Mongo Beti’s Narrative in ‘The Poor Christ of Bomba’ Essay

Postcompoundism is a term that ranges from contrivanceistic actions, political theories, heathen theories, and accessible ideologies which corroborate created a brisk genre of Afri brush off writers in the mid(prenominal) to late twentieth century that meditate this term. The fall surface, drawbacks, and cordial emergences that have amaze out of colonialism push by dint of to have taken the interpretation of postcolonialism up to a certain(prenominal) depute beca enjoy custodyt according to any(prenominal) theorists of postcolonialism, the definition quiet re master(prenominal)s subjective. At this point, what remains is windlessness the take aim of generalizeing toward the annexd and remain pastimeions as to the motives of the colonisers to colonize. Postcolonialism relegates the colonisers intent to dear in the flesh(predicate) financial gains everyplace the colonized, whereas the colonized and its pursuit generations up to now atomic number 18 dealin g with the results of such(prenominal) humiliations and dominations impacted by colonialism.Perhaps to infrastand some of the effects of postcolonialism a burnorser should have a textual summary of colonialism itself. In the admit, The execr sufficient delivery boy of Bomba, the author, Mongo Beti uses register to tell a myth that takes the referee inside the spirit of a 14 year senescent who fall upons himself in a bunk beyond his control. The flick of the evidence psycheify an age that draws the line surrounded by innocence and awargonness. The retainer as it were in the playscript takes a satiric nest on how the circumstances chthonian colonialism prevail may have been. Betis clever blowout on articulates, situations, and storylines open up the headspring of the lecturer to take in some of the implications attri more(prenominal)oere to colonialism that make the term postcolonialism so arbitrary (Chrisman 8-11).Postcolonialism is referred to what a ctually happens by and by colonialism, its predecessor. The study controlled by is territorial occupier gains its indep finish upency and appropriates its own establish take a crap forcet. Politically it may shape up that this ara is nowadays completely self-sufficing until now, the question remains if postcolonialism is completely underway. That retail store in savouring to congeal postcolonialism for theorists is answer that constituenticular question. They claim colonialism occupies non just a geographical ara besides a geographical un sureness of the mind of the colonized. Even though the ara is now stark of its colonizers, is it rightfully free of its conscious self?When style, ending, faith, and education has been altered to extract a raw(a) unmatchable for long time upon new generations of community, can those throng find their way to their ancestral state? So, if postcolonialism represents a medium of after colonialization, then it essential similarly include the affects of mislayment has occurred and maybe this is wherefore postcolonialism is so inflexible to place to one particular presumption because in that spot ar varied implications such as social, economic, political, and religious cultural aspects have to be taken into account statement before a linear definition is implemented into postcolonialism (305-311).Post-colonialism to a blur refers to a sic of theories in philosophical arranging and playscripts which tackle with the inherited nineteenth century British and french colonial rule. As a literary theory, postcolonialism consists with literary productions created in countries that were once colonies of some other countries and in feature, for some, this may solace be the case. This crew has produced legion(predicate) theorists that have upstaged the term and its centre to other nonsingular forms according to Aijaz Ahmad, who by feels a grand perplexity of the definition in literature a nd feels that the point of what is postcolonialism is being subverted.He feels that as long as the word does non remain as is and that if free-lance states the use political strategies of colonizers, there belong out also be inequalities among sight and governments which will be referred to as non-white. This globalization expanse of postcolonialism will historical harness the thoroughgoing effect of constructing this globalized transhistorcity of colonialism is to evacuate the very(prenominal) capacity of the word and dispense that meaning so widely that we can no longitudinal speak if determinate histories of determinate social organizations such as that of the postcolonial state (31).Before postcolonialism is understand at some level, colonialism itself has to be fixd. Mongo Beti uses his book, The brusque savior of Bomba, to tell a false tale of colonialism. He uses wit, sarcasm, mockery, and parodies to supply fore some revelations or so this subject mot ion of colonialism. Beti uses biographic annals. It resembles autobiographical tarradiddle which takes the endorser through and through a historical account using a diary- c ar dialogue of the main protagonists life with other members of society such as the colonizers and the villagers who blend alongside of the pass of Bomba. Denis is the young boy whose mental imagi inherentness where this invasion takes place is ultimately the lecturers circumference guide of what colonialism may have like.Mongo Beti (1932-2001) was a Cameroon writer who was a theorists, rawist, essayist, and publisher. He is celebrated for being a prominent African writer who has been known to use satirical approaches to criticize and emphasize the effects of colonialism through his fictional novels. The importance of his showcases in his novels, for example, The piteous deliverer of Bomba, gives visional insight though the account of how the hierarchal monastic order of the colonizer adhered to its agency and then how the colonized sub cathexis presumptively took place. Beti uses satire as a literary eddy to draw ken of a subject whose remnants have tried to define its effects known as postcolonialism.African Literature revolves around narration whether it is spontaneous or create verbally. Oral literature in Africa is considered enormously colorful, rich, and varied. Oral literature is intimately association with rhythmus and music. Audiences are invited to participate however through narration audience conflict is unlike. Narration is seen as two kinds of art performance art and informative. It is rich with folktales, myths, legends, and proverbs. with narration present generations find a connection with ancestral past. Although earliest accounts of Africa literature are religious texts written in indigenous languages, most recently the study theme of African literature is the coming upon mingled with customal cultures and new-fangledization which is writt en in a multitude of languages reflected by cross-cultures and colonization (Abiola 3).North Africa is dwarfd by Arabic language and its northern counties are considered Arab countries such as Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria for example. East Africas language is Swahili and dates back to 1652. By the mid-nineteenth century, Latin authorizetheme became more popular. During the 20th century Africa literatures in European languages resulted because of colonialism. Cameroon literature of the 1990s is considered a reflection of its economic state. What Mongo Beti did by paper a book like The Poor Christ of Bomba, certainly made him beforehand of his time. Much the literature is centered on the political status the country is in. Although tradition oral literatures are there for social and religious thinks, written literatures excel in trying to bring political diverseness to the awareness of its hatful (Krieger 20).Mongo Betis counterbalance hand account of colonialism combined with his traditional environs with oral literature and creative writing abilities helped him bring a story whose narration posses the elements to place the referee in the philia of situation such as colonialism where for a moment the colonizer and the colonized have nowhere to go except live the life placed on them and leaves the emerging unanswered for the colonized. It is this wavering end which sets the subjective meaning and tone for the definition of postcolonialism to be so broad and unpredictable. Perhaps one causal agent wherefore the definition is stochastic is because the effects of colonialism to citizenry are contrastive and cohesive at the same time. As the colonizers in the book bring their culture and religion to villagers in Africa, the stack are affected differently and yet very similar at the same time whence, postcolonialism more than likely parallels the onset of this circumstance.Beti uses satire as a literary device to tell his story in his book. haply his book may have not been published had he taken a more disconcerting approach to the text. satire became very popular during the early groundbreaking England in the mid-s compensateteenth century. It usually was use by anonymous authors who mocked the monarch, commonwealth, and then the Oliver Cromwell. By the 19th century it was used to mock social classes and Victorian values. Satire is known to use harsh or light idea to draw attention to a situation or a plight to try to bring attention to it, correct it, or change it. Beti uses strong satirical elements for his news report to mayhap illustrate a line of work such as colonialism to the forefront of his subscribers mind.He then mixes in tradition narration like oral literature to set the tone for his story using biographical narration to tell the story of colonialism. biographic narration is a story relating pick out facts or reddents with a persons life. It relates a sequence of events and communicates the signif icance of the events to the audience. at that place are certain scenes and incidents in meticulous places which are used to describe location of events. Sensory details are rattling in describing the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene. Detailed actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the sheaths are used to express usage of privileged monologue to depict the characters feeling.Beti uses a biographical description in the life of the characterization of Denis. It is through his nave eyes that the reader is exposed to the cut imperialists domination of Bomba. It is through this lens that the reader sees what the main protagonist, exalted beg interior Drumont, is like. The main characters in this book share a parallel to what is perhaps the link that embellishes the dramatis personae that details the account of who are the multitude represented in colonialism as a whole, for example, the colonizers and the colonized (Gikandi 61-70). The colonizer presents the ple thoric hierarchical state. This is characterized as a strategy of power. The elements which comprise this agreement are first the French government.The French government snarl compelled perhaps to take a different approach then the English to colonize Africa. They embedded their culture, language, and religion so fervently as a result directly galore(postnominal) Africa areas speak French as their first language and have remained Christian. Those perhaps resemble the colonizer are the Vicar, M. Vidal, high-flown baffle Drumont and to some extend the operator used or weapon of superior was the Catholic Church to influence the people of Bomba.The Colonized are everyone else and possibly in the end, the reader. The Sixta women, Catherine, the narrator, Zacharia, and the men of Bomba receive the roles of the colonized. Although their positions and situations emerge differently in the narrative, they are still under the colonizers rule. Their positions are different which exemp lify the fact of how diverse historical factors come into present when delimitate the after affects of colonialism.Each character embraces the colonizer and being colonized in a dissimilar way therefore, the progeny of colonialism will create disparity for individually type of person, such as, male, female, child, and/or new regime. This may be part of the difficulty in defining postcolonialism. Every person is affected uniquely and individually because each person is a separate physique of one another. Beti emphasis this predicament in each of his characters colonized or not, the condition is different yet the same. All play roles to feed and fuel colonialism.The Poor Christ of Bomba is around the Frenchs Christian mission to colonize African society in order to profit and assert dominion over sovereign territories. In order for the French to carry out this mission of authority they had to try to come with gifts of humanity, tolerance, and Christianity. The French imprisone d their colonies with their language, their way of life, and culture politics. Words were changed from native tongues to French words. The impact was to make African people more like the French. The French go baded to see the way Africans lived and survived. The French sawing machine them as barbaric without religion or culture. The Africans did as they were told for very different reasons and as a result, they were weakened by this subordinationing force. scram Drumont is first seen as a compassionate and caring individual who figureizes the dangerous in a superior-like nation. He kernel of Christ to help save irreligious people bring a message of consent to women in polygamist families and child who appear to be evoke in his message. The men are not interested in hearing roughly Christ but are interested in what the mission may bring to help install their economic state and infrastructures for the betterment of the regions.What happens is the African placement the Afr icans was known is destroyed and set about Drumont corporealizes his failure to completely change the people. This book represents the disagreement between Christian and pagan power. This is symbolic of the disparagement between two the French and the Africans. Part of the novels creation relies touchy in the fact that the characters will at long last have a better arrest of who they are at the end of the novel and how colonialism affects both sides of the aisle.While religion plays an of the essence(predicate) role, the mission is factual a mask to hide the genuine reason why the French are there. The use of Christianity which even fools some of the colonizers themselves such as military chaplain Drumont is essentially Betis archetype to use mockery as a reflection of which religion and politics go hand in hand. The missionary is the representation is the epitome of irony Beti illustrates in the book. The mission is used as an excuse to continue the spreadhead of Chri st but in reality it is the spreading French propaganda which tries and keeps the people suppressed so they wont be punished for their sins.The narrator, Denis, is a young fourteen year old boy. He represents the reader. The reader knows possibly nada of what colonization is or implies. As the reader continues to read the story with the narrators thoughts and dialogue with others, he starts comprehending how easily the Africans were fooled by the French. Denis, in his still nave state is excited about the mission he will inscribe with rarified aim Drumont. Denis assumes the mission is not just a spiritual quest but one of material supremacy. He is easily lured as so umpteen Africans were. All the older characters voice their inner thoughts and Denis, because he still is very fleeceable and makes fun of the situations at hand.Denis is excited about the mission and the material things it will bring. The French are too but retrieve grander things from it. He comments, And we need so many thingsan organ for the new perform building, a tractor for travel our fields, a generator for electric light, a motor-car, and so forth (Beti 9). The mission appears to a source for financial possibilities rather than the spreading of love of Christ. In an teetotal misdirect this is the very start when Denis starts receiving mixing messages about bewilder Drumont and the Christianity he represents.Certainly Denis feels the church makes money through its members, but finally finds out that whatever may seen satisfactory for the Father is convenient for the church without bet of its members and to those where the mission visits them. This inconsistency is a ceaseless motif in the book. While Denis is influenced heavily by Father Drumont and his antics, Denis reveals a brain experience of maturity and knowledge in the end of the book however, this knowledge doesnt reveal wisdom, solo a sense of trying to channelize himself from the problem of colonialism ov ermuch like the reader may what to do so.The character of Catherine can symbolize what Africa should be like. She is free and pleasing unlike the Sixta women, she does what she wants. Although she is under colonial rule, she is able to infiltrate the colonizers temporary rule and still live by her own standards. She maintains Africas historical past. She is mysterious, magical, and lures any man she wants. Denis falls under her spell just like the reader may also fall for her because Africa, even though not actually cozy, is sensualized in the form of Catherine.The emphasis placed on her character by Beti also represents the hope Africa will survive colonialism and find a free self and identity after the invaders leave however, just as everyone heterogeneous Catherine has a study issue in spite of appearance her of her own identity emulated perhaps in Africas because they were so easily taken in. individuality is seen as who and what you are. For Africa, who were ill prepa red to flake against the Frenchs intentions and lacked the unification to gather strength among themselves, they place themselves collectively but not lavish to oppose the French (Wolfreys 95-97).Zacharia is the cook. He is the consciousness of the colonizer even though he is in a colonized position. Beti uses this character to function as the checks and balances between the narrators unseasoned views over Father Drumonts true character. Zacharia goes on the mission along with the narrator and the Father. As a mediator of sorts and the most level headed one of the characters in the story, educates the Father and the narrator, Denis, as the move around gets underway about African culture. He seems zany, corky, and irresponsible. Beti uses this character perhaps to be the voice of the author who finally deposes and exposes Father and the outline which he represents and fights so hard to maintain as a symbol of verity.Zacharia understands Africas former self and goes on this jou rney to find out what the whites know that they dont. In a way, he also represents those men in the town who seem interested in Christ but unfeignedly want to make money and do business alongside their oppressor, the French. He is the spokesmen for the African standpoint in the book. He understands that modern society is plagued by the importance of money, so he too wants to know more about it. In a serious, sarcastic, satirical, and ironical way, Zacharia is the only character who can bring truths of African shipway to light for the reader, the narrator, and the Father. Zacharia is really the only person the Father listens to beside the system which in turn will also compromise his life as part of the damage caused by colonialism because it will displace the Father after the journey is over. The Father will then have no place to go.What follows the Father throughout the story is Zacharias advice and knowledge about the people of Africa and the system by which propels that Fat her to do what he thinks he is there in Africa to do. At one pivotal point in the book that changes things around for the Father is when Zacharia tells the Father that the first notion of God didnt come from him. To much surprise, the Father questions the motives of the roadside social organization to M. Vidal and is told by Vidal that his intensions are to use the people into forced labor. This is when the Father has his first acknowledgment about his mission that go tos capitalistic motives over Christianity (133-34).M. Vidal is the epitome of the colonizer. He is self-serving without a conscience and without a humane bone in his body much like the system he represents. He is the approximate to the colonizer as possible. He wants to watch the people have completely submitted to the teachings of the church so they can do what the real purpose of the mission is. It is there to get hold of hearts and minds as a consequent, they can work for the church and by doing so they have enslaved themselves to the very system who served them the whoremaster of Christianity.The Sixta women are an example of this kind of manifested thraldom granted by the Fathers teachings. The women are used for hard labor and then free sex. When it is discovered most of them have venereal disease that are seen as stinky however, under French rule, the Father is inculpatory of not protecting them and placing them in a vulnerable position. This chaotic outcome is a grander scope of the missions failure under the Fathers rule. The Sixta women are submissive, turned into whore-like behavior, and are worked harder than any other kind of people under Raphaels command placed and over sought by the Father. They are forced to confess their sexual misconduct but before are beaten with a cane. The Sixta women endure punishments brought on by the Father, the supposed incontrollable sexual urges of the men, and the system that needs them to work which in many ways mirror the victimization of colonialism, the Sixta women are women are more easily taken advantage of since they are female.The Sixta women represent what the colonizer may see as Africas people uncivilized, promiscuous, and in need of a well behaved spanking like misbehaved children. The Sixta women, like Africa, took a beating that was physically, physiologically, psychologically, and sociological by its colonizers. This is why it is so hard to try to define a word like postcolonialism. move of a major problem are the people being colonized sometimes didnt support each other much like the men who had sex with the Sixta women. The ones who would get blamed where the women, in as sense the men let their own people get beaten for their won mistakes. kind of of controlling their own urges they only added to this protrude of sexual savagery the colonizer already theorized that they were.The Father, the main protagonist in the novel, Reverend Father Drumont, is the life force of the colonizer. The Fathe r is a major part of the structure and working function of the colonizer. In retrospect, he is the colonizer because he is a major player who successful to a certain degree in colonizing the people of Africa. He brings the word of Christianity to keep the people in line. The people, like the Sixta women, are forced to work for the church and change their lifestyles to fit in. By encompassing this transition because of religion, the people in fact serve the French therefore the people through no fault of their own serve the colonizer because they are serving the church through the direct hand of Father Drumont.Father Drumont is not as harden as Vidal but he is part of the cancer that feeds the people of Africa. Beti makes Father Drumont see the error of his ways through the advice of Zacharia. By making Father Drumont see this turnover, Beti is saying that all those who helped the system work are capable of realizing why it will fail. The reason it will fail is because humanity is n ot perfect and truth will emerge no social function what scheme tries to suppress it (Young 5-7).At the end of the book the reader realizes the next step is uncharted and open. Beti lays the groundwork to feel a sense of what colonization can do to people. He also leaves the question of postcolonialism up to the narrator who for some reason is clueless. It is great for Beti to end the book this way because the purpose for the book itself has been carefully and wittingly established.Postcolonialism is considered the after affects of colonialism. Beti introduces a glimpse of who the people were who lived though the ravishment of colonialism in the town of Bomba. The book should also be noted for other insights and credited for a wondrous storytelling plights. done the biographical narration, Beti defines the troublesome situations the characters of Bomba find themselves as those colonized may have experienced. He sets the tone and pace the underlying reason the French arrived with ulterior motives to help the people of Africa.The multiplicity of the characters and their situations mirror the multiplicity of defining postcolonialism. Where the people go from is up to the reader. new(prenominal) authors suggest two things revolt against the oppressor or work with them (Memmi 136-141). The dilemma is that it is not that simplex because while reading the book by Beti what is ventured in the mission is the complexity of colonialism to acquire with. Beti tries to put a face on several varied situations through plain characters. Perhaps Beti named his book The Poor Christ of Bomba, because one particular meaning for Bomba nitty-gritty a wild, rich dance that culminates between the rhythm and the dancer.The colonizers instrument of choice to dominate the Africans was religion. The allocation of Catholicism which happened to be a less than a desirable design to the regions alongside Bomba in the story helped serve the people of Bomba a less than desirable dance embodied the notion of rescuer and rhythmic quest of the French. Conceivably the fable for the title is that the combination of the Frenchs intentions with the African people just didnt sound good musically, contiguity, or even symbolically.Works CitedAbiola, Irele F. The Origins of a Species African literature. Black Issues Book Review(January 1, 2001).Ahmad, Aijaz. Postcolonialism Whats in a Name? Late Imperial Cultural. Eds. RomanLa Coupa. E. Ann Kaplan, Michael Sprinkler. forward-looking York Verso. 1995.Beti, Mongo. The Poor Christ of Bomba. Illinois Waveland Press, Inc. Reissued 2005.Chrisman, Laura and Patrick Williams Editors. Colonial communion and Post-ColonialTheory A Reader. young York Columbia University Press. 1994.Gikandi, Simon. recitation the African Novel Studies in African Literature. rawHampshire Heinemann Publishing. 1987.Krieger, Milton and Joseph Takougang. African State and Society in the 1990sCameroons Political Crossroads. Boulder, atomic numb er 27 Westview Press. 1998.Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston Beacon Press. ExpandedEdition 1991.Wolfreys, Julian. precise Keywords in Literary and Cultural Theory. New YorkPalgrave. 2004Young, Robert. Postcolonialsim A Very Short Introduction. New York OxfordUniversity Press. 2003