensure the Africans never excelled. “Under imperialism, the Europeans scrupulously distanced themselves from the "natives" in order to maintain the belief not only that they were stronger, but that they were superior in morals and values.” These false promises of assimilation held long term psychological repercussions that made it easier for the colonizers to keep control of Africans. “It is the psychological damage inflicted on Toundi, Diouana, and the wider cultures which they represent, and the hard lessons they learn that is the subject of Oyono and Sembene's work.”
Another important aspect of French colonial rule was the colonial gaze. Many Africans were dehumanized and seen as mere exotic sexual objects. In Houseboy there is a constant atmosphere of sexual tension between the native African population and their white colonial rulers. Toundi has a shocking revelation when he sees the Commandant in the shower and is horrified to discover his master isn’t circumcised, and is quickly pang by shame. Circumcision is an important element in becoming a man in his Cameroonian tradition, and he is embarrassed that his masters and all other other white men are undignified. It is in this moment that Toundi suffers his “second death,” and knows in his heart that he will never be afraid of the Commandant again.The plot thickens between Toundi and the Commandant when his wife, Madame, arrives to the colony.
Upon arriving to the colony Madame, begins to have an affair with Monsieur Moreau, the director of Dangan’s prison. At first, she hides her relationship, being a Christian woman of her stature, and the wife of the highest ranking official in the area no less, there was an image she had to uphold. But unable to control herself and caught in a whirlwind romance she is soon overtaken, and begins seeing him frequently, even openly kissing him even in broad daylight.
Madame’s relationship with Toundi swiftly changes after one trip to the market. Toundi explained to Madame, who was receiving many cat calls in the market, that the locals lusted for her. In this conversation a spark of interest is ignited under Madame and she soon begins to question him about his personal life, specifically his romantic life. Toundi oblivious to what is unfolding before him, does not notice that Madames lusts for him, viewing him merely as an object to satisfy herself with. She quickly represents another white colonist wishes to own an African, both sexually and economically. Oyono reveals how the colonial gaze in the case is just a blatant hypocrisy from the white colonizers who are the one clearly controlled by their sexual appetites. reflection on what the colonizers see in themselves.
The French colonist’s policy of assimilation was flawed at best and in the end Toundi’s place in society became his downfall. Toundi died on his own terms fleeing the same people who claimed would accept him. Rejecting Christianity as preached and practiced by French colonialism, rejecting French imperial power, disillusioned with the French civilizing mission which, he had thought, possessed some beauty and goodness, Toundi has only his own, African world.
Work Cited
1. Oyono, Ferdinand. Houseboy. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2012 [1956]
2. Sarvan, C. P. "French Colonialism in Africa: The Early Novels of Ferdinand Oyono." World Literature Today 59, no. 3 (1985): 333-37. doi:10.2307/40140837.
3. Parascandola, Louis J. ""WHAT ARE WE BLACKMEN WHO ARE CALLED FRENCH?": THE DILEMMA OF IDENTITY IN OYONO'S UN VIE DE BOY AND SEMBÈNE'S LA NOIRE DE…" Comparative Literature Studies 46, no. 2 (2009): 360-78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25659720.
4. Film: Camp de Thiaroye, dir. Ousmane Sembène, 1988 (150 minutes).
5.