Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
recommended, February 7, 2009
In a Duel with a Dictator: an African woman's Political Struggle, Emmanuel Acheta, narrates the stamina of a determined political activist, Paula Okappah. Against her, juxtapose an accomplished, cunning and efficiently brutal African dictator in the mould of Sadam Hussein, Idi Amin, Abacha even Nicolai Ceausescu. A dictator with the lethal power of the State within his reach. A dictator with an almost infectious power to summon death to the door of his opponents. And a dictator with billions of stolen dollars stashed outside his impoverished country, say, in Switzerland. The author, then, in a befitting language, notes the luxurious display of President Wadhabo's opulence, and narrates with an almost photogenic mind the behind-the-scenes murder plots of the dictator, and his agents. It's a narrative of an author who carries the reader to the scene, almost like you are in the dictator's cabinet meetings, his bedroom, even standing beside the dictator, "listening in" to corrupt machinations between him and one of his henchmen.
This is a potent mixture of thriller and sub-Saharan politics of dictator-conquers-all. Emmanuel Acheta is at his best when he watches and describes his heroine as she primes for combat alongside the men from the opposition who are totally surrendered to her leadership as they plot.
At once, one falls in love with this clever and adept woman, Paula Okappah, who parts with her African tradition of kow-towing to "Big men" and to men, generally, and decides instead, to stand up to a monster of a President [Junius Ike Wadhabo] who is "hurrying this country [Republic of Kerikta] to an avoidable destruction, and sadly, to an inevitable political collision."
With all the opposition--political parties, human rights activists, independent journalists, ex-military men, and rebels--they must operate in mysterious ways to avoid President Wadhabo's notorious security agents, bullets, tear gas, stinky squalors of ungazetted jails (confession theatres) and whips.
Perhaps it's the torture that Third World dictators inflict on their opponents, as a reader finds in a scene involving Paula Okappah's associate, in Chapter 26, that more than anything else, diminishes their humanity, and well, ours.
But it's not all torture, tears and blood in a DUEL WITH A DICTATOR. You will find humour, too, as the populist dictator takes to the floor, parading his dancing prowess, in a cultural circumcision event, imbalu. He will wriggle his waist, flail his hands, and confound the invited "guests from as far as Germany, Canada, Japan, China, South Korea, Libya and Britain."
And the party continues. . . Even the so-called First Ladies, the ones who would be expected to plead for modesty, morality and decency [or poison their men for the benefit of millions, as some hopeless and desperate Africans have suggested] because of their unique position, do not help the cause of good leadership as one scene shows a juicy dialogue between the dictator and his wife, the First Lady- Gyna Masaba Wadhabo- about theft and lust for unlimited power. Africa, thus, has a heart-rending ability to nurture some of the world's rare breed of leaders with an unparalleled and monstrous proclivity to steal, and inflict pain not only on their people but also to damage their countries treasuries.
In President Wadhabo, at once we see an African strong man once a guest--on a red carpet--to the White House, Elyse Palace, Whitehall and to other corridors of power in the West, a man formerly described as deeply admired, a new thinker, judicious, charismatic, informed, clever--- now, progressively hurtling downhill as a criminal gangster who is rich, hated, feared, and to be--- avoided and removed from power. And we see, too, determined men--but this time---under the command of a decided woman, who stakes all to re-claim her country, Republic of Kerikta, from oppressive and corrupt hands.
This is a fascinating story. Overall, the strength of Emmanuel Acheta's prose, his muscular plot, and tool-kit: hooks, shadowing, suspense, pacing, setting and transitions, should set him on the promising path of other first-time writers, especially Africa's other dazzling writers in their debut novels -writers such as: Moses Segawa with his ABYSSINIAN CHRONICLES (who, by the way, was also born in Uganda), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, another impressive Nigerian writer, with her PURPLE HIBISCUS.
Worked on with steadfastness the author's writing, and raw talent, may well echo in Africa's halls of literary greats in the years to come. For his readers-- and those curious about power-thirsty, corrupt and vicious African dictators, and the liberated women who will not go before them on bended knees, -- Acheta's debut novel explores and fictionalizes Africa's violent and crooked political terrain and those opposed to the dictatorship while simultaneously displaying Acheta's imaginative, stubborn, entertaining, informative and versatile mind. An excellent debut novel, recommended
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