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Marcel Melthérorong: Tôghàn
This book is apparently the first ever Vanuatan novel and is clearly autobiographical. Vanuatu was formerly the New Hebrides, wasshared between France and the UK before independence. The introduction was written by French Nobel Prize winner J. M. G. Le Clézio who praises the book and discuses the colonial exploitation, referring to blackbirding when the local population were taken by force to work on plantations in Fiji and Queensland. Melthérorong will, as we shall see, refer to colonial exploitation more than once in this book.
Our hero is Tôghàn. His parents were born in Vanuatu but, for financial reasons moved to New Caledonia, where Tôghàn and his siblings were born. He has never visited Vanuatu. Tôghàn is the third of four children. When young it was his mother who introduced him to black magic, witchcraft, good and evil spirits. His father was an alcoholic and beat up his wife but then changed and had worked hard to look after his family.
When we first meet Tôghàn he is under arrest, not for the first time. He and his friends Roukin and Apash had allegedly been snubbed by Eric who had ignored them and looked down on them because they were Melanesian. As they passed his flat,after having drunk a bit and smoked some weed, they decide to break in. They make themselves at home, eating, drinking and watching TV. We do not learn how they were caught but we know they are sent to a prison called Camp Est. Tôghàn is not in the same cell as the other two.
He meets other prisoners, including Séba who is in jail for murder. They seem to spend their time chatting and playing cards. Tôghàn receives a visit from his older sister Helly. She will come later with her son, Gash. Gash’s father has disappeared as he was wanted by the police. The boy clearly looks up to Tôghàn. Helly is not too critical but does suggest that her kid brother as she keeps calling him should give up the booze and drugs, finish high school (he has dropped out) and consider going to university.
Her comments and being stuck in jail have an effect on him. He does think about colonialism and how the Kanaks (the people of New Caledonia) have been repressed and brutalised by the French, particularly when seeking independence. However he also thinks about his own life and how he has gone wrong and turned to the dark side. In his mind he apologises to his parents for his bad behaviour.
He is still on remand but eventually gets a letter giving him a date for a trial and he he hopes he will be released after the trial with the time he has already served (four months) being considered suitable punishment.
When he goes to the trial he meets David, a fellow prisoner who is from Vanuatu who tells him about Vanuatu and how wonderful it is. Like Tôghàn his parents were from Vanuatu but he was born there and only came to New Caledonia when he was fifteen.
The trial does not go as well as he hoped and he has to serve more time which gives him more time to think – about Vanuatu, about his relationship with his father, and which is not good, about French colonialism.
When he is finally released from prison, the guard says See you next time!. He assures the guard that there will not be a next time . They all say that says the guard and they all come back. However we and he know that like the author, he is going to start a new life in Vanuatu.
It is good to have a Vanuatuan novel and Melthérorong tells a good story of s young man gone wrong who is determined to go right and find his roots, against the bckground of colonialism.
Publishing history
First published in 2007 by Alliance française, Vanuatu
No English translation