Melancholia Africana: The Indispensable Overcoming of the Black Condition is a book about possibility. It is about reciprocity—about becoming. But it is also about tears, loss, and survival. Existential Francophone theorist Nathalie Etoke introduces us, through a fine approach not only to her history, but also to the story of an “Us.” Through her wounds/words, Etoke destabilizes the limits that have been imposed on that “Us.” How to overcome that initial catastrophe for which African descendants still pay? How to understand and take responsibility of the irreparable in order to create another world, another humanity?
In a rejection of fatalism that permeates the present, Etoke introduces us to a place where it is permissible to demand the impossible. To carry out this act, she makes use of the concept melancholia africana. Defined as “an aesthetic of suffering confronted with a refusal to die” (11), what Etoke points out is seen as impossible: the ability to act and go beyond the conditions imposed from institutions that gave way to structural violence of enslavement and colonialism.
This book, translated from the original French by Bill Hamlett, contains a foreword by Lewis R. Gordon, who begins it by pointing out that “to say that this award-winning book is a testament to Frantz Fanon’s famous inaugural work Black Skin, White Masks is without exaggeration” (ix). There is no doubt about this statement, but I dare to point out that this book is an ode to Fanon’s entire work and that Etoke gives continuity to the psychiatrist’s work, as well as that of W.E.B. Du Bois through her concept of for/giving.
For Fanon, a new humanity is necessary, but beyond knowing that a “new humanity” is indispensable, it needs to be taken into account that this will happen by taking action so that this possibility appears. This will happen if there are new creators and, therefore, their creations will give way to other possibilities. Etoke is one of those new creators, and that is demonstrated in this book through the formulation of for/giving, which is an act that is not imposed, that frees from a debt and the impulses, both of the victim’s and the aggressor’s, and which at the same time makes the parties recognize their vulnerability. The discussions about how to obtain/achieve for/giving through art are remarkably articulated by bringing key examples from Black aesthetics. Her consideration about spirituals and jazz exposes us to the potentiality that exists within the reinvention that arises from a suffering, from the rejection of both nothingness and impossibility.
Etoke also reveals which are the different concerns that can limit the potentiality to reach for/giving. The fatalism that characterizes the status quo, oblivion, and the search for legitimation or recognition from the Other are some examples, all of which arise from a pathological individualism. The book suggests the possibility of overcoming these limitations that are often rooted in an attempt to be liberated from the past. A careful reading of the book will reveal the need of that past, because to think about it “reminds the present of its responsibilities. A present established on the ruins and stelae of what survived the destruction and what was born of it” (15). For Etoke, more than a liberation from the past, the fundamental mechanism is the creation of acts through these experiences.
This book is solidly written, and it can be used for research that ranges from Africana existential thought and critical theory to literary theory. The book achieves, in short, one of the main goals of the series editors—Jane A. Gordon and Neil Roberts—to which this book belongs, Creolizing the Canon, namely, to blur and also transcend the borders of the seemingly impossible.
Stephanie Mercado-Irizarry
Stephanie Mercado-Irizarry is pursuing her PhD in Literatures, Cultures and Languages at the University of Connecticut. She possesses an M.A. in Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies from said institution, and received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her transdisciplinary research focuses on contemporary Puerto Rican literature and muralism.
