Neither Here nor There: Calixthe Beyala's Collapsing Homes

Abstract

A voluntary exile from Cameroon, her native land, Calixthe Beyala has chosen France as her space of enunciation. This movement from former colony to former colonial power, an apparent repudiation of Africa for Europe, raises the question of the identity of home for Beyala. Where is home, for starters? On the one hand, can the country that has colonized your native land and is still refusing to acknowledge your existence be called home? On the other, can the homeland that failed to perform its nurturing function and that you have left in search of more hospitable places still be called home? The author's displacement has resulted in an ambiguity and ambivalence towards the idea of home that she has expressed directly or indirectly in her interviews, essays, and above all in her fiction.

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