The Trace of a Machete: Reading cultural transmission and transgression in Justine Mintsa’s Histoire d’Awu Obame Afane was six years old when his paternal grandmother gives him the machete with which she had once used to cut his umbilical cord. She had said that she used it because he showed his head first to the “Door of Life”, which, for her, was a sign that he would be an honorable man. She gave it to him during the week that he was circumcised, and asked him to watch over the wellbeing of the descendants. Based on the meaning that his grandmother gave to the machete, Obame Afane strove to honor her memory by being accountable and generous. But after his retirement, his world fell apart for lack of pension. This change led him to question the meaning of the machete. I analyze the controversial meaning of the machete in Obame Afane’s hands based on a comparative approach to phenomenology between Georges Poulet, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida.

The Trace of a Machete: Reading cultural transmission and transgression in Justine Mintsa’s Histoire d’Awu Obame Afane was six years old when his paternal grandmother gives him the machete with which she had once used to cut his umbilical cord. She had said that she used it because he showed his head first to the “Door of Life”, which, for her, was a sign that he would be an honorable man. She gave it to him during the week that he was circumcised, and asked him to watch over the wellbeing of the descendants. Based on the meaning that his grandmother gave to the machete, Obame Afane strove to honor her memory by being accountable and generous. But after his retirement, his world fell apart for lack of pension. This change led him to question the meaning of the machete. I analyze the controversial meaning of the machete in Obame Afane’s hands based on a comparative approach to phenomenology between Georges Poulet, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida.