Our man in Africa
Our man in Africa (English original title: A Good Man in Africa ) is the German-language edition of the first novel by William Boyd , published in 1981 and awarded two prestigious British literary prizes . The German translation by Hermann Stiehl was published in 1994.
The novel is a black comedy and describes events in the life of a British consulate employee in the (fictional) West African state of Kinjanja.
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Morgan Leafy, first secretary at the British consulate in Nkongsamba, "the only major city in a small region in a not very important West African country", is being looked after with several unpleasant tasks at the same time: The wife of the consul Fanshawe entrusts him with the task of to play Santa Claus on the upcoming Christmas party; Fanshawe, in turn, looks after him with the "Project Kanapee", namely the careful contact - in the interests of British interests - with the expected winner of the upcoming parliamentary elections, Sam Adekunle, professor at the local university and chairman of the Kinjanjan National Party . Leafy owes a favor to that very Adekunle, so that in return he bribed Dr. Alex Murray, doctor and administrator at the university, calls for the sale of a large piece of land for building work for the university. Another task for Leafy is the urgently needed removal of the body of a local worker who was struck by lightning on the consulate premises. The latter task turns out to be a particular problem, because according to local superstition, those struck by lightning must undergo ritual treatment by a fetish priest before the funeral, which in the present case no one is willing to pay.
In the second part, the events that led to Leafy's involvement with Adekunle are told in the form of a flashback . Leafy - 34, 174 cm tall and an unfavorable weight of 98 kilograms - can secretly endure Hazel, a lover and occasional prostitute, although "his position ... makes him something of a socially desirable object". Hazel infects him with a venereal disease that gets him into trouble when he gets involved with Priscilla, the consul's attractive and not reluctant daughter, and gives him an irreparable rift with her. Only Dr. Murray, who prescribes penicillin and four weeks of abstinence. A short time later he meets Celia, Adekunle's English wife, with whom he starts a relationship. Adekunle catches him inflagranti and has him in hand from then on.
The third part drives events to a climax when a Duchess from England is expected to visit the consulate, but the staff go on strike because Leafy removed the rotting corpse in a night and fog operation (which he did in another nightly Action will go back). Events precipitate on Christmas Day. Adekunle upset the consulate with a completely exaggerated “state visit” to London, political clashes and a revolt at the university break out during the elections, from which Leafy only escapes with great difficulty. It all culminates on the one hand in Leafy's unexpected confrontation in Santa Claus costume with the Duchess in her bathtub. ("The Duchess stood there, limp and squat, completely naked except for a pale blue swimming cap.") And on the other hand in a game of Leafys golf with Dr. Murray, in the course of which Leafy desperately undertakes the planned attempt at bribery - which, as it will later turn out, has long since become obsolete. Eventually, Leafy discovers that Celia Adekunle's advances were nothing more than trying to get a UK visa with his help. In the end he is in bed with Mrs. Fanshawe.
Themes and motifs
Our man in Africa is a bitingly ironic satire both on the confrontation of different cultures and on the conditions in the young African states after the end of colonialism . Boyd undoubtedly refers to his own experiences as a child and adolescent in Africa, as he described them in 1998 in the autobiographical volume of essays Protobiography . In a playful way, the novel also confronts the old image of Africa of European diplomats, who see it as nothing more than the bottom rung of a career ladder, with the new Africa of a continent plagued by development difficulties, poverty and corruption. Boyd's revealing, grinning treatment of eroticism and sex contributes significantly to the ironic tone of the novel, because in the tension between heat, inactivity and weariness, "life in Africa ... has two pluses ...: beer and sex", so that On the one hand, Boyd's protagonist is constantly running around with a hangover, and on the other, he gets into strange erotic situations again and again.
Awards
filming
- A Good Man in Africa (also: The Last Hero of Africa )
expenditure
- English original edition: A Good Man in Africa , 1981 by Hamish Hamilton London
- German-language first edition: Our man in Africa , German by Hermann Stiehl; Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1994. ISBN 3-499-13459-4
- Paperback edition: Our man in Africa , same translation; Berlin: Berlin Taschenbuch Verlag 2008. ISBN 3-8333-0537-1
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ all quotations from: Our man in Africa, German by Hermann Stiehl; Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1994