Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Chirunduvon Es'kia Mphahlele
Keine Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
A burning house. Nsato the python. The symbols of destruction and of sexual power gone mad are two of the many and varied themes in Es'kia Mphahlele's second novel, originally published in 1979. Chimba Chirundu, ex-schoolmaster and now Minister of Transport and Public Works in a newly-independent African country, is brought to trial on a charge of bigamy laid by his wife Tirenje. Arrogant and power-hungry, wilful and morally ambiguous, Chirundu has to grapple with two sets of values: those of the traditional way of life in Africa, and those imposed by his country's erstwhile colonial rulers. A chorus of other voices illuminate this powerful story of corruption and conflict: Tirenje, Chirundu's country wife, whose moral strength derives from her rural roots; the worldly Monde, his town wife; Moyo, his idealistic nephew and the leader of a strike by transport workers; and the cynical Pitso and Letanka, jailed South African refugees. In often pungent language, and in an unmistakeably African idiom, Es'kia Mphahlele reveals the complexities and ambiguities of the post-colonial situation. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeine
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823Literature English English fictionKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: Keine Bewertungen.Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
Trust me, I have not spoiled the plot; the facts given above are all revealed quite early in the book.
The three sections are bracketed by chorus-like comic passages involving two refugee prisoners, from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Sometimes they converse with their visitors, Moyo or a South African teacher called Studs Letanka. The tale is set in a fictionalized Malawi immediately before and after independence, in the 1950s and '60s. There is a python motif throughout the book. The characters come from a kaleidoscope of ethnic groups: Bemba, Lozi, Tumbuka, Tonga [Chi]Nyanja, etc. History is invoked, and there are memories of wars with Ngoni and with Yao slave raiders. Studs Letanka says:
That’s a good sample of Mphahlele’s loquacious, unpolished, introspective style. This is a book of thoughts and anxieties about the future.