Voices denouncing forced marriages and domestic violence are increasingly visible. The novel by the Cameroonian Djaïli Amadou Amal Les Impatientes, which traces the journey of three women victims of violence, bears witness to this. It is in the running for the Prix Goncourt 2020, a prestigious French literary prize.
The silence surrounding early and forced marriages and violence against indigenous women is breaking ever more. The Chadian Hindu Peul Oumarou Ibrahim and Jane Meriwas, a Samburu, Nalantei Leng’ete Massai, both from Kenya, make it the focus of their struggle. The novel Les Impatientes, by the Cameroonian and Peule Djaïdi Amadou Amal, selected for the Prix Goncourt 2020, provides further testimony. It tackles the subject of early and forced marriages, polygamy and marital rape in Cameroon. For if the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1989, sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 years for girls and boys, it is not respected in the country. Young girls can legally be married from the age of 15 with the agreement of a parent. In its 2016 report, UNICEF estimated that 13% of Cameroonian girls are married before age 15 and 38% before age 18. The situation of women is of particular concern in the north of the country, where the author grew up. It is in this region that the three heroines of the novel evolve.
These three women will refuse to comply with the rules. While Ramla undergoes a forced marriage to a man in his fifties, her sister, Hindu, is married to a cousin who is an alcoholic and drug addict. Safira is forced to take a co-wife, none other than Ramla, who is younger than her own daughter.
Stories largely inspired by the author’s own journey. Now 45 years old, she was married at 17 by her uncles to a man 30 years older than her. As mayor of the town, he used his political influence to force the marriage. Like one of the heroines in her novel, Djaïli Amadou Amal had the courage to leave so that she could regain her independence and pursue her dreams.A feminist activist, she is now at the head of the association “Femmes du Sahel” which fights for women’s education. This selection for the Goncourt prize will give visibility to these issues, which are still little known in France.
