The peculiar and moving story of a Congolese boy's coming-of-age amid the political strife of postcolonial Congo
His nickname is Matapari, which means "trouble." He is an African child of the '90s—brilliant, mischievous, postcolonial, postmodern-caught in the crossfire of a chaotically liberated African country. Matapari grows up in a world of talking drums, the Internet, and satellite TV, a world of dictators who remake themselves as democrats overnight.
His uncle is a stooge for the dictator; his father is a scholarly recluse obsessed with proving that blacks played key roles in Western history. Matapari is a young man in the middle—but the shrewdness and wit with which he tells his often riotously funny story set him apart from his relatives and countrymen.
Emmanuel Dongala uses the ingenious viewpoint of a child to show up the telltale world of adults—and to show how one preserves one's independence in a corrupt and violent society.