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King Lazarus: A Novel
Like its predecessor, Mission to Kala, Mongo Beti's new novel King Lazarus centres round the changing customs and mores of a Bantu tribe under French administration. The year is 1948: the hereditary Chief of the Essazam clan is, to all appearances, dying. As his life has been one long round of eating, drinking, and nocturnal exercises among his twenty-three wives, this is not, perhaps, altogether surprising. But his illness worries the Administration: he is a staunch prop of the European Establishment. An even more dangerous situation is produced when the Chief, against all expectations, very suddenly recovers — and the local Roman Catholic missionary, Le Guen, persuades him to renounce his tribal ways and adopt Christianity. (Introduction to 1960, Frederick Muller Ltd. Edition.)
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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March 3, 2017Well, this reading is the downside of picking up books from the the library’s donated books store. I read the 1960 edition (originally published by Muller, my copy is a Collier paperback). The translator is unnamed, as often happened then. However, in this case the lack of attribution doesn’t matter much. I am going to hazard a guess that the reasons I found it much less engaging than the other African works from the 40s through the 60s that I’ve been reading are at least 50 percent the fault of the translation. I don’t have access to the French version, and my French isn’t good enough to make a valid assessment, but it’s easy enough to be put off by 1) the very English figures of speech chosen for the original French slang, such as the almost certain ‘copain’ going to ‘old boy’ or ‘lad’, 2) multiple mistakes such as ‘allusion’ for ‘illusion’, ‘dissemination’ for ‘decimation’, etc., and 3) general woodenness.
So please hunt down the 1980 translation by Peter Green, which is sure to be well done. The basic set-up is a good foundation for an examination of post-war, pre-independence French rule in Cameroon. Beti focuses on the clash between competing, misguided if not downright destructive co-conspirators: the French regional bureaucracy and the Catholic missionaries. The final scene is a well done debate between their two paternalistic and deluded visions of their missions. Beti doesn’t cut the Cameroonians themselves much slack. I think a good translation would turn the occasional smiles the unnamed translator evoked to actual frequent laughter.
So please hunt down the 1980 translation by Peter Green, which is sure to be well done. The basic set-up is a good foundation for an examination of post-war, pre-independence French rule in Cameroon. Beti focuses on the clash between competing, misguided if not downright destructive co-conspirators: the French regional bureaucracy and the Catholic missionaries. The final scene is a well done debate between their two paternalistic and deluded visions of their missions. Beti doesn’t cut the Cameroonians themselves much slack. I think a good translation would turn the occasional smiles the unnamed translator evoked to actual frequent laughter.
March 28, 2021
Some of my ancestors are Cameroonian Bantu, so I was excited to find this book/author among a collection of old books that was donated to my family's library by a family friend. There are a lot of great rare old books like this one that I can't wait to get to. This one blew me away, partly because of the modernity of its language. You can hardly tell it's as old as it is because the writing feels like it was written so recently.
The satirical elements in this really amused me, especially the scenes with Chris. I love the distinct voices of Beti's characters, who all clearly represent a type of person. Actually, I could see a bit of myself in Chris, which made his actions and words even more funny at times. Twelve-year-old Gustave was also a valuable perspective to include, and I found myself sort of respecting the top French guy, Lequeux, by the end though I was initially against him.
Lequeux has Only in satire can one get away with comparing Christian missionaries to terrorists or revolutionaries. Good on Beti for doing it so well!
As with any satire, one has to wonder what the author's actual feelings are on the subject. The fact that the French government suggests Beti's approval of the French government's actions in colonizing the region. Yet he's critical of the French government whenever he gets the chance as well. Hegelian dialectics?
Lines I Loved:
• "Go and fetch the missionary some cold water," he told his brother. "Make sure the glass is spotlessly clean. These people are very delicate; the least bit of dirt is fatal to them." (24)
• "Years later, when he was living in Europe, Bitama recalled this farcical performance and was surprised to see the similarity underlying all pretence, hypocrisy, and spiritual nihilism. Always strength was drawn from affected ritual, ceremonial face-pulling and organised waste of time." (163)
• "In more civilised countries," said Palmieri, who was a very high-flying sort of humanist, "it is, perhaps, true that people don't half-kill each other any more for such base motives. But it's not very long since much less than that would have caused a duel, even in Europe. It's Humanity as a whole that refuses to develop as it should. We all have our wretched little individual pride somewhere. In the Middle Ages it called itself chivalry. Later it disguised itself as a sense of honour. In our day dignity is all the rage." (177)
The satirical elements in this really amused me, especially the scenes with Chris. I love the distinct voices of Beti's characters, who all clearly represent a type of person. Actually, I could see a bit of myself in Chris, which made his actions and words even more funny at times. Twelve-year-old Gustave was also a valuable perspective to include, and I found myself sort of respecting the top French guy, Lequeux, by the end though I was initially against him.
Lequeux has Only in satire can one get away with comparing Christian missionaries to terrorists or revolutionaries. Good on Beti for doing it so well!
As with any satire, one has to wonder what the author's actual feelings are on the subject. The fact that the French government suggests Beti's approval of the French government's actions in colonizing the region. Yet he's critical of the French government whenever he gets the chance as well. Hegelian dialectics?
Lines I Loved:
• "Go and fetch the missionary some cold water," he told his brother. "Make sure the glass is spotlessly clean. These people are very delicate; the least bit of dirt is fatal to them." (24)
• "Years later, when he was living in Europe, Bitama recalled this farcical performance and was surprised to see the similarity underlying all pretence, hypocrisy, and spiritual nihilism. Always strength was drawn from affected ritual, ceremonial face-pulling and organised waste of time." (163)
• "In more civilised countries," said Palmieri, who was a very high-flying sort of humanist, "it is, perhaps, true that people don't half-kill each other any more for such base motives. But it's not very long since much less than that would have caused a duel, even in Europe. It's Humanity as a whole that refuses to develop as it should. We all have our wretched little individual pride somewhere. In the Middle Ages it called itself chivalry. Later it disguised itself as a sense of honour. In our day dignity is all the rage." (177)
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