El Hadji Abdou Kader is a rich and powerful man in the emerging middle class of 1970s Senegal, who got that way through some…creative…business practices. A member of the showy “Businessman’s Group” who considers the President a close friend, he lives in post-colonial luxury: two wives, two villas, a chauffeur, etc. El Hadji decides to take a third wife, N’Gone, to the dismay of his first two wives and their children, and throws an ostentatious celebration. But things go wrong on his (third) wedding night: he has been cursed with a sudden xala–impotency. Humiliated and anxious, his search for a cure affects his whole life: seeing seers and healers no matter the price (and the price is always high, since they can see him driving up in a Mercedes.) His checks begin to bounce. His business associates begin to distance themselves. His wives quarrel with each other and with him; his new wife and her family discuss divorce–and keeping the expensive wedding gifts–because he can’t be a “true” husband. I won’t give away the ending–let’s just say he gets what’s coming to him!
This is a dark, funny, short, frank parable. It’s only a bit over 100 pages, so there’s hardly time for character development and florid descriptions; each character is very deliberate, their dialogue can be biting, and there’s a lot of depth and nuance packed into this tale. It’s a story about the ways that the privileged take advantage of their fellow countrymen and women and the short-shortsightedness of sexual and material appetites. It’s about (economic) style–luxurious weddings, Mercedes– over (economic) substance–a Businessman’s Group that can actually do something.
The writing is straightforward; there’s no flourish. It took me about an hour to read. And the translation (from the original French) seemed fine, although there were a number of typos in the Kindle edition. An easy but very thought-provoking read.
(Nine of ten African books! One more to go.)
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