Cameroon is slightly under the horn of Africa:
Here's the description:
A novel of considerable power and complexity from the pen of one of Cameroon's greatest modern writers, Mongo Beti (1932-2001), The Poor Christ of Bomba is a biting critique of colonial life and the destructive influence of French Catholic missionary activities in Cameroon.
Written as a journal of a young priest's assistant, the satirical novel tells the story of a missionary in the 1930s. In Bomba, the girls who are being prepared for Christian marriage live together in the women's camp. It is not clear whether the girls have to stay in the women's camp for such long periods for the good of their souls or for the good of the mission-building program. Only gradually does it become apparent that the local churchmen have also been using the local girls for their own purpose. The priest realizes the futility and pointlessness of attempting to convert Africans who, as he concludes, already worshipped God in their own way.
The Moore translation is a must read for all who wish to come to terms with colonialism and the peculiar role of the Church in the projection of White Power.
I also want to add a small passage the author added before the actual book starts:
"I don't wish to deceive the reader. There has never been a Reverend Father Superior Drumont in African experience. probably there never will be one--not if I know my Africa. That would be too much luck for us.
The Africans who swarm in these pages have been taken straight from life. And there is no incident here which is not strictly and demonstrably authentic." M.B. (I'll get back to this later)
Well, I knew from the get-go that this book would be unpleasant. You've got a white priest going on a tour through the bush, acting all high and mighty and basically just telling everyone they're godless and terrible. But the scandal begins to break and he changes; starting to listen to the villagers and asking their opinions on why they're not more interested in the religion. Finally he decides that he's wasting his time; the fact is they're not interested and he realizes that the missionaries basically came in and just told them all to change their lives. So he decides he's a failure and should go back to France, because he's pretty exacting and doesn't leave much room for people to have faults.
I did start to feel sorry for him though. He did care about his flock and did his best, though he seemed to be quite naive.
So, le scandale. (It's referenced in the description so I won't be providing any big spoilers). There's this women's camp that engaged girls have to go to before they can have a Christian wedding, which they call the sixa. (I tried to look this up but couldn't find any information; I'm not sure if it's a local or historical thing or what). The guy running the sixa was not a good guy and was basically forcing the girls into sex work for most of the guys in the missionary. This is bad enough, but the uninvolved parties kept blaming the women.
In fact, this was a running theme in the book. This was so fucking infuriating! The women were basically blamed for everything, including things that the men did. One example is a guy who gets caught cheating. His wife finds out and beats the crap out of the mistress. The husband then feels that the wife should be beaten for her actions, and gets some agreement. Because the wife had recently had a baby so he should be allowed to cheat...?
That's basically when they start hearing about the scandal. So they get back to the mission and Father Drumont wants to interrogate the girls about what's going on. How does he conduct this interrogation, you ask? By beating them of course. And telling them how wicked they are. All while they're explaining that if they hadn't slept with these men their lives would have been made hell. Not that any of them are having a great time; the conditions they're living in are deplorable, they have very little food, and most end up getting STDs.
Of course, I couldn't help but make the connection with all of the church scandals that are now coming out from the 60s and 70s in the US. The difference is that in reality the scandals were just covered up, and in the book the entire mission was disbanded. Oh, also the priest in the book didn't take part and at least wanted people to be punished.
I went back to read the author's added pre-message a few times throughout the story. At first it made no sense. I thought the priest was a huge ass who didn't give any room for real life circumstances. But by the end I got it and it made me sad. What first struck me was the second section--the one that said the people and situations were pulled straight from everyday life. Then I went back to Beti saying that Africa wouldn't be lucky enough to have a Father Drumont. My interpretation was he wished there had been someone who understood that missionaries firstly came into Africa, a place where the people already had their own customs and beliefs, and tried to push the Christian religion on them. (Which essentially is the whole point of a missionary, I guess). Further, that the Father realized shoving it down their throats wouldn't work, and maybe didn't need to. Lastly, that these terrible events were happening right under his nose and took steps to end it, and take some steps of correction.
This one got to me more than I expected it to. With the current Me Too climate, I think there are a lot of historical (and not so historical) problems that we need to at least be made aware of; to understand some of how they were allowed to happen. It all makes my brain hurt.
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