Francis B. Nyamnjoh's characters play out the story of a country in trouble.
Amin George Forji (Originally published in Ohmynews)
Get rich by fair or foul means. This may be the best way to sum up the challenging novel A Nose for Money (2006) by Cameroonian-born Francis B. Nyamnjoh.
Although set in a fictional African country called Mimboland (Cameroon creole word for Drunkland), a preview of the story line illustrates that it is aimed at depicting the canker worm of the corruption that is eating Cameroon.
The choice of the country's fictional name Mimboland itself demonstrates that because everyone is drunk, there is apparently no one who can rescue anyone else. For the blind cannot lead the blind, else both sink into a pit. The book is fascinating in terms of form and content, with the plot revolving around the semi literate Prospere (his name means prosperity in French) and his wives.
Although semi literate, Prospere, a truck driver with the Mimboland Brewery Company(MBC), is extremely ambitious and believes only the sky can be his limits to become rich. This is despite the fact that there are unemployed university degree holders roaming over the country.
Before long, Prospere spotlights his road to prosperity, apparently the only "right" channel still available in the country to become rich; that is join the ruling party and enter into connections with ministers and directors.
Prospere hit the hot iron at the right time, when a tribesman of his is appointed government minister, and he wastes no time to apply for a business license.
This main reason being that the government is in fact not only the number one contractor in he country, but also main consumer.
"What businessman or citizen could stand on his feet without the government's benediction?" Matiba, one of the characters in the book laments.
This quotation from the novel illustrates the theme further:
"In fact, Prospere sometimes wondered if being in government meant anything other than an opportunity to fill one's mouth and pockets and siphon as much as one could. Being in government, someone had said, was like climbing up a mango tree. Once up, you had to harvest the tree bare, regardless of whether the fruits were ripe or not, and whether others depended on the same tree for their livelihood or not. The individual belly, not the community belly, was said to be at the heart of politics and ambition for power at Nyamandem and the country at large." (p.160)
Like all the big business contractors around, Prospere realizes his dream of becoming rich after he "oils the lips" and "scratches the back" of his tribesman minister, who in reply to his "kind gesture" siphons most ministerial contracts to him.
Because Prospere has the most liberal hand in bribing, the minister quickly introduces him to his colleagues as a "bonafide giver." Since Prospere oils lips and scratches backs at a far higher rate than many business tycoons around, in less than no time, he becomes the "better customer" of all other ministers and directors, who accordingly reward him with the most lucrative contracts.
After oiling the lips of the director of customs and scratching the back of the minister of finance, he begins to import expensive goods into Mimboland under subterfuge, without paying any tax. As a result, the government loses billions of Francs CFA (the local currency) in tax revenue.
The capital city, Nyamandem is itself filled with moral decadence and sexual promiscuity. Cheating in marriage, especially for the men has become a acceptable way of life, especially if the man is a good breadwinner. The tycoons spend fabulous sums of money on elitist houses at the Petit Paris neighborhood, the so-called GRA of Nyamandem. Life in Nyamandem's GRA is a replica of "la fierte des Francais."
"The French are a proud people, so are we their cousins. Like father,
like son." (p.138-39)
Most men keep at least three extramarital girlfriends, whom they provide with the latest cars in the market.
It is fashionable for the tycoons to "shower their wealth" on "young juicy fruits," referring to beautiful university girls and high school students. Their likes in the forms of Mademoiselles, Rose Marys, Marie-Claires, Moniques and Charlottes are highly pampered and expensively dressed. In turn, like the "sugar daddies," these girls use the wealth they extort from these tycoons to sponsor different boyfriends for optimal sexual satisfaction.
For the second consecutive year, Mimboland is named the most corrupt country in the world, and in reply, members of the ruling party spend fabulous sums of money to bribe respectable figures in society to counter the credibility of the report in the foreign media. It should be noted that Cameroon has twice emerged as the most corrupt country in the world, in 2000 and 2001, according to Transparency International ratings.
At this point in time, Prospere is already numbered among the six richest tycoons in the country.
Just like the real Cameroon, the fictional Mimboland is another tower of Babel, struggling with its multiplicity of languages. Beside English and French, every tribe in Mimboland speaks its own language -- which helps cement the fabrics of tribalism. There are over 260 native languages in Cameroon -- a different language for every ethnic group, beside English and French which are national languages, although the population is just 17 million.
Although A Nose for Money is largely written in English (the author is from the English-speaking part of Cameroon), Francis B. Nyamnjoh throughout the book has to face the conflict of languages which is characteristic of daily life in his native homeland.
There are expressions in English with a Cameroonian touch and Cameroonian creole -- known as pidgin. French is used especially when it comes to depicting corruption, luxury and extravagance. Of course the author also uses both regional and vernacular slangs, especially his native Bum mother tongue.
Despite this vast usage of languages, the author keeps his focus on the global audience, and not the Cameroonian public; literally explaining every informal usage, where necessary.
Language itself, as we have so often seen, is an area of concern for the post-colonial writer.
If there is one thing I personally enjoy in the piece, it is Nyamnjoh's ability to use fictional characters and satires to depict the evil of corruption and embezzlement, and the moral impact on a country when tycoons eventually place themselves above the law with impunity.
© 2007 Ohmynews
THE SOCIO-POLITICAL DIMENSION OF Francis B. Nyamnjoh's "A Nose for money"
" A nose for money" has a peculiarity in that besides
its recreational intention,it has gone an extra mile
to scan the socio-political landscape of sub Saharan
Africa.If my guess is rightly that of the author,
then,the literary piece show-cases a country somewhere
around the armpit of the continent of Africa.This
location besides being geographical, is equally
sociological, if not biological. Sociological or
biological because the armpit might not be a very
comfortable place because it is a waste reception
unit. No doubt, it can be an eye sore, if not,a
repelling organ especially if poorly kept. This is
squarely the type of picture that Nyamnjoh leaves his
readers to fancy."A Nose for Money" presents a society
where social vices have engulfed moral virtues.A
society where the zest and surge for wealth, status
and power has made bribery, corruption, favouritism,
nepotism, tribalism and promiscuity, rules rather than
an exceptions. A society where money has usurped and
dry-cleaned all what represents the soft zones of human
conscience.Mimboland, so described by the author can
be seen more or less as a social quarantine whose
re-rehabilitation can only seek redress in a mental
and/or physical revolution.
By Takor Kahjum Nixon
The University of Y,de 1
D,pt. of History
Posted by: Takor Kahjum Nixon | June 04, 2007 at 08:24 AM