The Suns of Independence by Ahmadou Kourouma
I feel that fictitious women and their stories are often undermined by a story’s focus on men. Pain that women experience — whether emotional or physical — is often reduced or forgotten, and I see that it is sometimes included in a story to serve as a thrill that makes the story more exciting. The Suns of Independence centers around Fama and Salimata, who are both dealing with independent struggles that are interwoven because of their relationship. Although Salimata is searching for a way to have a child so that her husband’s legacy can be passed on, Kourouma highlights Salimata’s past in a way that brings it to the forefront of the story, especially as far as the emotional aspect of the novel. Too often, fictitious women in literature remain removed from the forefront of the story unless their purpose in the plot relates to romance. One may argue that Salimata’s story is secondary to and relies on Fama’s excursion and that she does not actually contribute to the “serious” or “practical” matter of the story, but I feel that Salimata’s struggles are just as serious and just as essential to the story. Her past is presented without embellishments, not to be hidden by romantic elements, and her story is not hidden in juxtaposition with Fama’s story.
As a creative response to this reading, I have drawn my representation of women’s pain, which is too often reduced in fiction and in real life.
It takes a lot for women’s words to be heard and our pain to be taken seriously. As opposed to a face of humanity, we have to speak with anger and rage in order to be heard — I represented this with the horn which replaces the head. This person is literally falling apart and has burn marks everywhere, and the arms are mutilated. I wanted to create something that truly symbolized pain, but in a visual way.