The Poor Christ of Bomba

"We loved him so little...As if he were not one of us..for he was not one of us..."
By sally tarbox on 5 March 2018
Format: Paperback
I'm going to give this a *3 for enjoyment and a *4 for literary merit - as you read you're very aware that there's a lot for the reader to tease out and debate.

Set in 1930s Cameroon, the title character is a French priest working in a mission. It's narrated by his innocent and enthusiastic young acolyte, Dennis, who sees the 'Father' as the personification of Jesus Christ:
"A man who has spread faith among us; made good Christians every day, often despite ourselves. A man full of authority. A stern man,. A father- Jesus Christ."

Certainly the reader can see parallels: like the Gospels, the account is written show more by another, so it can be hard to deduce Father Drumont's true feelings. A driven individual, he has spent may years serving; and incidents in his life again remind one of the Scriptures, whether it's smashing the artefacts of a pagan dance or standing up in a canoe.

But one soon begins to have reservations about his 'regime', despite Dennis's constant approbation. His unbending severity on the native people's sins seems to relax when it comes to those of the whites. And are the unmarried women, kept captive in a 'sixa' (camp), really there to protect their chastity or to provide forced labour (or worse?)

But exactly how culpable is the priest in the failings of his mission? Is he guilty of mere negligence or complacent in the goings-on?
Certainly brings to life the raw deal of this African nation under its colonial administration. show less

A good book with some serious flaws. Let's not be shy: the tone is often off, things are stilted, the dialogue is ropey and the psychology of the characters sometimes unconvincing. Some, but not aall of this may be due to the translation. Despite this it's fast-paced and always interesting. It's a satire and a condemnation of colonialism and the associated human rights abuses.

Our protagonist is one Father Drumont who has come out to Cameroon to covert the natives but has subsequently committed a series of crimes against his parishioners. He has also run his mission as a business and denies the sacraments to the poor. He is the poor Christ of Bomba. This is poor as in 'low quality'. I believe the play on words works in French too. For show more the previous three years he has refused to minister to his flock but decides now to put in three weeks' work. I think this is a reference to the three years of Jesus' ministry. There are lots of these correspondences between Drumont and Jesus but they're opposites or perversions of what happens in the Gospels. I'm sure there are more than I noticed, but I'm not that familiar with the New Testament. It's intellectual things like this that carry you through the novel. It's a political novel. Beti has his head screwed on politically… ie, I agree with him. I understand the Catholic Church had the novel banned. If I hadn't agreed with him I think I might have found the novel unreadable because due to the faults outlined above, the politics stick out above the parapet of the novel.

I understand it's a work of some importance in Francophone African literature. Perhaps of greater importance as a work than it's good as a novel, but still enjoyable. show less

The narrator being a largely passive character in this book, the main character in practice is Father Drumont. Unfortunately the narrative never conveys a clear picture of what Father Drumont is like: is he the type of priest we would be lucky to have more of, as the opening suggests, or is he a priest who is dangerously ignorant to things occurring right under his nose, as the ending revealed? Is he kind and charitable, or does he harangue the Christians for church dues and beat women to get them to speak? All of these features are present in Drumont, and while it might have been Beti's intention to show the contradictions and mixed role plaid by the white power structure and the church in Africa, in practice it means that as a show more character Drumont feels muddled. show less