Reviewed by Ozioma Egwuonwu
From the very first moment we are made privy to Gregoire Nakobomayo’s decision to kill his prostitute lover, Germaine, we are thrust full throttle into the world of African Psycho, a diasporic noir masterpiece and the first of three works translated into English by acclaimed Francophone writer Alan Mabanckou.
In classic noir style, Mabanckou paints the journey of a protagonist that readers would like to despise because of his actions, but whose thoughts and inner ruminations reflect a pitiable pain and suffering.
As a first person narrative partially told in flashback, Mabanckou’s style creeps upon you. In the same manner Gregoire goes about fattening his lover up for the kill, Mabanckou feeds his readers the sorry details of Gregoire’s life. As a “picked up child” Gregoire Nakobomayo was born during an epidemic where African mothers abandoned their children soon after they birthed them. Born into a world of poverty and strife, for the next couple of years, Gregoire bounces from home to home until it appears he has hit the foster home jackpot (albeit unwillingly). While he admits to his dislike of being re-programmed to behave like a typical well-behaved child, Gregoire acknowledges that his home condition was enviable. Unfortunately, his time in that particular household is cut short when he flees after protecting himself from an unwanted and unwarranted violation. This traumatizing experience becomes the catalyst for Gregoire fleeing into the underworld of a town named He-who-drinks-the-water-is-an-idiot where a great deal of the story line takes place.
Gregoire, unlike other protagonists in popular African literature (such as Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation) is not sold into slavery or forced to become a child soldier. The profession of would be killer is one he selects himself, and one that he studies vigilantly by attending court hearings, reading books and listening to the radio. This heightened awareness of the flawed justice system feeds the resentment and alienation he already feels towards society—a sentiment he shares with his mythic and supernatural mentor, Angoualima, whose phantom role as the most vicious and brutal murderer ever known within the unnamed African country’s popular culture is quite attractive to Gregoire. To have people look at him with fear in their eyes–as they did Angoualima– is more desirable to Gregoire than the jeers he’s received his whole life for having a rectangular head. As Gregoire prays to one day become Angoualima’s spiritual heir, his deep admiration calls for him to visit his mentor’s grave often to share his latest exploits or to re-fuel his thirst for the kill.
Consistent throughout the novel is Gregoire’s inner chatter. These disclosures add texture to the novel and allow the reader to begin piecing together their own version of who Gregoire really is. Is he perhaps better or worse than even he sees himself to be?
As a classic tale of the downside of being socially and emotionally impoverished, one cannot help but draw comparisons to Bret Easton Ellis’ American Pyscho especially when Mabanckou gives us a taste of his own brand of gore. Gregoire’s vicious actions, just like that of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, will make you want to put the book down for a bit before you are drawn to continue reading.
In many ways African Psycho operates as social commentary that sheds light on much of the sociopolitical ills that exist in African society. Mabanckou is a genius at casually relating the tension that exists within the varying segments of society. Whether he is pitting rich against poor, the living against the dead, or the whore against her customer, it is through this lens that we get a flavor of African life as depicted by Mabanckou.
Amidst this tension, Mabanckou places killing in the realm of political statement where Gregoire doesn’t kill simply for the pleasure of it, but because he wishes to exist–to move past the fringes of society, to have his actions on everyone’s lips and his deeds roar from one side of his homeland to the other.
Perhaps then, African Psycho is not the story of a psychopath, but rather nothing more than the tale of another “brotha trying to make it…” Regardless of where one lands on the final interpretation, one thing is certain, Mabanckou does not disappoint, and in typical noir fashion, the outcome is one you would least expect.