Ferdinand Oyono Quotes

1929–2010 Cameroon

Ferdinand Oyono (14 September 1929 – 10 June 2010) was a diplomat, politician and author from Cameroon. His literary work is recognised for a sense of irony that reveals how easily people can be fooled.

Cameroon
Novelists
Politicians

Also known as: Houseboy

Random Ferdinand Oyono quote

35 quotes

They lamented 'the Martyr' as they called Father Gilbert because he died on African soil.

Houseboy (1956)

The Commandant trod on my fingers as he went out. I did not cry out. He did not turn round.

Houseboy (1956)

But for me, it is more than mourning. I have died my first death….

Houseboy (1956)

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...

Houseboy (1956)

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.

Houseboy (1956)

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...

Houseboy (1956)

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…

The Old Man and the Medal (1956)

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.

Houseboy (1956)

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.

Houseboy (1956)

Get up, you pig! Where are your papers? Where have you come from? What are you doing fucking around here?

The Old Man and the Medal (1956)

O man with the electric torch. God has sent you to me. Come and help me to find the path leading to the location….

The Old Man and the Medal (1956)

He had not remembered me. How might he remember me? All Africans appear to be identical to them. ”

Houseboy (1956)

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…

The Old Man and the Medal (1956)

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.

Houseboy (1956)

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.

Houseboy (1956)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ferdinand Oyono (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.