By George Esunge Fominyen
When a social science researcher takes to fictional literature, it is hard to draw the line between reality and imagination. It is the case with Cameroon’s Francis Nyamnjoh; a sound academic who knows how to tell a story simply and vividly. Apart from deliberate exaggerations by the author, any Cameroonian who has lived in the country for the past quarter of a century reading The Travail of Dieudonné, could easily find their space or that of a person they know in the colourful characters in the novel’s setting of Mimboland.
What’s in a name? Mimbo in Cameroonian pidgin means a drink (from palm wine to champagne). So doped of this potent nectar, are the characters of The Travail of Dieudonné that, they readily accept their unfortunate fate. Theirs is a world of misery in which insultingly rich and corrupt officials reap of an undemocratic government in which poor governance thrives, while the masses abandon themselves to sexual perversity and self-pity with the help of alcohol. In many ways, it is Cameroon seen through a glass of beer and Cameroonians locked inside a bottle of lager.
The lead character is acohol
The Travail of Dieudonné is a written in a false auto-biographical style. On the surface it is the life of Dieudonné, a drunk we meet at the very start of the story, staggering and groping in the dark, blood oozing “from his tiny heavily scarred and shapeless legs” on his way home after drowning himself in beer at the Grand Canari bar(Pg1). The very man we leave at the end of the story making a commendable effort to dance in drunken frenzy to the tune of Bikutsi, crying and being happy at the Grand Canari and singing along: “Ordinary people just want to be happy. All they want to do is to feel close to life once in a while…”
Essentially, Dieudonné is the author’s tool to reveal a silent but more pernicious character in this story: “alcohol”. It appears as the soul repose of a hapless people who themselves live under the illusion that he(Alcohol) is their strength and solace:
“Some drink because they are unemployed, others to forget the pressures of life and boredom of life; some to celebrate happiness; others to cushion the burdens of despair; some to keep busy; others to keep idle; some to contest; others to condone. Husbands drink for courage to start a quarrel with their wives and divert attention from their failure to provide for their families while wives drink to challenge their failing husbands”(pg102).
Alcohol is the appealing villain of this tale. For all the perceived courage it gives husbands and wives in matrimonial conflict, alcohol paradoxically does not seem to motivate the people of Mimboland to revolt publicly(apart from drinking places as the Grand Canari) against an endless and corrupt regime such as that of President Longstay. Cloaked in humour and sarcasm, Nyamnjoh presents alcohol as a political tool used by oppressive regimes in Africa (you may read Cameroon) to hold their suffering masses in drunken bondage, as Dieudonné puts it, “making ash of manhood and nonsense of women who dare smile it’s way” (pg 89-90).
When the young student Dieumerci Aphrika asks the drinking congregation at the Grand Canary what they would do if the government were to suddenly place a ban on the production of alcohol, the response of Dieudonné whose wisdom often comes alive after a few bottles of beer is stinging:
“Such a move by government would amount to biting the very finger that keeps you in power. L’acool tue la violence politique [alcohol kills political violence]. And the government is no fool.” (pg102).
This mirrors Cameroon which in many ways is the real-life Mimboland. A report published in March 2009 by Euromonitor International on alcoholic drinks in Cameroon surveys that: “Cameroon remains a country with one of the highest consumption rates of alcohol in Africa. The current boom of night life in urban cities will positively impact alcoholic drinks sales over the forecast period.” Meanwhile a 2007 paper by the African Institute of Security Studies described Cameroon’s political life as “characterized by immobility and stagnation.”
Would it be impetuous to use the preceding examples to draw a cause and effect inference as to why the people of Cameroon remain calm if not amorphous while their country that boasts a higher per capita GDP than countries like Ghana and Senegal, continues to lag in sectors like health and education mainly due to poor management by a regime, with a less than honourable democratic record and successive chart-topping listings in Transparency International’s most corrupt country index? It may have been the basis of The Travail of Dieudonné.
Alcohol the lingo of corruption
The world of Mimboland is so permeated by Alcohol that it has become the prism from which people view life’s vicissitudes. For example, one sees the banality of corrupt practices in this society in the way people describe the various grades of beer and who drinks them. Gold Harp is the preferred drink of the corrupt high-ranking civil servants like the treasury (tax) official Chopngomna. It is thus re-named as “Government Officers Like Drinking Heavily After Receiving Pay” (pg 50). Amstel on its part is better known as “All Major State Treasurers Embezzle Lots”.
The corruption and embezzlement that pervades society’s fabric is even reflected in the currency preferred by policemen who want a bribe. As Dieudonné says, “If mange-mille police or gendarmes find fault with a taxi driver’s car or documents they would rather accept a winning beer cap than let go a driver who has no money to bribe them.”(Pg 103) These beer caps are promotional products by breweries which reward winners with a free bottle of beer.
In fact, the Euromonitor International report on alcohol in Cameroon states that: “Promotional campaigns intensified in alcoholic drinks in 2008. Most companies pursued their marketing campaigns, offering prizes to customers ranging from mobile phones to luxury cars and, of course, more beer. With the economic slowdown it is expected that the advertising battle could intensify further. During periods of economic difficulty, Cameroonian consumers are less loyal to specific brands. They choose promotional products hoping to increase their savings.”
Francis Nyamnjoh’s background in sociological and anthropological research offers him the meat and bones of the stories which he refines and serves as appetizing novels. Like a savvy chef, there are some aspects which he reveals like a flambé that require the reader to be a connoisseur to savour in their entirety. It is the case of the surreptitious link between alcohol, promiscuity and sexuality in Mimboland.
A bottle of Gold Harp in front of a man introduces him better than a friend would. Yes, he may be corrupt and potentially the type who is married and has many mistresses including school-going teenagers. As such, the drink is also called “Get One Lady Daily,Have Another Reserved Permanently”. It is therefore not surprising that Chopngomna, the man who claims he is “married but available”, also called Joli Bébé or Bon Bon alcolisé to the school girls near his office is the person gulping this particular beer. Althrough the novel he is hanging out with his mistress, Margarita, who drinks Amstel which, in front of a lady may mean “Aime Moi Si Tu Es Libre” (pg 50)[love me if you are free].
Alcohol and the bliss of debauchery
In the process, Nyamnjoh fleetingly suggests that Mimboland may be a risky fellowship in which everyone drinks, gets high and indulges in carnal pleasures which may not necessarily be the declared social norm of the country. In Cameroon research is indicating that there is connection between alcohol and extra-marital sex among men. A study by Eugene J Kongnyuy of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Charles Shey Wiysonge of the South African Cochrane Centre, Medical Research Council, Cape Town, concluded that:
“Alcohol use is associated with having extramarital sex, a sign of multiple concurrent sexual partnerships, among married men in Cameroon. We cannot infer a causal relationship between alcohol abuse and unsafe sex from this cross-sectional study as both alcohol use and unsafe sexual behaviour may have a common set of causal personal and social factors. However, viewed in the context of the results of studies in other countries, the biologic plausibility and dose-response relationship between alcohol intake and unsafe sex, our findings underscore the need for integrating alcohol abuse and HIV prevention efforts in Cameroon and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa with similar social profiles.”
Although we learn that Dieumerci Aphrika, who falls head over heels in love with Precious the bartender at the Grand-Canari bar, persisted in using a condom during sexual relations to the point that she wrote a song about her inability to enjoy the pleasures of full-contact with her lover, it is unclear for how long, Dieumerci would resist the temptation of unsafe sex.
What generates such doubts, is the way he yielded to switching from a non-alcoholic beverage (Fanta) to an alcoholic drink (Guinness) when the former is presented with a connotation of prostitution “Fantastic Ashawo Never Takes Alcohol”(pg 45) while the Guinness is described as an aphrodisiac with one woman shouting in Pidgin, “Na Carpenter for Waist”.
In day-to-day life in Cameroon, there are many youths, even younger than Dieumerci who make that switch, taste that liquor and become tested (for the girls) to see if the acronym for Guinness “Girls Under Immaturity Never Never Enjoy Serious Sex” is true. If anyone doubts this then the real life experiences of Matthew Phelps, a US Peace Corp Volunteer in the forests of eastern Cameroon may prove convincing. After 11th of February 2009 (Youth Day) celebrations he blogged at: http://inwayovermyhead.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/alcohol/
“Youth day usually consists of a march of all the local schools and youth organizations mid morning (replete with salutes in a style probably illegal in Germany) followed by a night of general debauchery. Alcohol abuse is already a problem here (the education volunteer just caught her 7th graders doing a brisk business selling whisky in her class), but any lingering inhibitions against inebriation or [are] tossed to the wind on youth day. I’ve been told this is the day for the youth, who are so sexually repressed normally (ha ha I can’t even type that with a straight face- that could not be farther from the truth) to really let loose and unwind a bit. Needles to say it’s not a pretty site.”
"....I don’t mean [to] paint the whole country with one brush and call them all alcoholics, but it is defiantly a huge problem among the non-Muslim populations (generally the southern half of the country). I’ve walked by people at 9am sitting around getting drunk on palm wine asking me for money to take the sick infant in their arms to the hospital because they can’t afford it. The incredible absurdity of such situations used to make me livid, especially when the wrong people pay for it (the child died).”
How separate is fiction from reality?
Indeed, when one reads such descriptions of Cameroon, it is not hard to imagine that the likes of Albino Bon-Blanc Mukala Ni-Ni who repeats the text of the advert of his favourite liquor: “Affordable delights without the pitfalls. Get whisky. Get a condom. Drink more. Spend Less” (pg 51), truly exist beyond in the Travail of Dieudonné (pg 51). A novel whose befitting title could have been: The Woes of a People Enslaved by Alcohol.
Of course, one cannot blame the tameness of some Africans under oppressive administration on the power of the bottle of the alone.The Travail of Dieudonné depicts more than just drinking. It is even easier to posit that alcohol is a stylistic device employed by the novelist to put the setting into context, introduce the characters, colour the language and most certainly advance the plot. In relation to the latter, isn’t it Dieudonné who says, “I talk best when I am lubricated”? (pg 40)
However, the fact remains that alcohol is more than just a thirst quencher in this novel. With the additional context of this particular novelist being a social science researcher with an ear to the ground and an eye that catches the dynamics of his society, it is hard to believe that the Travail of Dieudonné is not a clarion call for Cameroonians to step out of the drunken stupor that has brought them and their nation on their knees.
Am trying to cut down on my drinking then I stumble upon this article. It helped and thanks.
Posted by: Ben | July 19, 2016 at 04:30 AM