Tuesday, 22 September 2015

BECAUSE OF WOMEN. By Mbella Sonne Dipoko





"Perhaps the unusual thing about this African author, and his books - published some fifty years ago - is that he was sexually explicit in his writings at a time this was rare in African literature. And so it is in this particular work. I did some research on the author (he was born in, and died in Cameroon) and learned that during his lifetime he did on a personal level relish taking his pleasure from/with women. Dipoko actually boasted in an interview: "I became for many years what you might call a travelling lover, a dreamer searching for God between women's thighs... I was like an angel stuffing recoil-less erections into just where they are most needed - into the fleshy folds of winter!...each divine thrust was like stuffing your women with yet another trump card of desire..." So one might say the author somewhat set out his own stall unapologetically; and this reflected in his fiction, and poems. There is no doubt that he is a fine writer though, as this novel shows. And Dipoko depicts a particular community very well, and the people. It is a rural ambiance, and we get to read about the usual goings-on in the village, for men and women, intrigues, affairs, pastimes, drawing water from the river, politics etc. The ordinary people are focused on, and how life steadily and stealthily goes on. As for the sex, it is graphic enough without being vulgar, and the intercourse is mutually enjoyed...with the physical delights being stressed "life was so sweet and wonderful because of women" - Eric

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