I am not afraid to admit that this is among the most difficult-to-grasp pieces ever to be encountered in my entire adult reading career. I liked reading it, and I am glad that I did— but I am not entirely sure that I understood it all.
First off, I read the English translation. I don't know how great this (only?) translation is in contrast to the original French, but it's all that seems to be out there. And beyond that, I know VERY little about the history and customs of the Congo. I think this is the only work that I have ever read, thus far, from that part of the world. So a few cultural stumbling blocks in there for me, but I did the best that I could.
And even beyond that? This book gets existential. I mean, way out there. Wayyy past the lens of Camus and his first-world problems, straight into a nation where justice is never served and war is a way of life. (I think this seems so much more emphatic than the typical Camus because there is so much more pain involved.) High morals and survival don't go hand-in-hand in a place like this, but society is keen on judging.
So how can a man want to live a "proper" life, when a proper life is empty and false? When the top spot is a temporary spot? When people die for nothing, and the systems of society serve no one but the officials who are in charge just for today? Will they be dead and betrayed tomorrow, so that another may rise in their place? Will you be dead tomorrow? If there is a God, where is he? He can't be there and keep looking at this, right.... or do we not understand him? Why are people so bad? Why did we even create these systems that oppress us? And why does a man love a woman he meets just for a moment, while he feels so much less for another who pledges all she has to aid his cause? I could list for a long time. I think Tansi could have too.
But by the end our protagonist, Dadou, becomes something other than the common man. He steps outside the world of people into the world of resistance; the world of anti-people, who fight for the only beauty that really exists: love, peace, and freedom. There is brief mention of a piece of lore which says that a tribe once escaped all the unhappiness of modern man by begging their ancestors until, mercifully, they were turned into monkeys. They no longer had to follow the arbitrary rules of man, and could be truly happy. They were anti-people... and now, so are Dadou and Yealdara.
At least, that was my take on it.
There is a lot going on here. I wish I had read this with a college class, or with a reading group who had more to offer me than the few scraps I could find on the internet. I think I got the gist, but I know there is more that I'm missing. This is an expansive novel, and I'd like to read it again someday.
3.5 for my understanding, and a 4 for all that I know I'm missing.