Women and Their Struggle for Emancipation in Lopes' Oeuvre/la Femme Et Sa Lutte de Liberation Dans L'oeuvre D'henri Lopes‪.‬

Born in Kinshasa, Congo, on 12 September 1937, but a national of Congo (Brazzaville), Henri Lopes is one of those African writers who, were not only educated but also lived in Europe where a certain portion of their literary work was produced. Being a politician and writer, one can easily glean, through Lopes' works, a complete picture of despotic postcolonial mismanagement of political affairs coupled with a dire dearth of humanism. Literary works such as Tribaliques (Tribaliks, 1971), La nouvelle Romance (The New Romance, 1976), Sans tam-tam (Without Drum, 1977), Le Pleurer-Rire (The Crying-Laughter, 1982) and Sur l'autre rive (On the Other Shore, 1992) depict a particular worldview as well as an understanding of the overarching reality of a young Africa that had just attained political independence. However, while Lopes' works decry the shortcomings of Africa's postcolonial ruling class, it is important to note that the author appears to pay equal attention to questions relating to the perception and critical analysis of the status of women in Africa. Notwithstanding his male gender status, in his rather original approach, Lopes lends women a revolutionary voice with which they address and search for solutions to their problems themselves. Key words: African women, mission, struggle for emancipation. Une lecture attentive de l'oeuvre d'Henri Lopes conduirait maints lecteurs a revivre non seulement l'experience vitale d'une certaine Afrique traditionnelle mais encore a constater les defis d'une societe en pleine mutation. D'aucuns pourraient egalement entrevoir des parametres sociologiques dont l'ampleur aurait contraint l'auteur a la revolte dans son souci de voir sa societe se metamorphoser. Tel est le cas, en l'occurrence, de la question relative a la femme africaine, a sa vocation, a sa place et a son devenir social. En effet, la question de l'emancipation de la femme a toujours nourri les discussions litteraires de tous les temps. (1) Pourtant, Lopes ne s'y prend pas comme certains ecrivains qui, fideles a la tradition, apprehendent cette dialectique de maniere partiale et superficielle sans prendre en consideration les enjeux reels de la perspective emancipatrice de l'ecriture. Barbara Godard rapporte cette faiblesse qu'elle rencontre chez bon nombre d'ecrivains romantiques en ces termes: