Published in 2007 by The Feminist Press at the City University of New York
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016
Translation copyright © 2007 by Marjolijn de Jager
Afterword copyright © 2006 by Michelle Mielly
All rights reserved.
Originally published in French under the title La mémoire amputée by Wéréwéré Liking. Copyright © 2004 by NEI Abidjan. ISBN: 2-84487-236-0 NEI. All rights reserved for all countries.
No part of this book may be reproduced or used, stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Werewere Liking, 1950-
[Mémoire amputée. English]
The amputated memory : mothers Naja and aunts Roz : a song-novel / by Werewere Liking ; translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55861-877-0
I. de Jager, Marjolijn. II. Title.
PQ3989.2.L54M4513 2007
843’.914—dc22
2007021440
This publication was made possible, in part, by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Text and cover design by Lisa Force
12 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
To All my Loves
From yesterday to tomorrow
My natural, spontaneous or invented, recreated Loves,
For, before all else,
We must first learn to create Love
For all my Friends in Madness, born that way or rendered mad
My Master Injectors of anguish,
For, before any wisdom gained,
We must all experience madness
To all my grandchildren, all the Yi in my Village
Who will never cease seeking the Ki
I dedicate what follows here. . . .
So, trying to pretend with eyebrows arched
That they were keeping calm
Each one wondered privately
What was coming next. And what is actually coming next?
Hey! I muttered behind their back
What is next is a novel, of course, you silly fools!
That is to say, fabrications or stories
But intensely lived or to be lived
If only in the imagination of the tale of love
Hey, hey, hey, that was your Grandmama!!!
—Werewere-Liking Gnepo
CONTENTS
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
MOVEMENT FOUR
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
MOVEMENT FIVE
Chapter 22
MOVEMENT SIX
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
MOVEMENT SEVEN
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
MOVEMENT EIGHT
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32