"Smouldering Charcoal: A compelling story of life under a corrupt regime" by Tiyambe Zeleza is well-described in its title. I give it a "+".
It's a short novel about life in Malawi, which certainly qualifies as a corrupt regime. There are perhaps a dozen major characters, although the story is set up to contrast two primary threads:
One is about a lower-class bakery worker named Mchere. He is uneducated and very poor, living in a hovel with his wife, five children, and elderly mother. His pittance salary cannot support the family, and Mchere is also prone to drinking and taking prostitutes with what little money he has. This thread is about the bakery workers going on strike, which is of course illegal in Malawi.
The other thread is about Chola, an educated Malawian who has been abroad to go to school. Unlike other blacks who experience the white world, he is not interested in helping to "uplift" his country, to "develop" it, if that means adopting Western values. He has a more idealistic vision of helping Malawi within its own cultural traditions, in a way that makes sense for it, not just rushing to get shopping malls and cars and TVs (bottom line: he's a socialist). Of course, it is ideas like his that are illegal and dangerous. He is not loved by his government. He works as a journalist and is engaged to a woman attending the local university.
I can't describe the twisted thread of the plot. The scene shifts abruptly from person to person, and Zeleza is not consistent about whose head he is in. Sometimes you get Mchere's thoughts, and sometimes his wife's, sometimes Chola's and sometimes his boss's.
The plotlines intersect and ultimately merge. The overall theme is that life under a corrupt regime just sucks. Events are random. Laws are different today than they were yesterday, mostly because they are made up on the spot by whoever is enforcing them. Nothing works, nothing runs, the system is more of a hindrance than a help, so people just ignore it. There is absolutely no reward for playing by the rules (like working hard at your job and trying to advance), because the magnitude of random events washes out all systematic progress.
I am reminded of those studies of rats who are randomly shocked or rewarded with food, with no correlation to their actions. Eventually the rats either lie down and become totally passive, or they start attacking/mating with anything in sight. They never turn out normal.
And yet, there are glimmers of hope. Small positive actions that manage to coincide and produce some benefit. Small instances of the human spirit triumphing against incredible odds. Poignant moments when you are certain that these people have hearts of gold despite their other failings.
Overall, this was a somewhat depressing book, although I did gain some appreciation of what is truly special about America (at least in the social classes where most Americans live; I suspect some inner cities resemble Malawi in character). One thing is consistency. I can get up in the morning and be reasonably assured that life will "work" the same way it did yesterday. The laws will be the same, my job will continue as I left it yesterday, the roads will be the same, the stores, the restaurants. There are structures in place that aren't transitory or inherently weak in the way that they are in Malawi. And without that consistency, it's impossible to plan, impossible to build, impossible to grow. You are stuck living in the moment, every moment. It's no way to live.
There were a couple annoying stylistic qualities about the writing too, which got worse as the book went on, as if Zeleza was in a hurry to finish. But overall, it was indeed a "compelling" story. Definitely a "+".
Copyright © Kim Allen 2000
