Reviews

THE MULTIFACETED FACE OF A WOMAN: A REVIEW OF EUNICE NGONGKUM’S WEN MEN NTE

Louisa Lum

University of Yaounde 1

lumlouisa@yahoo.com

Title: Wen Men Nte

Author: Eunice Ngong Kum

Publisher: Miraclaire Publishing

Simone de Beauvoir urges women to write about themselves implying that a woman should paint their experiences without fear of the patriarchal notion that women’s experiences are trivial. Julie Krestevia in Revolution in Poetic Language observes that there is a need for feminine space which she calls the chora wherein feminine ideas and world view can flourish without being corrupted by patriarchy. Eunice Ngongkum’s Wen Men Nte exemplifies such a space wherein the veil is dropped and the multifaceted face of the woman is revealed. For the purpose of this review, subthemes have been selected to explore the varied facets in the work. These parts include burial of the death, the scheming bitch, the cheerless giver and the valiant activist.

            In Wen Men Nte Ngongkum unveils what is on a woman’s mind which is quite intriguing and varied. There is always the notion that feminine ecriture is biased and favours the woman over the man but a reading of Wen Men Nte completely dispels such misgivings since the author tells it as it is. In burial of the death, there is a realistic painting of the emotions that go through the mind of a woman at the funeral of supposedly a loved one. This myriad of emotions is evident in Last Minute Rights wherein the protagonist is brutally honest with her feelings. She considers the VIP treatment given to her during her husband’s funeral ceremony as last minute rights. Her relief is evident and even in death she finds it difficult to cook up tender feelings for the husband. A philandering husband who neglected his wife and children, though she remained a good wife and helped him enormously when he was sick. Yet even in illness the callous man does not ask for the wife’s forgiveness. The sense of freedom is strong and watching the other unofficial wives and illegitimate children parade the scene she can only think of her new status as a happy widow. Society expects her to mourn and she puts up a performance for them, though she almost spoils that act by nearly laughing out when the preacher prays that Tee’s soul should find heavenly bliss. To the lady, God will be a joker to allow her husband anywhere near heaven.

In Lachrymose Dues for Kedungmbi, the author depicts a grieving mother whose desolation makes her cruel. She laments that her daughter’s death comes from the fact that she marries an unsuitable man in the name of love. Love has finally killed her and that Kedungmbi would still be alive if she had chosen a more suitable husband. This is outrage for the mourners who become embarrassed at such ranting. It becomes evident therefore that the lachrymose dues are held back out of embarrassment. Yet when Ewondzeng arrives on the scene she puts a stop to the mother’s foolishness. According to her, what matters at the moment is giving their dead daughter her final dues and not cutting down another’s son. She starts a dirge which the mourners pick up thereby avoiding the outrage that the mother had sparked. From this perspective, one realises how successfully Ngongkum breaches the gap between the poetics of feminism and post-feminism. She presents it as it is without favour of her fellow women, what is wrong is wrong and that which is right is so.

           The scheming bitch is also seen in Ngongkum’s Wen Men Nte. These constitute a group of women who will do anything to have their way. Sometimes they find unconventional methods to solve their problems. In Truth is a Person a female student fakes the death of her parents in order to pass an assessment. Here the author expresses her disgust in such lowliness, it is true that Eliti Abang might have had a good reason for not taking the test, yet lying about the death of her parents is abhorrent. Although she gets what she wants, her conscience will always haunt her, it is a lesson to learn that truth is a person and no matter what happens the truth will always come out.

In Accomplished Mission, Ndum Ikum is the woman who will do anything to protect her husband. Her unconventional lifestyle earns her so many fines from women’s groups in her village which she pays promptly. Though her husband is a lazy man she makes him respectable by working hard and catering for his needs, yet never undermining his manhood. She outsmarts a randy man who wants to take advantage of her because of her desperation. At the end she brings food to her family a feat that is commissioned only for men in her village. Although she clearly wears the pants in the relationship she does not brag about it. In this light, the author seems to be suggesting that the man or the woman can take the role of provider in the home, but this does not emasculate the man or makes the woman vain.

The scheming bitch in The Minister’s Wife brings to mind the idea of karma. What goes around comes around is the warning that Ngongkum seems to be sounding to her fellow women. Laura Ndentang is the lady who works hard to make sure that her husband gets a ministerial portfolio. This feat is rewarded and the author takes the reader into a private moment wherein the protagonist is reflecting on her achievement. Her conscience judges her severely because of the unconventional things she does for this appointment to come true. She attempts to justify that all these things like the nocturnal liaisons with political godfathers and medicine men were for her husband. The question the author seems to pose is what about the fidelity pledge Laura makes to her husband, does gaining a ministerial position compensate for infidelity and can Laura live a happy life with all these on her conscience. The fact that the first visitors who come to celebrate her husband’s success are the senators and the medicine man she slept with is suggestive of the fact that happiness might not be her due.

Another female which Ngongkum explore in her work is the cheerless giver. This is the individual who makes sacrifices to her family hoping to be an example of charity yet no one thanks or repays her for her effort. Rose Umfern in Arrows of Treachery is an individual who has sacrificed everything she has for the growth of her family. Yet the family seems to think it is her obligation to continue solving everyone’s problems though they are now independent and well to do. Rose comes to the realisation that ‘privileged exemption from family responsibility is not for her’ (20). She is a good example of the proverbial willing horse that is ridden to death since her own problems are ignored. Her mother even questions how she got into a financial problem after being a civil servant for so many years. The arrows of treachery pierce her heart when her cousin promises to help her and keeps her waiting in the bank all day. The fact that she even paid the cousin’s flight ticket to travel abroad does not even make her considerate. Rose stands out at the end as the giver who is given nothing in return. Here the biblical statement that God loves a cheerful giver does not imply since giving implies taking.

Trapped depicts another cheerless giver who seems fed up with what she considers her family’s exploitation. The travel motif explored by the author enhances the turmoil in the protagonist’s mind, just like the stuffy bus, she seemed to be trapped in dreary life. One in which she gives and is unappreciated. It becomes really painful when the lady observes that no one loved her. The raison d’être of her journey is to give her ungrateful family a piece of her mind. Ngongkum being the master storyteller that she is twists the plot by making the protagonist to overhear a conversation between two other passengers. The case is similar to hers since the individual is complaining about the ungrateful nature of his kids which he has given a good life to. He concludes that he will never forgive them yet his friend begs him to change his mind. Doloreen arrives home and becomes impotent in the presence of a family that seems to love her a lot. She is quite disarmed by the words of the stranger in the bus ‘vengeance is cheap, forgiveness is not’ (147).

The valiant activist is another facet of the woman that Ngongkum explores in Wen Men Nte. These are women who refuse to be daunted despite the mitigating circumstances they are facing. In Nintai Justice Bessemanyor is frustrated at the laxity of law and inequality of justice that people of the Second Syllable receive in her country. Her cousin’s case is adjourned because the presiding judge does not speak the Second Syllable. His final remarks are provocative ‘si, tu ne parles pas mon syllable, tant pis. Tu retournes en prison. Eh oui, jusqu’acequetu t’exprimesen mon patois’ (30). It is therefore clear that Okenyi is now being prosecuted for his inability to speak the First Syllable and not for the crime he might have committed. This is what incenses Bessem since she sees the justice system as a tool of marginalisation. The country has two languages of administration yet one language and those who speak it are marginalised. The attitude is terrible because it gives opportunists the right to take advantage of people’s sufferings and weaknesses and extort money from them. She refuses to bribe the judge as her cousin demands since she considers them as ‘children of one father’ (33). By circulating pamphlets during a court session and speaking against marginalisation on the basis of language during a court session, Bessem makes a point which gets the attention of those in authority. Her cousin is released and some justice is served.

In Daughter of the Gods Matichi risks her marriage to find a better place for her people. Initially she is considered a lunatic and even her husband runs away from her. Believing in her vision, she migrates and finds the dreamland wherein she works hard and gains a lot of wealth. Others come and settle in this new found land and even the husband who abandoned her realises his error and comes to be with her. Her industrious nature is evident in the prosperity and happiness that her village enjoys.

From the foregone paragraphs, one appreciates the finesse in the art of storytelling seen in the sophisticated metaphors and images that Ngongkum employs. Ngongkum is a master storyteller par excellence as she captures the reader’s attentions and compels them to travel with her through the labyrinth that constitutes her protagonists’ minds. The raison d’être of folklore is to teach a morale and this, the author does with class evident in the several lessons that the stories teach like the merit of forgiveness, the pleasure of giving, the joy of loving and being loved, the merits of fraternity among others. A reading of Wen Men Nte showcases the movement from feminist to postfeminist discourse, as the author creates a space for feminine ideas and ideologies yet invites the man to share in this feminine glory.

Reviews

ANOTHER COLLECTION OF SCENES: A REVIEW OF THE DECISION –

Produced by Alex Kenfack and Directed by Tanwie Elvis

Oscar C. Labang (PhD)

Avila University

osky_lit@yahoo.ca

The Decision is a religious story that captures the passions of a young man, Amah, as he struggles to get a grip at the meaning of life and adolescence. The conflict that initiates the action of the movie is a mother’s attempt to curb the excesses of her young son in the conspicuous absence of the father. How the father later enters the story is a major directorial crisis that I am yet to decipher. The coming of the father brings new dimensions to the boy’s life as his father condones the boy’s flirtatious attitude. Empowered by the father under the guise that his son is becoming a man, and exacerbated by the mother who openly denies honing the morals of her son, Amah grows from a flirty young man to a bandit and murderer. The murder scene (and its after effect) is seemingly the climax because it introduces a major turn in the life of the boy and the entire story. Advertently or inadvertently, the entire story changes to a spiritual warfare between Amah’s father and his pastor. Caught between these antithetical forces Amah loses his place as hero and drowns to the level of a mere character. The action is about him, he is in its flow but he is not an instigator or initiator of action as a hero should. On a whole, it is a good story that is written without sufficient action/events to build and sustain the plot to the end. Consequently, the story is sickening, the plot is lame and the characters are a pack of hollow people on a directorial jigsaw that moves them in a desperate attempt to accomplish something worthwhile.

The jacketing is splendid. For once, I received a Cameroonian movie and I did not immediately have to see the degree of nonchalance that characterize the preparation of film jackets and cover designs in Cameroon. With the exception of an excessively bad, grammatically flawed and graphically mis-formatted review/blurb, the film from its case shows evidence of a carefully conceived and well-printed cover design. A film that competes on equal scale in terms of a badly written and horrifying review/blurb is The Land of Shadow[s] - the Nollywood / Collywood collaborative film. I deliberately do not want to call it international movie. If I were to use a reference close to that it would ne Inter national because the film leaves too much to desire for an international production. The film is produced by Agbor Gilbert Ebot, Edited by Aj Lala Mutair and Directed by Zack Orji and lay claims to having some of the major figures in film in Cameroon; I will be taking on tit for my next film review.

In The Decision, the image quality is great compared to a number of Cameroonian movies and some Nigerian movies that I have watched recently. At some points, there is a beautiful display and juxtaposition of images and scenes. This is made even more appealing by a combination and variation of short and long shots. Examples of such scenes include when Amah’s mother is waiting for him on the second night when he comes back drunk, also the scene where Amah’s father meets Amah and Sonita in the seating room; the first meeting between Amah and Aisha also has good shots. In the introduction of the cast, the editor does not fall into the trap of blind copy-catting after Nigerian models. In many Cameroonian movies the introduction of the cast starts with “STARRING”, and in the entire cast there is not a single star. So, what is our concept of a star? The only problem with the cast is the wrong spelling of Nathalie as “Nathanlie”, an indication that much care was not taken. I am not asking for PERFECTION because it is not a human value, it is strictly Godly; but I am asking for CAREFULNESS.

When I say the plot is lame what immediately comes to mind is the fact that in some instances in the movie the plot fails to develop, the action fails to move in any meaningful direction. The story is disjointed not in the sense of postmodern fragmentary movie plot characterized by a degree of playfulness that ends with a sense of unity or at least with a glimpse that the audience can put together in a viewer-response effort to complete the story. In fact there is no story because the plot starts and ends less than midway into the movie and then desperate attempts at ‘pulling the tape’ and piling unnecessary actions on a completed story are made in an effort to drag the plot to that of a full length film. The actual story/conflict is that of a bad boy name Amah versus a society/mother. His/the action rises through drunkenness, accidents, fornication, vandalism, theft and then reaches the climax – murder – and he is haunted by the ghost of the friend to repent. When he repents, the story ends. Everything that comes after is irrelevant. It is no longer the story of Amah. It is the story of the conflict between Amah’s father and the Pastor over where Amah belongs – to the family God or to the pastor’s God? This shift displaces Amah as the hero and rather makes the pastor the hero and Amah’s father the anti-hero. Amah falls short of the energy of a hero and suddenly becomes a mere character in a story that is supposed to be driven by his energy, and Machiavellianism. The audience is left wanting.

After the repentance of Amah, everything else that follows is an attempt at “pulling the tape”. The phenomenon in film making which I call “Pulling the Tape” refers to the conscious and deliberate (and sometimes unconscious) attitude by the film maker to pay attention to grossly insignificant details or to spend a longer-than-expected amount of time on the tape on an event that is irrelevant to the story or could have been a very short moment. Have you ever watched a film and at some point you sound like “let this pass” or “this is too much” or “the film is not going” or “this part is too long”? That is when the director is pulling the tape or the script writer is lost and is wondering in the corridor of the film house of his mind trying to find his grounds again. This usually results from the fact that the script does not tell a story that covers the required time and space for a movie. So when the director realizes that the movie is shorter than expected, then s/he now struggles to ‘pull the tape’ to make the movie complete.

To some extent, the action is unrealistic. Initially, when we meet the pastor he is not afraid of four thieves carrying guns. He is bold enough to tell them to get out of his house and after many attempts the thieves are unable to shoot. This automatically gives the Pastor a grand or an epic personality. What is troubling is the fact that when the Pastor meets Ahma’s father in a later conflict he is terrified by a mere cutlass and he runs in a way that is not believable. Later in the film again, the same spiritual powers that he could not use against Ahma’s father are used on the thieves that are sent to kill him on the church premises. Another unrealistic action is the dumping of the corpse of their fellow thief. Nothing is said and no glimpse is given about what happens to the corpse afterwards. There should at least have been a hint at what became of the corpse. This would have provided closure for this line of action.

The characters fail in distressing ways to convey a true spirit of what the average film viewer expects. I am going to use one character to illustrate this failure and it seems my lot is cast on the character/role of the Pastor – who happens to be a strong force in the frame of the story. The Pastor does not carry in any realistic sense the charisma of a Pentecostal preacher. His speech, prayer and preaching lacks the electrifying magnetism that is typical of a Pentecostal pastor. Consequently, he fails to appeal to the imagination of the viewer who would want to savour the largely religious content of the film. The film therefore fails because the Pastor, erroneously, at some point becomes the driving force (if you want to call it hero) combating the forces of evil or the antithesis represented by Amah’s family and the traditional medicine man. The Pastor loses his role both as a character and a pastor the very moment he enters the story because what the scene of his first appearance conveys to a conscious audience is that he is a conspirator in murder. When the thieves led by Amah are unsuccessful at shooting him, they shoot one of the members of the gang and nowhere in the rest of the story does the pastor report the attack or the shooting at his residence to the forces of law and order. What makes it even worse, later in the story the audience learns that he is not just a pastor but a Barrister at Law – implying that he should have known the legal consequences of failing to report a serious crime like murder which takes place in his home. If he was a Catholic Priest, one could go home with the impression that the thieves later confessed and by the dogmatic teaching of his faith he is not obliged to report sins from confession to the authorities – even for this to function correctly, there must be signs of a confession either in anticipation or retrospection. The script writer therefore fails woefully to build his characters sufficiently by considering their personality and the moral, ethical, social and legal implications of their moves.

The most annoying aspect of the movie is the documentary type of ending. The second movie ends when Amah prays for the father and he shows signs of healing. This is the logical end because Amah has completed the spiritual circle of existence – from sin to repentance and acceptance of divine authority and now to ministering. If the movie ended here the audience would have been like “WOW!!! EVEN AMAH TOO…?” This is how a film ends with an impression on the audience, what Aristotle calls Catharsis. The speeches at the end serve the desired purpose of pushing a religious conversion message for which it is desired but for Heaven’s sake THIS IS A MOVIE and the artistic value should not or say never be compromised for the message. This documentary ending leaves an audience that has not witness catharsis at any point with yet a sickening conclusion. 

There is sufficient evidence from the movie that the Director, Tanwie Elvis, can accomplish or achieve greater standards as a film director. I will call on him to always write a directorial script for every story he receives and if he finds that the story is not adequately developed then he should drop the project. I know it is a hard thing to drop the project in a context where film is just taking roots. But the question goes “is it better to be known for using great talent to direct many mediocre films or is it better to be known for using great talent to direct a few great movies?” It’s a matter of choice. There is also evidence of great actors and actresses presence or at least of potential that the film industry could use for greater exploits. Amah’s father (Chiatoh Colins) comes out forcefully again as a major acting personality. When I say “again”, it is because I have watched him play some interesting roles in films alongside great talent like Sampson Vugah. His make-up, his personality and the way he carries it along with his role are great. Sonita, Amah and Aisha also show proof of potential for good actors/actresses.

If you think that I am joking, when I say the story is sickening, the plot is lame and the characters are a pack of hollow people on a directorial jigsaw, then I ask you to BUY A COPY of this movie, watch it with the innocence (not ignorance) of a child, the mind of a basic story teller and the imagination of a movie lover. After that, call or write to me and share or challenge my thoughts.