Les figures spatio-temporelles dans le roman africain subsaharien ...

source de valeur et d’autorité. La description de cet espace
domestique est révélatrice d’autres significations. En dehors de son
espace domestique, un autre lieu de prédilection de Koomson est la
boîte de nuit l’Atlantic-Caprice. La résidence du Panorama met en
lumière le moyen de l’acquisition des biens matériels. Le salon de
Koomson brille de mille feux :
« It was amazing how much light there was in a place like this.
It glinted off every objet in the room. Next to each ashtray there
were two shiny things: a silver box and small toy-like pistol.
The man wondered what the pistols were for. Light came off the
marble tops of the little side tables. People had wondered what
use the State Marble Works Corporation could be. They need
not have wondered. There were uses here. The room itself was
only half of the larger space. To the right of the door was what
seemed to be the dining room, though whenever he turned
round in his seat to look at it, all the man could see was a row
of glass-covered shelves and with a multitude of polished
dishes and glasses. The sitting room was cut off by a long, high
frame, beautiful polished, also with shelves all covered with
small, intricate objects that must have come from foreign lands,
though of what use they were the man could not decide. To his
own left there was one of the new television sets, and then
farther on the corner was filled by two large contraptions whose
outsides were highly polished wood. One of them the man
recognized as a radio set, though it was amazingly large. The
other he found impossible to place. Then there were five deep,
soft chairs, all with red cushions, and a carpet on the noiseless
floor. There were also the two sofas. » 233
233 A.K. Armah, The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, op. cit., p. 145-146. « On
était étonné de constater la luminosité de cette pièce. Elle éclatait sur tous les
objets. A côté de chaque cendrier, il y avait deux éléments brillants : une
boîte d’argent et un pistolet miniature. L’homme se demanda à quoi servaient
les pistolets. La lumière irradiait du plateau de marbre des tables basses. Des
gens s’étaient demandé à quoi pouvait bien servir une Société Marbrière
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