A Season in Rihata by Maryse Condé

First published:Une Saison à Rihata, 1981 (English translation, 1988)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of plot: Late twentieth century

Locale: Rihata and Farokodoba, Africa

Principal characters

• Zek, a forty-three-year-old manager of a bank agency
• Marie-Hélène, his wife
• Madou, Zek’s younger half brother and minister for rural development
• Victor, a man who kills Madou
• Muti, Victor’s aunt
• President Toumany, a dictator
• Sory, a singer
• Dawad, the regional secretary
• Christophe, Zek and Marie-Hélène’s nephew
• Sia, Zek and Marie-Hélène’s oldest daughter

The Story:

For two days, the residents of Rihata await the arrival of Madou. When he arrives in Rihata to commemorate the anniversary of President Toumany’s overthrow of the previous government, Zek and several local officials greet him at the airport and take him to a reception in his honor. Afterward, Madou goes to Zek’s home and tells Zek’s wife, Marie-Hélène, that he plans to leave Rihata for the village of Farokodoba soon to meet with officials from a neighboring country as a representative of President Toumany.

Madou and Inawale, his chauffeur, arrive in Farokodoba. While Madou negotiates with the men representing Lopez de Arias, the leader of the neighboring country, Inawale wanders around the village, followed by a man named Victor. Victor convinces Inawale to go to a bar with him and puts a drug in Inawale’s drink. Victor steals Inawale’s money and gun, after trying to find out from him why Madou is in the village. Victor and two of his friends who were at the bar go to see Muti, Victor’s aunt, and tell her what Victor did to Inawale. Muti is angry because she suspects that the police will soon be looking for them. Her concerns prove to be justified. She is arrested after a Toumany supporter tells Madou of Muti’s relationship with the individual who drugged and robbed Inawale. When Victor finds out that Muti was arrested and taken to Rihata, he goes there to assist her.

Upon arriving in Rihata, Victor goes to a bar. By coincidence, Zek enters the same bar. When Victor discovers his relationship to Madou, he follows Zek out of the bar. Victor tells Zek that he is heading to N’Daru, the capital, to see his brother, but that he needs a place to stay overnight. Zek allows him to stay in his garage. The following morning, Victor learns from Christophe, Zek’s nephew, the location of Madou’s residence. After leaving Zek’s home, Victor heads to another bar. A procession of vehicles passes by the bar, and Victor finds out that people involved in the assault against Inawale are being taken to N’Daru in the procession. Victor heads back to Zek’s house and sees Madou and Marie-Hélène talking with each other. Victor decides to kill Madou in retribution for Muti’s arrest.

On Saturday, the market day, Zek, Christophe, and several public officials attend the name-giving ceremony for Sory’s newborn son. Sory also invites Victor because it is customary to invite strangers to such events. Sory sings a song about greedy government officials, which offends Dawad, the regional secretary. Angry over Sory’s song, Dawad has Sory arrested several days later. Madou attends a play supporting President Toumany that is put on by the ruling party’s youth. During the performance, the lights go out and tracts criticizing President Toumany are placed on chairs. When the lights are turned back on and Madou sees a tract on his seat, he tears it up and leaves while the police search for the culprits.

The next day, the police bring three men who allegedly are responsible for the tracts to the police station. That day, Madou goes to Zek’s home to see Marie-Hélène but finds out from her daughter Sia that Marie-Hélène is at the hospital giving birth. When Madou goes back to his villa, Victor is waiting for him with a gun. During the confrontation between Madou and Victor, Marie-Hélène’s son is born; Zek names him Elikia, which means hope in his native language. When he goes home from the hospital, Zek learns from his neighbor that Madou was shot.

Victor is arrested immediately after shooting Madou. Marie-Hélène is discharged from the hospital, and Zek arrives to pick her up. When she and Zek go home, she begins to think about what happened to Madou. She wants him to live because of their past romantic relationship and his promise to assist Zek in obtaining a position as an embassy attaché.

Victor, Sory, and other individuals accused of antigovernment activities are transported to the police station in N’Daru to await trial. Marie-Hélène visits Madou in the hospital and tells him she has a son. He feels a sadness, for the happiest periods of his life were with her. Later, she returns to the hospital with Sia. Madou feels that Sia loves him and understands the relationship he had with her mother. When Madou’s wife enters later that day, he convinces himself before he dies that he was a good husband for providing her with food, shelter, money, and clothes.

When Zek hears on the radio of his brother’s death, he has mixed feelings. Zek decides he can forgive and forget about his brother’s affair with his wife now that he is dead, yet he also laments that he might never obtain a position as an embassy attaché. Zek goes to his wife’s bedroom and tells her the news about Madou. President Toumany decrees a national mourning period and orders the execution of all those involved with Madou’s death. He believes that he can use Madou’s death to his advantage to destroy enemies of the government and bring forth allies. Ironically, the president decides to appoint Madou as prime minister of the country, although he is dead.

Bibliography

Alexander, Simone A. James. Mother Imagery in the Novels of Afro-Caribbean Women. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. Examines the complex images of motherhood in the work of Condé, Paule Marshall, and Jamaica Kincaid. Alexander maintains that these writers depict an “intricate trichotomous relationship” among the biological or surrogate mother, the mother lands of Africa and the Caribbean, and the mother countries of England, France, and/or North America that reflects their experiences with colonialism or colonial intervention.

Barbour, Sarah, and Gerise Herndon, eds. Emerging Perspectives on Maryse Condé: A Writer of Her Own. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2006. Collection of essays interpreting Condé’s novels. The editors’ introduction places Condé’s work within the context of political and theoretical discussions about women’s writing, writing from the African diaspora, and global literature.

Broichhagen, Vera, Kathryn Lachman, and Nicole Simek, eds. Feasting on Words: Maryse Condé, Cannibalism, and the Caribbean Text. Princeton, N.J.: Latin American Studies, Princeton University, 2006. Includes an extended interview with Condé and ten critical essays by participants in a conference held at Princeton University in 2004. Some of the essays focus on her novel Histoire de la femme cannibale (2003; The Story of the Cannibal Woman, 2007), but others provide more general interpretations of her fiction.

Fulton, Dawn. Signs of Dissent: Maryse Condé and Postcolonial Criticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008. Fulton interprets Condé’s work from the perspective of postcolonial theory.

Hewitt, Leah D. “Inventing Antillean Narrative: Maryse Condé and Literary Tradition.” Studies in Twentieth Century Literature 17, no. 1 (Winter, 1993): 79-96. A thoughtful analysis of the themes in Condé’s works, including A Season in Rihata. Also examines Condé’s narrative technique, pointing out the similarities between William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Condé’s Crossing the Mangrove.

Suk, Jeannie. Postcolonial Paradoxes in French Caribbean Writing: Césaire, Glissant, Condé. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. A postcolonial analysis of works by French Caribbean writers. A Season in Rihata is discussed in chapter 4, “Archetypal Returns: Heremakhonon and Une Saison a Rihata.”