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Ferdinand Oyono

45 quotes

“I thought I had married a man, a real man… instead I married an arse-full of shit. My Children, my poor children – sold like the Lord who was sold by Judas…”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A good hunter is like a whore, you can smell one a mile of.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, road, daughter of all our labour, lead me to the white man!”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My future parents-in-law had asked me for a bundle of stock-fish so that I could marry their daughter according to civil rites. I have already given them thirty thousand francs, a case of beer, a pith-helmet, a sack of salt, three matchets, three sheep, a water-bucket, a cast-iron cooking pot, and a sack of rice. All that was left was the stock fish.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A panther-rat runs along the path. He knows where he is going.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fuck off out of here! Go on get out of my hut!”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you heart begins to beat when you get to the end of your journey, retrace your steps.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All these people who pretended they had come to grieve with Meka were just dogs.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O man with the electric torch. God has sent you to me. Come and help me to find the path leading to the location….”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Get up, you pig! Where are your papers? Where have you come from? What are you doing fucking around here?”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My son, you are young enough to be my son, why do you want to shed blood as old as your own father’s? Why do you want to bring a curse on you and your…”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cover up your dirty old arse and show me your papers!”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Brother,’ he said. ‘Brother, what are we? What are we blackmen who are called French?”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today, Father Vandermayer came back from the bush. He has brought five women with him. It seems they are Christians that he has taken away from their polygamous husband. Five more boarders for the Sixas. If they knew the work there is waiting for them here, they would have stayed behind with their husband.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But for me, it is more than mourning. I have died my first death….”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall be the Chief European's boy. The dog of a king is a king of dogs.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My master is thickset. His legs have great muscles like the legs of a pedlar. He is the kind of man we call 'mahogany-trunk' because the trunk of the mahogany tree is so strong that it never bends in a storm. I am not a storm. I am the thing that obeys.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With that he shot out a kick to my shins that sent me sprawling under the table. The Commandant's kick was even more painful than the kick of the late father Gilbert. He seemed pleased with his effort.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the first alarm I was jostled, then knocked down and trampled on. I could feel the Greek's dog at my heel. I shall never know how I managed to get to my feet and to climb up to the top of the huge mango tree. There I took refuge. The Europeans were laughing and pointing up to the top of the tree where I was hiding. The Commandant was laughing as well. He had not recognized me. How could he recognize me? All Africans look the same to them.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He had not remembered me. How might he remember me? All Africans appear to be identical to them.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was alleviated by this discovery. It executed something within me … I realized I ought to never be startled of the Commandant again.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Commandant trod on my fingers as he went out. I did not cry out. He did not turn round.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before them, the statue of Holy person Subside, who had been so darkened by the climate that he could have gone for an African, was roosted dubiously on a sort of steeple at such an edge, that it looked as though in a little while he would come toppling down.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Son of a dog," he said to me, "where is your master?”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life, he says, is like the chameleon, changing colour all the time.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The elephant does not rot in a secret place.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He let me go. Through the darkness I saw his white hands move in a gesture of disgust as if he had touched something unclean.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, these whites, she burst out. The dog can die of hunger beside his master's meat. They don't bury the goat up to the horns. They bury him altogether.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not the wolf that cries, but the goat.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everybody told his own little African story to refute him and demonstrate that the African is a child or a fool.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They lamented 'the Martyr' as they called Father Gilbert because he died on African soil.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The river does not go back to its spring.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth lies beyond the mountains. You must travel to find it.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I talk it is because I have a mouth. If I see, it is because I have eyes. The eye goes farther and faster than the mouth, nothing stops it...”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since when does the pot rub itself against the hammer?”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is the white man's neighbour only other white men? Who can go on believing the stuff we are served up in the churches when things happen like I saw today...”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two worlds," said Baklu, "ours is a world of respect and mystery and magic. Their world brings everything in the daylight, even the things that weren't meant to be.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When will you grasp that for the whites, you are only alive to do their work and for no other reason. I am the cook. The white man does not see me except with his stomach.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our ancestors used to say you must escape when the water is still only up to the knees.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are things one prefers not to think about but that doesn't mean one forgets about them.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing today, except steadily mounting hostility from the Commandant. He is becoming completely wild. Kicks and insults have started again. He thinks this humiliates me and he can't find any other way. He forgets that it is all part of my job as a houseboy, a job which holds no more secrets for me. I wonder why he too refers to me as 'Monsieur Toundi'.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Commandant trod on my left hand. He was talking to Madame at the time and he went on talking as if he hadn't noticed. He managed to bring his foot down while I was off my guard, giving his boots a final polish before he went out. He has no memory and no imagination. He forgets he has already tried this on me and it did not make me cry out. As the first time he just walked on without looking round but this time he went jauntily like a man who feels pleased with himself.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I went back to the refrigerator and took the opportunity when the Commander was not looking to spit just a few tiny specks spittle into the clean glass I was filling. He drank it down and put the glass back on the tray without looking at me. He waved me away with a nervous movement of the back of his hand.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My happiness has neither day nor night. I didn't know about it, it just burst upon my whole being. I will sing to my flute, I will sing on the banks of rivers, but no words can express my happiness. I have held the hand of my queen. I felt that I was really alive. From now on my hand is sacred and must not know the lower regions of my body. My hand belongs to my queen whose hair is the colour of ebony, with eyes that are like the antelope's, whose skin is pink and white as ivory. A shudder ran through my body at the touch of her tiny moist hand, She trembled like a flower dancing in the breeze. My life was mingling with hers at the touch of her hand. Her smile is refreshing as a spring of water. Her look is as warm as a ray from the setting sun. It bathes you in a light that warms the depths of the heart. I am afraid... afraid of myself...”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“M. Moreau is right, we must have hard head. Ndjangoula brought down his rifle butt the first time, I thought their skulls would shatter. I could not hold myself from shaking as I watched. It was terrible. I thought of all the priests, all the pastors, all the white men, who came to save our souls and preach love of our neighbours. Is the white man's neighbour only other white men? Who can go on believing the stuff we are served up in the churches when things like I saw today. It will be the usual thing. M. Moreau's suspects will be sent to the 'Blackman's Grave' where they will spend a few days painfully dying. Then they will be buried naked in the prisoners' cemetery. On Sunday, the priest will say, 'Dearly beloved brethren, pray for all those prisoners who die without making their peace with God. M. Moreau will present his up-turned topee to the faithful. Everyone will put in a little more than he had intended. All the money goes to the whites. They are always thinking up new ways to get back what little money they pay us. How wretched we are.”
Ferdinand Oyono (1929–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source