A review by lepasseportlitteraire
La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

✨ Okomo is an orphan teenager, a Bastarda living with her strict grandmother and her polygamous grandfather. Wishing to find her father she will seek the help of her gay uncle and a group of girls engaging in « indecent » acts: everything she does will allow Okomo to question herself about Fang traditions, her way of seeing the world, and she will never be the same.

✨ I never fail to be surprised by how much a short book such as La Bastarda can be so impactful and striking. In its slightly more than 100 pages, it manages to not only tell a complete story and create deep empathy with the main characters, but it also manages to address various themes such as the role of tradition in society and personal lives, the theme of sexuality and how sexual identity comes to clash with the concept of « real Africanness ». 

✨ Can a man who does not honor his duty to procreate define himself as a real African? Can a woman who is not married as soon as she « bleeds » be considered a real African woman? How being homosexual can impact these duties society expects its member to abide by? I was naively unaware of this problem of Un-Africanness and the place the debates held in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights on the continent, which is why I particularly appreciated Abosede George's afterword at the end of the novel.