Broken Glass uses satire to expose the effects of bad leadership, post-independence delusion and immorality
By Vinta Njeri; Edited by Nzula
What happens when a drunk man writes about other drunkards? You get a satire – A dark comedy about bad governance and a people’s struggle to get on with it.
Broken Glass is narrated by fellow drunk Broken Glass, formerly a school teacher, and tells the tales of several patrons of Credit Gone West bar in the Republic of Congo.
The novel is short on morals but not wit and imagination
Broken Glass, as his name suggests, is an unhappy, lonely man who is a frequent patron of his friend’s bar. When said friend, Stubborn Snail, gives him a pen and a book, the literature lover begins writing his fellow drunkards’ life stories.
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The novel is short on morals, but not of wit and imagination, and the characters are hilariously sad. There is the man in pampers who has created a special bond with the flies following him; he gave up on decency after a sodomy incident in jail. The painter won’t stop talking about his former glory in France. The bitter man recounts the tales of his cheating wife every chance he gets; he hates African women and considers himself superior to other men for sleeping with white French women. Then, there’s Robinette; the carefree woman who is popular for participating and winning pissing contests against the drunk men.
The president and his cabinet are petty and their greatest achievements are frustrating the citizens
There are several topics explored in this dark comedic novel, namely religion and leadership.
How does religion affect the drunks at Credit Gone West bar? It’s where all the rot is. The church is a holy sex den threatened by the popular bar. The drunks, who are our protagonists, feel left out of a Bible that doesn’t have black angels and believes the church is selling false promises like the forgiveness of every sin. There is no better place, in this novel at least, for fornication, orgies, zoophiles and pedophiles.
Broken Glass uses satire to expose the effects of bad leadership
With regards to leadership, it is basically non-existent. The president and his cabinet are petty and their greatest achievements are frustrating the citizens. Businessmen are subjected to rigorous inspections and asked to produce unrealistic documents such as proof of vaccination against sleeping sickness and license to drive a wheelbarrow.
Mabanckou’s jokes with this misgovernance using lines such as “The Prime Minister promised in the next reshuffle the Minister for Agriculture would be given the portfolio for Culture, all you had to do was cross out the first four letters of ‘agriculture’.”
Broken Glass uses satire to expose the effects of bad leadership, post-independence delusion and immorality through the voices of drunk characters whose only hope can be found at the bottom of a beer bottle.
Alain Mabanckou is a Congolese-French journalist, novelist and academic. He is currently a literature professor at UCLA. He is one of the most successful African writers in the French Language. His popular works include African Psycho (2003), Memoirs of a Porcupine (2006) and Broken Glass (2009).
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