Comrade Papa

Ivorian writer Gauz’ (Standing Heavy) offers a wry parallel narrative of a French colonist in Africa and the son of Black working-class Communists in the Netherlands, each of whom visit Africa nearly a century apart. In 1970s Amsterdam, Anouman grows up with a portrait of Comrade Mao in his bedroom and attends a “proletarian primary school.” When his mother disappears, the family receives no help from the police—“a reactionary force of lackeys in the pay of the bourgeoisie,” according to his father, who sends him to live with extended family in Cote d’Ivoire. After a period of culture shock, Anouman adapts to a new language and school. Gauz’ alternates the boy’s story with that of Frenchman Maxime Dabilly, who leaves home in 1880 after his parents each die a few weeks apart, ready to fulfill his dream of traveling to Africa. He takes a job with a French trader before leaving Grand-Bassam in what is now Cote d’Ivoire to set up an outpost deeper into the territory. For part of his trek there, his group is followed by Adjo Blé, a Krinjabo princess who chooses Maxime as her partner. The connection between Anouman and Maxime, revealed late in the narrative, is fairly obvious; mainly, the plot is a vehicle for the characters’ distinct voices (“He doesn’t know he’s dealing with a champion of class warfare,” Anouman thinks after a bully trips him). The result is a fresh and witty portrait of colonial and postcolonial Africa. (Oct.)