Frederick Yamusangie

I came across this book when I looking for authors from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire).

I wasn't far into the text before the flaws of this book become apparent. Spelling errors, incorrect punctuation, inconsistent use of tenses; all issues that the scrutiny of an editor would easily have remedied but can all too easily creep creep through in self-published books. If ever there was a book that cried out for a fresh pair of eyes, this was it.

It's a shame because there is a kernel of a good story in Full Circle. It follows the fortunes of Dada, the 10-year-old son of the Zairian Ambassador to the United Nations. When his father leaves to take up his new post in New York, Dada is despatched to live with an uncle in the village of Bulungu. The idea is to help prepare the boy for a future political career by embedding him in a community to learn about the culture and way of life of his native land. The experience is a culture shock for the boy who until now "has more knowledge of Western Europe than his own country." He is completely unprepared for the privations of Bulungu — a shack instead of an indoor bathroom, the lack of street lighting, the absence of cars. He also has to learn the rules of his new community and learn to make friends.

The community he comes to appreciate is one that holds strong moral values about kinship and respect for one's elders. Dada discovers this is also a superstitious community, one that believes the local river is inhabited by spirits who, when roused, take the form of child-snatching human crocodiles. It feels odd at first to him but he quickly realises this is just part of the normal way of life in Balungu, not anything to get worked up about. And so at lunch with his teacher one day he is told not to worry about the snake in the henhouse; it's simply a reincarnation of her aunt.

Beneath the surface of calm in this community however are deepening divides between factions who want to exert control even to the extent of forming secret societies whose power will extend well beyond the Congo, even to America. Dada is the innocent who gets caught up in their struggle.

I gained some interesting insights about the customs and beliefs of this region by reading this book. Unfortunately, the plot became increasingly bizarre and unbelievable. Yamusangie 's inexperience is evident when he tries to disentangle Dada from false accusations he has killed a schoolmate and his narrative degenerates into a confusion of actions and the introduction of completely new characters right in the final pages.

Yamusangie opens his book with a quote from another novel set in the Congo — Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. If this is the status to which he aspires, I think he has a long way to go.… (mehr)

'Full Circle' is a novel about culture shock and the search for identity. Dada is a young boy, the son of an ambassador, brought up in the bustling and relatively cosmopolitan Kinshasa. To educate Dada about his own country, his father sends him to live in Bulungu, a large town far inland, where the inhabitants are more insular and live more traditional Congolese lives (and have more traditional beliefs). As Dada begins to be involved in own life, he realises his status as an outsider, and begins to understand the differences between Kinshasa and Bulungu. His attempts to fit in precipitate disaster in the town, and reinforce his feelings of isolation from its inhabitants.
There are several reasons not to like this book. It is an 80 page novella, but throws in as much incident as War and Peace (well, almost), leading to horrible pacing and rushed storytelling. Yamusangie isn't an accomplished writer, and his failings lead to difficult passages that fail to flow. However, there was something fairly likeable about the book as a whole, and the story, despite having far to much going on, was, at heart, a well constructed parable about cultural identity. I would be surprised if this was the best thing I could find by a Congolese writer, and would hesitate to recommend it, but it probably wasn't the worst place to start either.… (mehr)