A Bend in the River Summary

Sal­im, a cul­tur­al­ly Indi­an Mus­lim from the east­ern shore of Africa, opt­ed to move to the heart of an unnamed African nation due to the wave of polit­i­cal auton­o­my sweep­ing through Africa. Con­cerned about the chang­ing land­scape, he pur­chased a trad­ing goods empo­ri­um from a fam­i­ly acquain­tance, Nazrud­din, who had spent many years inland. The town where he reset­tled was a for­mer colo­nial cen­ter sit­u­at­ed at a sig­nif­i­cant bend in a major riv­er. This once thriv­ing empire now lay in ruins, demol­ished by local Africans in ret­ri­bu­tion against for­mer colo­nial­ists. With the polit­i­cal atmos­phere stir­ring, only a hand­ful of Euro­peans remained, while most Africans had returned to their ances­tral vil­lages. Amidst a rebel­lion that sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ed the Indi­an com­mu­ni­ty on the shore­line, Salim’s fam­i­ly sent Met­ty, a bira­cial ex-slave, to assist him in his shop. Spe­cial­iz­ing in essen­tial house­hold com­modi­ties, Sal­im’s ini­tial cus­tomer was a respect­ed sor­cer­ess and local African mer­chant named Zabeth. As the town began to recov­er, it faced insur­gent activ­i­ty that was prompt­ly sup­pressed by Cau­casian mer­ce­nar­ies dis­patched by the Pres­i­dent. Sub­se­quent­ly, the town­ship wit­nessed an eco­nom­ic upswing, regain­ing its posi­tion as a key region­al trade cen­ter. The Pres­i­dent annexed a near­by sec­tion of land, for­mer­ly a Euro­pean enclave, to estab­lish a mod­ern tech­ni­cal insti­tu­tion. How­ev­er, the res­i­dents remained large­ly obliv­i­ous to the insti­tu­tion’s oper­a­tions, which felt seclud­ed from their every­day real­i­ty. Pro­gres­sive devel­op­ments saw Sal­im becom­ing entwined with Yvette, Ray­mond’s youth­ful spouse. Despite an affair that tran­spired, it even­tu­al­ly dis­si­pat­ed as Sal­im felt uneasy and lashed out at Yvette. Polit­i­cal tur­moil esca­lat­ed in the town, and the Pres­i­den­t’s dis­avow­al of the Youth Guard, a group he had estab­lished to uphold order, cat­alyzed the for­ma­tion of a Lib­er­a­tion Army. With vio­lence inten­si­fy­ing, Sal­im resolved to depart the coun­try and vis­it Nazrud­din in Lon­don. Upon his return, he dis­cov­ered his store had been seized and tak­en over by an inex­pe­ri­enced African named Théo­time. Retained as a man­ag­er and dri­ver, Sal­im engaged in illic­it trade, cul­mi­nat­ing in his appre­hen­sion. Fol­low­ing a brief stint in con­fine­ment, he was set free and advised by the com­mis­sion­er, Fer­di­nand, Zabeth’s son, to swift­ly vacate town. Com­ply­ing with the coun­sel, Sal­im left on the eve of the Pres­i­den­t’s arrival.

Section 1

The nar­ra­tive kicks off as Sal­im recounts his acqui­si­tion of a store from a fam­i­ly asso­ciate, Nazrud­din, dur­ing a tumul­tuous peri­od in a post-colo­nial town with­in an uniden­ti­fied African nation fresh­ly eman­ci­pat­ed. With Nazrud­din com­pelled to aban­don his ven­ture in the wake of local upris­ings, opt­ing to relo­cate his fam­i­ly to Ugan­da for greater sta­bil­i­ty, Sal­im seized the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­chase the store at a dis­count­ed rate. Trav­el­ling from the East­ern African coast­line to the con­ti­nen­t’s inte­ri­or, he arrived at the town nes­tled in a sweep­ing curve of a major riv­er, to find a derelict region par­tial­ly reclaimed by nature. Sal­im rem­i­nisces about his maid­en encounter with a patron, a busi­ness­woman named Zabeth, known as a marchande or “entre­pre­neur”. Despite the risks and adver­si­ties, she coura­geous­ly made the ardu­ous month­ly jour­ney from her remote vil­lage to the town to pro­cure essen­tials for her com­mu­ni­ty. Sal­im saw her as a savvy busi­nessper­son, renowned for her dis­tinct scent ema­nat­ing from the pro­tec­tive balms she used against malev­o­lent forces, earn­ing her the rep­u­ta­tion of a promi­nent sorceress.

Section 2

Sal­im delves into his ances­try, trac­ing his roots to the East African shore where his pre­de­ces­sors, Indi­an Mus­lims, set­tled amongst diverse migrants. Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, he did not per­ceive the coast as authen­ti­cal­ly African. Accounts of his fam­i­ly’s endur­ing pres­ence in Africa were sparse and neb­u­lous, span­ning eras marked by Euro­pean arrival, dis­place­ment of Arabs, and the rise and fall of British impe­ri­al­ism. Bemoan­ing the lack of his­tor­i­cal accounts beyond those scribed by Euro­peans, Sal­im reflects on the unal­tered lifestyle of the Indi­an com­mu­ni­ty across chang­ing times. Coex­ist­ing with for­mer slaves with­in a vast com­pound, a min­gling of races occurred over gen­er­a­tions. Despite being part of the com­mu­ni­ty, Sal­im peren­ni­al­ly felt like an out­sider. He adopt­ed a detached obser­va­tion of life, lead­ing him to con­clude that their civ­i­liza­tion lagged com­pared to Europe. He fore­saw a grim future post the Euro­pean exo­dus from Africa, yet har­bored a soft spot for the depart­ing colonizers.

Section 3

Sal­im dis­clos­es details about Zabeth’s son, Fer­di­nand, fathered by a south­ern trad­er. Fol­low­ing his father’s demise, Fer­di­nand relo­cat­ed north to join his moth­er’s kin. In his mid-teens, Zabeth brought Fer­di­nand to Sal­im, express­ing her desire for him to attend the local sec­ondary school. Despite its dilap­i­da­tion, Bel­gian instruc­tors revi­tal­ized the school. Unlike Zabeth’s tra­di­tion­al African upbring­ing, she aspired for Fer­di­nand to adapt to the evolv­ing African soci­ety. Resid­ing at the school, Fer­di­nand report­ed to Sal­im dai­ly. Polite­ly reserved, Sal­im noticed a dis­tant, sub­tly mock­ing gaze in Ferdinand’s eyes. Resem­bling African masks, his coun­te­nance was enig­mat­ic and inscrutable. Fer­di­nand and Met­ty, anoth­er fig­ure, social­ized at local tav­erns, a cause of con­cern for Sal­im. Despite shar­ing sim­i­lar indul­gences, Sal­im resolved nev­er to be seen with an African woman by Met­ty to avert famil­ial con­ster­na­tion. Sal­im’s abode and shop were in dis­ar­ray, with wares stacked hap­haz­ard­ly. The dwelling, for­mer­ly owned by a Bel­gian artist, fea­tured her Euro­pean-themed paint­ings, adding a gloomy hue to Sal­im’s ambiance. Wrestling with his mixed her­itage, Fer­di­nand grap­pled with alien­ation and iden­ti­ty dilem­mas. Emu­lat­ing var­i­ous per­sonas, includ­ing his men­tors and Sal­im, he probed Sal­im about his thoughts on Africa’s future, prompt­ing reflec­tion on Fer­di­nand’s per­cep­tion root­ed in per­son­al encoun­ters or for­mal edu­ca­tion. Over time, a grow­ing dis­con­nect emerged between Sal­im and Fer­di­nand, with Sal­im’s sim­plis­tic out­look diverg­ing from Fer­di­nand’s increas­ing­ly intri­cate comprehension.

Section 4

Sal­im vis­its the lycée with the intent of return­ing a pil­fered ledger to Father Huis­mans, the senior Bel­gian cler­gy­man. Encoun­ter­ing anoth­er Bel­gian in Father Huis­mans’ absence, Sal­im is tak­en aback by the man’s crit­i­cisms of African stu­dents and local cui­sine, vis­i­bly mal­nour­ished in Salim’s eyes. Sub­se­quent vis­its to the school reveal the man’s depar­ture on a steam­er two days ear­li­er. Sal­im shares his insights on Father Huis­mans, a mid­dle-aged indi­vid­ual enam­ored with col­lect­ing native reli­gious arti­facts. After return­ing with a mask and wood carv­ing from the bush, the oth­er Bel­gian cast doubts on the authen­tic­i­ty of the arti­facts, pref­ac­ing an intrigu­ing turn of events.

Father Huis­mans pro­claims, “always some­thing new.” He clar­i­fies that the Latin expres­sion trans­lates to “always a fresh ele­ment emerg­ing from Africa.” Despite his Chris­t­ian beliefs, Sal­im is puz­zled by Father Huis­mans’ fas­ci­na­tion with African spir­i­tu­al­i­ty. Nonethe­less, Sal­im admires the priest’s per­spec­tive on Africa as a repos­i­to­ry of mar­vels. Father Huis­mans decodes the town’s offi­cial mot­to, “He sanc­tions the inter­min­gling of the cit­i­zens and their bond of uni­ty,” which sig­ni­fies approval of diver­si­ty and uni­ty. This phrase is inscribed on a mon­u­ment com­mem­o­rat­ing six decades of the colo­nial steam­er ser­vice. The priest con­nects the slo­gan to a poem about a Roman hero who briefly sojourned in Africa on his way to Italy. The poem illus­trates the gods dis­suad­ing the mix­ing of Romans and Africans by urg­ing the hero to pro­ceed to Italy, con­trary to the town’s mot­to. Sal­im deduces that the Latin phrase instills Father Huis­mans with a sense of his­tor­i­cal grandeur, jus­ti­fy­ing the pres­ence of Euro­pean civ­i­liza­tion in Africa. Father Huis­mans acknowl­edges the dom­i­nance of Euro­pean cul­ture and extols colo­nial accom­plish­ments. How­ev­er, he also con­cedes that colo­nial­ism led to the decline of “authen­tic Africa.”

chapter 5

The local vil­lagers start­ed relo­cat­ing to the town as mur­murs of con­flict spread. Sal­im views this impend­ing tur­moil as part of the con­tin­u­al cycle of dis­cord that began post-inde­pen­dence. To quell the vio­lence, the Pres­i­dent dis­patched a mer­ce­nary army com­pris­ing white sol­diers. Caught amid the clash­es between African insur­gents and gov­ern­ment troops, Sal­im opts for neu­tral­i­ty out of appre­hen­sion. The esca­lat­ing ten­sions increas­ing­ly unset­tle him. Feel­ing dis­ad­van­taged as an out­sider com­pared to the local Africans, whom he per­ceives as bet­ter equipped to con­front the loom­ing challenges.

chapter 6

Upon quelling the rebel­lion, the town revives, reassert­ing its posi­tion as a vital trad­ing cen­ter. Sal­im, along with oth­ers, wit­ness­es an upturn in for­tunes owing to the town’s eco­nom­ic resur­gence, alle­vi­at­ing his fears of anoth­er upris­ing. Nonethe­less, even dur­ing this pros­per­ous phase, Sal­im feels dis­con­nect­ed from the towns­peo­ple and wary of the haughty young sol­diers sta­tioned there. Sal­im stays in touch with Nazrud­din, who is in Ugan­da, man­ag­ing a cot­ton-gin­ning enter­prise amidst polit­i­cal tur­bu­lence. This serves as a reminder to Sal­im of the cycli­cal insta­bil­i­ty that could jeop­ar­dize their town. Nev­er­the­less, he opts to per­se­vere. In con­trast to Sal­im’s cau­tious out­look on the eco­nom­ic boom, his friend Mahesh trans­forms into an ambi­tious entre­pre­neur, explor­ing diverse avenues. After a few unsuc­cess­ful ven­tures, Mahesh resorts to smug­gling ivory and gold. Although Sal­im oppos­es this, Mahesh defends his actions, argu­ing the absence of rights in their cir­cum­stances. Even­tu­al­ly, Mahesh aban­dons smug­gling and pros­pers legit­i­mate­ly by estab­lish­ing a Big­burg­er fran­chise. He appoints his house­boy, Ilde­phonse, as an infor­mal “man­ag­er.” While Ilde­phonse behaves sub­servient­ly around Mahesh, he appears devoid of emo­tion when alone. Amid the town’s pros­per­i­ty, the Pres­i­dent declares a vast near­by bush­land as the Domain of the State, man­dat­ing its swift devel­op­ment. Struc­tures are hasti­ly erect­ed, and despite the absence of any offi­cial clar­i­fi­ca­tion, Sal­im envi­sions the Pres­i­dent as “craft­ing a con­tem­po­rary Africa.” Despite the mod­ern appear­ance of the build­ings, cer­tain aspects of the project stag­nate. A pro­posed farm nev­er mate­ri­al­izes, with trac­tors left to dete­ri­o­rate. Even­tu­al­ly, the Domain evolves into a uni­ver­si­ty town and a hub of research, draw­ing an inter­na­tion­al assort­ment of academics.

chapter 7

Sal­im and Met­ty’s dynam­ic shifts, with Met­ty grow­ing less jovial and Sal­im feel­ing des­o­late. An unfore­seen vis­it from Sal­im’s old acquain­tance Indar dis­rupts their lives. Indar, hail­ing from a wealth­i­er back­ground and hav­ing received a high­er edu­ca­tion in Eng­land, makes Sal­im feel inept, reignit­ing his desire to enhance his life cir­cum­stances. Sal­im and Indar engage in dis­cus­sions about pol­i­tics and recent unrest, with Indar recount­ing his recent vis­it to Sal­im’s fam­i­ly and his ini­tial trip back home post-uni­ver­si­ty. Indar dis­clos­es that air trav­el eas­es the emo­tion­al strain of home­com­ings as it allows less time for rem­i­nis­cences. Invit­ed by the gov­ern­ment to work at the local poly­tech­nic, Indar’s pres­ence brings com­fort to Sal­im, who final­ly feels he has found a kin­dred com­pan­ion. Indar acquaints Sal­im with the Domain, an area of the town Sal­im knows lit­tle about due to its asso­ci­a­tion with the Pres­i­den­t’s polit­i­cal maneu­vers. The Domain com­pris­es opu­lent, well-main­tained res­i­dences with domes­tic ser­vants, hous­ing seem­ing­ly vibrant and con­tent for­eign occu­pants. Indar seam­less­ly inte­grates into this enclave, height­en­ing Sal­im’s sense of alien­ation while also mag­net­i­cal­ly draw­ing him towards the buzz of the Domain. Sal­im grasps that the com­mu­ni­ty in the Domain aspires to shape “the lofty con­cept of a nov­el Africa” and fos­ter a fresh African iden­ti­ty. In con­trast to the town where ‘African’ often car­ries neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tions, in the Domain, the term sig­ni­fies a promis­ing future and an indi­vid­ual evolv­ing to inher­it the new­ly lib­er­at­ed continent.

chapter 8

Indar and Sal­im attend a soiree host­ed by Yvette, the spouse of an esteemed his­to­ri­an named Ray­mond. Sal­im is imme­di­ate­ly cap­ti­vat­ed by Yvette in her ele­gant black silk attire and her youth­ful aura, despite her hus­band being in his fifties. Her home is adorned with African embell­ish­ments, inspir­ing Sal­im. He takes plea­sure in observ­ing the cou­ples danc­ing and feels a pro­found emo­tion­al con­nec­tion to a song by Joan Baez regard­ing love and loss, pon­der­ing the para­dox­i­cal blend of its melo­di­ous sweet­ness and sor­row­ful themes. Even­tu­al­ly join­ing the par­ty engrossed in his work, Ray­mond express­es his exas­per­a­tion con­cern­ing the decep­tive nature of his­tor­i­cal truths, con­tend­ing that much of his­to­ry remains undis­closed, thus inac­ces­si­ble. Con­trary to Indar’s san­guine view­point about time even­tu­al­ly unveil­ing all truths, Ray­mond remains res­olute in his belief that some his­tor­i­cal truths remain per­ma­nent­ly veiled. Intro­duced to Ray­mond by Indar, Sal­im engages with him, prompt­ing Ray­mond to recount his encounter with the Pres­i­dent. A for­mer col­lege lec­tur­er dur­ing colo­nial times, Ray­mond’s meet­ing with the Pres­i­dent was facil­i­tat­ed by the Pres­i­den­t’s moth­er. The Pres­i­dent, then a trou­bled school dropout, was coun­seled by Ray­mond to gain prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in the Defence Force pri­or to ven­tur­ing into pol­i­tics. Ray­mond extols the Pres­i­den­t’s accom­plish­ments dur­ing his tenure, includ­ing mil­i­tary dis­ci­pline and peace­keep­ing. He admires the President’s adept­ness in assim­i­lat­ing new con­cepts and his instinc­tu­al com­pre­hen­sion of pub­lic needs. Ray­mond forth­right­ly asserts that Africa can only be effec­tive­ly gov­erned by an African. In his ongo­ing project com­pil­ing the Pres­i­den­t’s pub­lic speech­es, Ray­mond asserts the per­sis­tent echoes of the Pres­i­den­t’s ear­ly life strug­gles. He stress­es that despite the Pres­i­den­t’s increas­ing­ly pol­ished pub­lic address­es, his anguish over his moth­er’s humil­i­a­tions remains palpable.

chapter 9

Fol­low­ing Yvet­te’s gath­er­ing, as Sal­im and Indar con­verse by the riv­er, the lat­ter shares his con­trast­ing per­spec­tives on Ray­mond. Ini­tial­ly impressed by Ray­mond’s intel­lect, Indar lat­er deems him irrelevant.

Sal­im inferred that Indar desired him to per­ceive the truth behind the glam­our of Domain life. Observ­ing Indar’s increas­ing despon­den­cy, Sal­im uncov­ered details of his past. Hav­ing been edu­cat­ed abroad, Indar believed that the migra­to­ry essence of peo­ple hin­dered dwelling on his­to­ry, while also rec­og­niz­ing the chal­lenge of for­sak­ing one’s past. He found solace in the expres­sion, “the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the gar­den tram­pled until it becomes earth,” which res­onat­ed with him dur­ing a chal­leng­ing peri­od in his third year in Eng­land. Reflect­ing on his depar­ture from East Africa and arrival in Eng­land, Indar shared his con­cern for his fam­i­ly. How­ev­er, he felt con­strained by his upbring­ing, which he believed lim­it­ed his com­pre­hen­sion of the world. It dawned on him that he had per­pet­u­al­ly pre­sumed the world’s con­stan­cy and had nev­er con­tem­plat­ed active­ly con­tribut­ing to it. Despite his aca­d­e­m­ic prowess, Indar felt he had gar­nered lit­tle knowl­edge from uni­ver­si­ty, part­ly attribut­ing this to his demeanor. Draw­ing a par­al­lel between his mind­set and that of an indi­vid­ual from a devel­op­ing nation attempt­ing to down­play their aston­ish­ment at arriv­ing in Lon­don, he recount­ed his per­pet­u­al state of dis­ap­point­ment and bewil­der­ment through­out uni­ver­si­ty. Upon com­plet­ing his stud­ies, while his peers secured promis­ing posi­tions, Indar felt out of place. Seek­ing guid­ance from the uni­ver­si­ty’s Appoint­ments Com­mit­tee, he rec­og­nized their pref­er­ence for “Eng­lish boys in Eng­lish jobs.” A female pro­fes­sor pro­posed that Indar’s dual cul­tur­al acu­men made him suit­able for diplo­mat­ic ser­vice. Act­ing upon her sug­ges­tion, he approached the Indi­an embassy, only to face a hum­bling expe­ri­ence there. Fol­low­ing this embassy set­back, Indar con­tem­pla­tive­ly con­sid­ered return­ing home, envi­sion­ing an idyl­lic African vil­lage rather than his own coastal abode. Real­iz­ing the dis­par­i­ty between his fan­ta­sy and real­i­ty, he dis­cerned how metic­u­lous­ly human-designed Lon­don was, in con­trast to the wilder­ness of Africa. It struck him that he was an enti­ty unto him­self. Decid­ing to carve out his own career path and reside in a metrop­o­lis akin to Lon­don, he resolved to for­sake ven­er­at­ing Indi­an stal­warts like Gand­hi and Nehru, opt­ing instead to sev­er ties with his past.

chapter 10

Sal­im fre­quent­ly crossed paths with Yvette and Indar, cher­ish­ing their pres­ence despite grap­pling with deci­pher­ing their dis­tinct per­sonas. A bur­geon­ing fond­ness bloomed for Yvette with­in Sal­im, grad­u­al­ly sup­plant­i­ng the jeal­ousy he har­bored towards Indar with empa­thy as he delved deep­er into Indar’s back­sto­ry. As Indar’s melan­choly deep­ened and his immi­nent depar­ture loomed, Fer­di­nand, hav­ing com­plet­ed his tech­ni­cal stud­ies, read­ied him­self to depart as well. Accom­pa­ny­ing Fer­di­nand to the steam­er des­tined for the cap­i­tal, where Fer­di­nand was slat­ed to com­mence an admin­is­tra­tive appren­tice­ship, Sal­im encoun­tered scruti­ny from both male and female offi­cials en route — a tes­ta­ment to the Pres­i­den­t’s stride towards gen­der par­i­ty in civ­il ser­vice. Insist­ing on adopt­ing the appel­la­tion “cit­i­zen” over tra­di­tion­al titles like “mis­ter” or “miss­es,” the Pres­i­dent enforced a new norm of address among the pop­u­lace. Sur­vey­ing the steam­er, Sal­im not­ed its hier­ar­chi­cal arrange­ment: first-class cab­ins in the stern, sec­ond-class bar­racks towards the bow, and a detach­able barge out­fit­ted with com­part­ments for indi­gent African voy­agers. Onboard the ves­sel, Sal­im and Fer­di­nand chanced upon Indar and Yvette. They con­vened for drinks in a low­er deck tav­ern until an announce­ment her­ald­ed the steam­er’s depar­ture. Sub­se­quent­ly, Sal­im and Yvette depart­ed, observ­ing the ves­sel’s progress as it nav­i­gat­ed down the riv­er from the quay.

chapter 11

Post the depar­tures of Fer­di­nand and Indar, Sal­im recount­ed his enjoy­ment of Yvet­te’s recent soirée. In response, she extend­ed an invi­ta­tion for a lun­cheon lec­ture at her res­i­dence the sub­se­quent day, an offer he prompt­ly accept­ed. Visu­al­iz­ing the steam­er voy­age ahead, a fif­teen-mile excur­sion down the riv­er entic­ing local canoe-like “dugouts” for amuse­ment before the return upstream pad­dling, Sal­im await­ed the event. Arriv­ing at Yvet­te’s abode for the lun­cheon, he was flab­ber­gast­ed to dis­cov­er that she had can­celed the gath­er­ing sans noti­fi­ca­tion. Despite this, she prof­fered to whip up scram­bled eggs before excus­ing her­self, leav­ing Sal­im alone in the par­lour. In the stark light of day, he appraised Yvet­te’s once allur­ing abode, now appear­ing rather dilapidated.

chapter 12

Mulling over Yvet­te’s ini­tial mis­judg­ment of Ray­mond’s true nature at their debut encounter, Sal­im grap­pled with his entan­gle­ment with her, sens­ing a shared predica­ment. His asso­ci­a­tion with Yvette also teth­ered him to Ray­mond, incit­ing polit­i­cal anx­i­eties amid the Pres­i­den­t’s bur­geon­ing author­i­ty. Despite Yvet­te’s assur­ance to Ray­mond to assess the prospects of his book, Indar, true to his word, remained ret­i­cent. Mean­while, Ray­mond con­clud­ed his com­pi­la­tion of the pres­i­den­tial ora­tions. Dur­ing a din­ner host­ed at Yvette and Ray­mond’s dwelling, Yvette recount­ed their erst­while cus­tom­ary din­ing engage­ments with the Pres­i­dent, remark­ing on the imped­i­ments posed by inces­sant film­ing on their dis­course. Even­tu­al­ly, the Pres­i­dent sev­ered ties with Ray­mond upon deem­ing him dis­pens­able. Ray­mond’s bid for admis­sion to an Amer­i­can uni­ver­si­ty was rebuffed. While his close alle­giance to the Pres­i­dent proved advan­ta­geous local­ly, it taint­ed his inter­na­tion­al stand­ing. Nev­er­the­less, Ray­mond’s loy­al­ty remained res­olute. Sal­im per­ceived Ray­mond’s adher­ence to a per­son­al code imbu­ing him with unwa­ver­ing con­fi­dence, a trait that stood in con­trast to Sal­im’s inner tur­moil. Sal­im com­mend­ed Ray­mond’s feal­ty, show­cased through his vig­or­ous defense of the Pres­i­dent amidst crit­i­cism, such as the “the cult of the African madon­na” hon­or­ing the Pres­i­den­t’s moth­er. The pub­li­ca­tion of Ray­mond’s vol­ume of speech­es, albeit heav­i­ly revised, tran­spired. The final prod­uct fea­tured suc­cinct max­ims in lieu of the exten­sive speech excerpts and com­men­tary ini­tial­ly penned by Ray­mond. Despite receiv­ing a sub­stan­tial print run and a cer­e­mo­ni­ous unveil­ing, the book’s con­tents proved con­found­ing to most. Nonethe­less, Ray­mond’s alle­giance to the Pres­i­dent per­sist­ed, while Yvet­te’s patience wore thin.

chapter 13

Sal­im grap­pled with a con­tract­ing real­i­ty, increas­ing­ly rely­ing emo­tion­al­ly on Yvette, inten­si­fy­ing his fix­a­tion. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Noi­mon, a promi­nent Greek mag­nate, auc­tioned off his assets and depart­ed the town, send­ing rip­ples of unease through oth­er entre­pre­neurs who viewed his exit as por­tend­ing the end of the town’s pros­per­ous epoch. In con­trast, Mahesh posit­ed a diver­gent per­spec­tive, assert­ing that those depart­ing in pur­suit of supe­ri­or prospects else­where would soon real­ize their mis­cal­cu­la­tions. He posit­ed that stay­ing put offered a supe­ri­or exis­tence. Ini­tial­ly crit­i­cal of Mahesh’s self-con­tent­ment, Sal­im rec­og­nized a shared sen­ti­ment, plung­ing him into a state of iner­tia and inac­tion, char­ac­ter­ized by “doing nothing.”

chapter 14

Sal­im exhaled a sigh of relief as the Pres­i­dent dis­band­ed the Youth Guard, only for the police and offi­cials to meta­mor­phose into a vex­a­tious nui­sance, bad­ger­ing him at his store for bribes. Sal­im bemoaned the replace­ment of order and gov­er­nance with an air of anar­chy. Upon Met­ty’s arrest, Sal­im jour­neyed to the precinct to secure his release. Not­ing the Pres­i­den­t’s por­trait adorned with a chief’s rod and the mot­to: Dis­ci­pline Avant Tout, trans­lat­ing to “Dis­ci­pline Above All,” Sal­im clung to hope for a restora­tion of order from the Pres­i­dent. Instead, for­mer Youth Guard mem­bers coa­lesced to form a Lib­er­a­tion Army, incit­ing tur­moil in the town, ini­ti­at­ed by the Lib­er­a­tionThe mil­i­tary ini­ti­at­ing a cru­sade against colo­nial­ism and exter­nal con­trol. Sal­im, amid esca­lat­ing tur­moil, felt more endan­gered and uncer­tain of his forth­com­ing actions. Ray­mond ulti­mate­ly acknowl­edged to him­self that he would not regain the President’s favor due to the ascen­sion of the Lib­er­a­tion Army, por­tray­ing him as a dispir­it­ed indi­vid­ual. Mean­while, Sal­im’s roman­tic involve­ment with Yvette cooled off. One evening, when Yvette sur­pris­ing­ly paid a vis­it to Sal­im, he erupt­ed in fury, lead­ing to a phys­i­cal alter­ca­tion. Sub­se­quent­ly, Yvette depart­ed, leav­ing Sal­im over­whelmed with remorse. Met­ty endeav­ored to con­vince Sal­im to go for a stroll out­side, but Sal­im declined. Yvette then phoned, artic­u­lat­ing her wish to return and men­tion­ing she should have giv­en him a Val­i­um to help him unwind. This ges­ture made Sal­im per­ceive her as tru­ly embody­ing the role of his spouse. Fol­low­ing an all-night con­tem­pla­tion ses­sion, Sal­im expe­ri­enced an epiphany at sun­rise, com­pre­hend­ing that exis­tence is about encoun­ters, irre­spec­tive of whether they are dis­tress­ing or joy­ful. He sub­se­quent­ly fre­quent­ed Mahesh’s Big­burg­er eatery for cof­fee, where Mahesh invit­ed him for lunch the fol­low­ing day. After­wards, Zabeth mate­ri­al­ized to do her shop­ping and informed Sal­im that Fer­di­nand might emerge as the new region­al com­mis­sion­er. She har­bored con­cerns about this poten­tial role expos­ing him to per­il from both the insur­gents and the Pres­i­dent. For instance, she ges­tured towards a news­pa­per image of the Pres­i­dent, illus­trat­ing his com­mand­ing pres­ence and ren­der­ing oth­ers incon­se­quen­tial. Zabeth divulged that she had sight­ed the Pres­i­dent with a Cau­casian man whom she believed would attract any harm, leav­ing the Pres­i­dent unscathed.

chapter 15

Sal­im’s arrival in Lon­don spurred him to reflect on Indar’s per­spec­tives on air trav­el ame­lio­rat­ing his state of root­less­ness. His ini­tial impres­sions of Europe were not in line with what he had envi­sioned back in Africa, where his per­cep­tion of the con­ti­nent was shaped by the lan­guage and import­ed mer­chan­dise. The real­i­ty he encoun­tered in Lon­don diverged sig­nif­i­cant­ly from this pre­con­ceived notion. To Sal­im, Lon­don appeared as “some­thing shrunk­en and mean and for­bid­ding.” He noticed indi­vid­u­als resem­bling him­self, labor­ing stren­u­ous­ly to vend their wares, seem­ing “impris­oned in their kiosks.” This seem­ing­ly futile strug­gle echoed Indar’s rejec­tion of the notion of home. Dur­ing his sojourn, Sal­im became betrothed to Kareisha, the daugh­ter of Nazrud­din. Kareisha’s assort­ed inter­na­tion­al exploits honed her adapt­abil­i­ty, and her father’s coun­sel to pur­sue phar­ma­cy ensured she pos­sessed a lucra­tive skill. Sal­im often wan­dered along Glouces­ter Road, a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Arab locale. Mean­while, Nazrud­din expressed his dis­ap­proval of the afflu­ent Arabs in Lon­don who amassed wealth by trad­ing oil with Europe. Nazrud­din recount­ed his ill-starred stint in Cana­da. Ini­tial­ly invest­ing in an oil firm, he found him­self bur­dened with sub­stan­tial debt owing to the direc­tor’s clan­des­tine finan­cial machi­na­tions. Hop­ing for a safer ven­ture, he acquired a cin­e­ma, only to be swin­dled once more. The pre­vi­ous own­er stripped the pro­jec­tion and heat­ing sys­tems before trans­fer­ring the prop­er­ty. Des­per­ate for bet­ter for­tune, Nazrud­din relo­cat­ed to Lon­don and delved into res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties. Enthused by the bur­geon­ing hous­ing demand, he aspired to suc­cess but fal­tered as he bought at the peak of a boom, lead­ing to a sig­nif­i­cant plum­met in prop­er­ty val­ues. Unable to com­mand rea­son­able rents, he con­tin­ued to hem­or­rhage mon­ey as his ten­ants, main­ly impov­er­ished Arabs, default­ed on pay­ments. Despite feel­ing dis­il­lu­sioned with Europe and sens­ing his inaus­pi­cious arrival, Nazrud­din main­tained his opti­mism. As Sal­im drift­ed into slum­ber in his lodg­ing, he rec­ol­lect­ed his “illu­mi­na­tion” and envi­sioned a world ram­pant with men engrossed in fruit­less pur­suits. This stirred feel­ings of “apa­thy and irre­spon­si­bil­i­ty” with­in him, around the time he pro­posed to Kareisha. Towards the cul­mi­na­tion of his stay, Kareisha divulged news of Indar’s recent setback.

chapter 16

Hav­ing spent time in Lon­don, Sal­im alight­ed in the cap­i­tal of an unspec­i­fied African nation, find­ing it under­whelm­ing and “flim­sy.” His tran­sit from the air­port was punc­tu­at­ed by bill­boards fea­tur­ing the Pres­i­dent and his procla­ma­tions, emblem­at­ic of the lead­er’s bid to vie with Euro­pean coun­ter­parts. He observed the city’s dichoto­mous state — dilap­i­dat­ed areas strewn with lit­ter jux­ta­posed with fresh con­struc­tion endeav­ors. The sub­se­quent day, Sal­im had to grease palms to board the return flight to his town­ship. Unex­pect­ed­ly, he was way­laid by a secu­ri­ty agent but was sub­se­quent­ly lib­er­at­ed by a senior func­tionary, peev­ed by the tardy flight. The flight was inter­dict­ed mid-route, and the air­craft was divert­ed for pres­i­den­tial ser­vice. Dur­ing this unan­tic­i­pat­ed delay, Sal­im con­tem­plat­ed the river’s intri­ca­cy and the per­pet­u­al exis­tence of vil­lages along its banks. Upon the air­craft’s arrival, they were trans­port­ed to their ulti­mate des­ti­na­tion. On reach­ing, Sal­im was offered a frosty recep­tion by Met­ty, who was tak­en aback by his return. Met­ty dis­closed that their store had been com­man­deered by the gov­ern­ment and hand­ed over to a local indi­vid­ual named Théo­time, as part of the President’s nation­al­iza­tion pol­i­cy. When Sal­im inspect­ed his store, every­thing remained untouched, save for his desk, which had been relo­cat­ed to the store­room. His per­son­al pic­tures were swapped with com­ic books. Sub­se­quent to Théo­time’s arrival, he exhib­it­ed civil­i­ty and assured Sal­im that he would con­tin­ue to over­see the store whilst offer­ing a fair wage. Lat­er, Sal­im unearthed that Mahesh’s eatery was oper­a­tional under an all-African enter­prise. This rev­e­la­tion com­pound­ed his despon­den­cy, prompt­ing him to real­ize he had missed his oppor­tu­ni­ty to depart.

chapter 17

As Théo­time grew more con­fi­dent in retain­ing the store, he began com­port­ing him­self auda­cious­ly and stip­u­lat­ing esca­lat­ing demands. He start­ed enter­tain­ing female guests in the store­room and called upon Sal­im to chauf­feur him around town. Despite being in charge of the store, Théo­time felt inad­e­quate due to his lack of exper­tise, pre­cip­i­tat­ing ten­sion. Sal­im dis­cerned that Théo­time sought the cachet of author­i­ty sans the nec­es­sary expe­ri­ence. Nonethe­less, Sal­im remained res­olute in pur­su­ing his objec­tive, while Met­ty har­bored ani­mos­i­ty towards Théo­time for assign­ing him cease­less menial chores. Upon con­fronting Théo­time regard­ing his unjust treat­ment of Met­ty, Théo­time mere­ly under­scored his suprema­cy. Met­ty implored Sal­im for funds to depart, but Sal­im reas­sured him that these try­ing times shall pass. One Fri­day, Sal­im returned home to find law enforcers unearthing his con­cealed cache of ivory and gold, tipped off by Met­ty. As Sal­im endeav­ored to alert Mahesh, an offi­cer inter­cept­ed him and endeav­ored to extort an exor­bi­tant bribe. When Sal­im demurred, he was appre­hend­ed. Gaz­ing upon the inscrip­tion “Dis­ci­pline Avant Tout” (“Dis­ci­pline Above All”) on the police sta­tion wall, Sal­im felt derid­ed. A sense of mount­ing fury engulfed him as events seemed to spi­ral out of con­trol. Sal­im roused the sub­se­quent day in a prison replete with juve­nile males whom he spec­u­lat­ed were vic­tims of the Lib­er­a­tion Army’s abduc­tions. The guards com­pelled the detainees to recite poems extolling the Pres­i­dent in antic­i­pa­tion of the Pres­i­den­t’s vis­it for an exe­cu­tion. Arriv­ing Mon­day, Sal­im was ush­ered before the com­mis­sion­er, who turned out to be Fer­di­nand. Sur­round­ed by over­sized por­traits of the Pres­i­dent, Fer­di­nand emanat­ed an air of insignif­i­cance. Fer­di­nand shared his dis­il­lu­sion­ment with the polit­i­cal cli­mate, his edu­ca­tion, and his pro­fes­sion. He coun­seled Sal­im to abscond the town via the steamship.