Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

Rating:
Summary: A Political Parable of Postcolonial Africa
Review: This 1998 work by French-speaking Africa's premier novelist is a vehemently outspoken satire of despotic and corrupt African regimes from the 1960s to the 1990s. It's the life story of Koyaga, dictator and "founding father" of the fictitious West African state called the Republique du Golfe. Koyaga's history is recounted over the course of a "donsomana," a six-night storytelling by a hunters' bard, and the novel reflects this in its six-part form, interspersed with asides and proverbs drawn from the author's Malinke roots.

Koyaga himself is an interesting and contradictory character, despite remaining rather underdeveloped as the author concentrates on his political rather than personal life. He's a military strongman who took power through innumerable assassinations and acts of brutality. But Koyaga isn't portrayed as evil--in fact he seems to be beloved by his countrymen, at least those who aren't constantly trying to kill him. The reader is introduced to and immersed in the perspective of the African tyrant, one who after three decades in power has begun to believe his own self-serving propaganda.

The most interesting sections of "Waiting for the Vote" are those depicting Koyaga's visits to his fellow African dictators. Here the novelist gives us very thinly disguised versions of autocratic regimes of days gone by--Sekou Toure's Guinea, Felix Houpouet-Boigny's Cote d'Ivoire, Bokassa's Central African Empire, Mobutu's Zaire, and even the Morocco of King Hassan II. Each of these leaders lets Koyaga in on his own secrets to maintaining power, and gives him fatherly advice on preserving his own grip. We see otherwise kindly and respected statesmen who jail and torture their own friends, just to be sure of their loyalty. We see presidents who make no distinction between personal and public wealth; it's all theirs for the taking. And we see wily survivors who outwit countless threats to their rule and their lives, clinging to power in the face of tremendous opposition at home and abroad. Koyaga takes all their lessons to heart and becomes a master of the game of political survival.

All this makes for great commentary, but how does fit into a novel? In presenting these images, "Waiting for the Vote" loses some of its narrative punch. The reader, if she's been reading the papers at all over the last decade, already knows how things are going to come out. We know that the 1990s will usher in a wave of "democratization" and "transparent government" in Africa, curbing (though not ending) the continent's autocratic excesses. But along the way we get a rare insight into what it's like to be a dictator, to have an entire nation singing your praises while simultaneously resenting you and, time after time, trying to assassinate you.

With such keen observations of the modern African political scene, why must Kourouma resort to putting his fictional gloss on actual events? Why not simply come out with a collection of trenchant essays? The likely answer is that if he were to describe Houphouet-Boigny or King Hassan II the same way he describes their fictionalized stand-ins, his books would likely be banned in those countries where he'd most want them to be read. "Waiting for the Vote" gets as close as it can to political expose without quite crossing that line into dangerous territory.

Rating:
Summary: A Political Parable of Postcolonial Africa
Review: This 1998 work by French-speaking Africa's premier novelist is a vehemently outspoken satire of despotic and corrupt African regimes from the 1960s to the 1990s. It's the life story of Koyaga, dictator and "founding father" of the fictitious West African state called the Republique du Golfe. Koyaga's history is recounted over the course of a "donsomana," a six-night storytelling by a hunters' bard, and the novel reflects this in its six-part form, interspersed with asides and proverbs drawn from the author's Malinke roots.

Koyaga himself is an interesting and contradictory character, despite remaining rather underdeveloped as the author concentrates on his political rather than personal life. He's a military strongman who took power through innumerable assassinations and acts of brutality. But Koyaga isn't portrayed as evil--in fact he seems to be beloved by his countrymen, at least those who aren't constantly trying to kill him. The reader is introduced to and immersed in the perspective of the African tyrant, one who after three decades in power has begun to believe his own self-serving propaganda.

The most interesting sections of "Waiting for the Vote" are those depicting Koyaga's visits to his fellow African dictators. Here the novelist gives us very thinly disguised versions of autocratic regimes of days gone by--Sekou Toure's Guinea, Felix Houpouet-Boigny's Cote d'Ivoire, Bokassa's Central African Empire, Mobutu's Zaire, and even the Morocco of King Hassan II. Each of these leaders lets Koyaga in on his own secrets to maintaining power, and gives him fatherly advice on preserving his own grip. We see otherwise kindly and respected statesmen who jail and torture their own friends, just to be sure of their loyalty. We see presidents who make no distinction between personal and public wealth; it's all theirs for the taking. And we see wily survivors who outwit countless threats to their rule and their lives, clinging to power in the face of tremendous opposition at home and abroad. Koyaga takes all their lessons to heart and becomes a master of the game of political survival.

All this makes for great commentary, but how does fit into a novel? In presenting these images, "Waiting for the Vote" loses some of its narrative punch. The reader, if she's been reading the papers at all over the last decade, already knows how things are going to come out. We know that the 1990s will usher in a wave of "democratization" and "transparent government" in Africa, curbing (though not ending) the continent's autocratic excesses. But along the way we get a rare insight into what it's like to be a dictator, to have an entire nation singing your praises while simultaneously resenting you and, time after time, trying to assassinate you.

With such keen observations of the modern African political scene, why must Kourouma resort to putting his fictional gloss on actual events? Why not simply come out with a collection of trenchant essays? The likely answer is that if he were to describe Houphouet-Boigny or King Hassan II the same way he describes their fictionalized stand-ins, his books would likely be banned in those countries where he'd most want them to be read. "Waiting for the Vote" gets as close as it can to political expose without quite crossing that line into dangerous territory.