Characters
Tanga: protagonist; 17-year-old Cameroonian girl/woman who is dying in a prison cell; imprisoned for forgery; telling her story to Anna Claude Anna Claude: Tanga’s cellmate; imprisoned for protesting the government; French-Jewish professor of philosophy; came to Africa in search of a man whose image she created; tells Tanga to give her her story Ngâ Taba: Mother Old One; Tanga’s mother; forces Tanga to undergo female circumcision and prostitute herself to feed her family; rebuilds her house by hands 10 times because it was destroyed 10 times; plugs her womb with nuts; doesn’t recognize Anna Claude as Tanga at the novel’s end Father Old One: Tanga’s father; rapes Tanga, impregnates Tanga, poisons child/grandchild; takes Tanga with him to mistresses’ houses; teaches Tanga to keep her eyes lowered Tanga’s Younger Sister: after Tanga removes herself from the prostitution market, her sister fills her spot, namely with Monsieur John; Tanga tells her to get an education; “the exact copy of [their] mother” Kadjaba Dongo: an Essoko princess who was raped; wished to put an end to her fertility Hassan: one of Tanga’s clients; she falls in love with him and wants to marry him; works at the Postal Services; accepts bribes Monsieur John: one of Tanga’s, and later her sister’s, clients; “he is an arms dealer, he’s killed fourteen people, wears a big diamond on his ring-finger, and uses vanilla perfume. With his friends he discusses the stockmarket or his sexual prowess. In private, he knits sweaters for [Tanga] and coddles [her]” Mala: boy Tanga adopts; abandoned by his mother who left him in a cardboard box; maggots devoured part of his legs; lives with his senile, drunk grandmother; nicknamed “Footwreck”; has pus-filled eyes; said to be “inhabited by more demons than all of Africa’s starving children put together”; gets sick and dies Camilla: fellow prostitute who “has built herself an empire and has a steady man”; white woman; divorced by a man named Pierre; killed her two children to spare them from a horrible life; Tanga refers to her as “Anna Claude’s sister” Ousmane: Anna Claude’s invented man; “he was handsome; he was tall, he was smart. He lived in Africa where he was building bridges and roads and soon he'd be returning to her in their Paris apartment. In her visions she imagined him. He would appear wearing a white boubou and blue pleated trousers”; Anna Claude goes to Iningué to find him; he never appears Lame Leg: runs an orphanage of sorts where the children give him their money; wants Tanga to have his baby Lord von Deutschman: tall, blond, “a good-natured man, with the broad gestures of a Lord”; pretends to be a miracle worker to get money VE |
Definitions
Iningué: Your Name Shall Be Tanga is set in this fictional Cameroonian shantytown, a deprived area on the outskirts of a town
Pagnes: a length of wax-print fabric made in West Africa, worn as a single wrap or made into other clothing, and serving as a form of currency Boubou: One of the names for a flowing wide-sleeved robe worn by men in much of West Africa Femme-fillette: girlchild-woman Kaba: type of dress, usually airy and very loose fitting; could be sleeveless, short, or long sleeved Yaoundé: the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala; it lies in the Centre Region of the nation; French-speaking part of Cameroon Paul Biya: President of Cameroon since 1982; retained close relationships with France |
|
VERA:Important Scenes
|
Tanga’s Declaration (“tonight I have decided to live. I fight back. I rend the heavens so as to destroy unhappiness. From now on, I’ll put myself before everything. Before the world, Me; after the world, Me; always Me...”)
Son/Grandson (“And so it was that this man my father--who made me pregnant and poisoned the child, our child, his grandson--this man never noticed my suffering, and yet it lasted until the day he died, until the day of my own death...”) Camilla’s Story (“And then there is Camilla, your sister, here. A white woman lost in the middle of African desires. I can’t not tell you about her...”) |