Decent first novel, but somewhat derivative. I'm always up for new fiction from both Congos (and this has been a 2021 prizewinner), but it feels like rather familiar territory, being set around a bar (see 'Tram 83' by Fiston Mwanza Mujila) and populated with the familiar larger than life characters (Mama Nation, etc).
The closer observation of government officials is pretty interesting - as is the cooked up conspiracy, but I found it a little hard to work out who had done what, and it's all over pretty quickly. Lively and inescapably Congolese (and occasionally comic), but it left me a little cold. Good first effort - but could have been more, well, distinctive.