Flora Boffy-Prache and Zoé Monti-Makouvia, sisters by the way, have just created the publishing house “Les Prouesses” in order to publish literary works that resonate with female voices from all over the world, to enlarge the imagination and open up to other sensitivities. The first two titles in their catalog are “A scarlet song», by Mariama Bâ and «Amputated memoryby Werewere-Liking.
THE UNPRECEDENTED NOVEL OF AN EMBLEMATIC FIGURE OF AFRICAN FEMINISM
Preface: Axelle Jah Njiké
Afterword: Mame Coumba Ndiaye
Illustration: Elke Foltz
”An impossible love story between two idealistic students, a Frenchwoman and a Senegalese, in the Dakar of the 1980s, where learning about each other, beyond borders, cultures and traditions, proves difficult. Ousmane, a young Senegalese from modest circumstances, and Mireille, a Frenchwoman, the daughter of a diplomat, meet on the benches of high school in Dakar. They marry, to the great displeasure of their respective families. Mireille cuts ties with her family and converts to Islam. Ousmane imposes his wife on his parents, devastated. A son is born of this love, Gorgui. But, the weight of traditions and social and family pressure will get the better of their love…” (Presentation of Ia Les Prouesses publishing house)
A “CHANT-ROMAN” ON A LINE OF BASSA WOMEN, IN CAMEROON
Preface: Hemley Boom
Illustration: Magali Attiogbe
”This “chant-romance”, a term coined by Werewere-Liking, is her story and that of a line of Bassa women: a violent and fascinating story, celebrating the creative power of women.
It is a poignant initiation story, the story of Halla Njoké, Cameroonian singer-artist. It is a novel for all the women who are silent; a song that intends to tear from the past “a few scraps of a History without archives” – a History of women and Africa, reduced to silence.
The book begins when Halla is already old. Her project is to write the life of Aunt Roz, an admirable and generous woman, resistant at the time of the wars of independence. Aunt Roz, however, refuses to share her memories with him. Thus begins Halla’s foray into her own memory, in order to deliver, mirroring her chaotic life, those of all the women of her lineage…
Written in 2002 in a language handled with brio and invention, the book received the Noma Prize in 2005.” (Presentation of Les Prowesses publishing house).