Noble prize-winner author Wole Soyinka’s latest novel is a study in contradictions; a work of pungent irony where laughter probes the meaning of misery.
Wole Soyinka’s latest book ‘Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People’ tells a story full of contradictions starting with its title. This is a sordid tale about the human condition by one of the most consummate story tellers alive today. Soyinka managed to formulate a tale that can carry the weight of all that chaos. With asides that are polemics, facilitated with a style that is over-ripe, its flaws are plentiful, its storytelling wayward, but the incandescence of its achievement makes these quibbles inconsequential.
In an imaginary Nigeria, a cunning entrepreneur is selling body parts stolen from Dr. Menka’s hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Dr. Menka shares the grisly news with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer, and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne. The life of every party, Duyole is about to assume a prestigious post at the United Nations in New York, but it now seems that someone is deter¬mined that he would not make to there. And neither Dr. Menka nor Duyole knows why, or how close the enemy is, or how powerful.
The novel opens with the sentence: “Papa Davina-preferred to craft his own words of wisdom. Such, for instance, was his famous’ perspective is all.’ Papa Davina is the religious guru who runs a spiritual ministry that deals in the vilest and most atrocious things, and he is the ally of the wily and evil Sir Goddie, the Prime Minister. ‘Perspective is all’ may even take as a reminder of the surrounding of tragic wisdom in King Lear, ‘Ripeness is all,’ though Lear’s tragic world and Chronicles’ comic world are poles apart. When a writer like Wole Soyinka laughs, it can have the impact of a tragic blow. He is the first black African to win the Noble Prize for Literature and has been among the most impactful writers from the continent in the last 50 years. He is a novelist, play- wright, essayist, political activist, and critic of society. He has only written two previous novels, The Interpreters (1965) and ‘Season of Anomy’ and ‘Chronicles...’ after a gap of 48 years.
The novel has many story lines that get mixed up and work around the mysterious murder of a widely respected and popular engineer Duyole Pitanpayne, Prime Minister Goddie, the false prophet, Papa Davina and many others are all involved in the plot in different and complicated ways. There are other characters too that dominate the novel’s chaotic world, like Pitan-Payne’s best friend Dr. Kighare Menka who is an award-winning surgeon, famous for his work with mutilated victims of the Boko Haram militant group. Through him, the novel opens up a black market of human parts in which the country’s elders have a stake. Science, religion, business and superstition mix in weird ways in this underworld venture where human organs are used as charms to gain power, kill enemies, and for other purposes. Some of the great works of literature like Brothers Karamozov are built around murders and can read as detective stories and great explorations of life and searches for meanings and insights. They are read, experienced and understood at different levels of reading. A big laughter runs through its grim world, making its habitants the happiest people on earth. There is a pungent irony here, but it is a perspective that makes us understand the world better. Laughter can probe the meaning of misery as much as tears can.
Framing the background of the narrative is its colonial history, slavery and the oil industry, a source of misery and devastation that many readers will be aware of, all factors which have blighted and shaped the country into what it is. Those who oppose the corrupt and ruthless powers, like Dr. Menka Kighare and Diyole Pitan-Payne, compromising the Government with its practice of co-opting the opposition, the media and religion and can expect a dangerous and powerful pushback.
There is a complex work that needs some care and effort to follow. There are a number of characters and all of them are not perhaps essential for the story. The language is a bit dense, not a simple language where Soyinka is known for. Some readers might even be tempted to drop off or quit because of the complexities of the story. An understanding of Nigeria’s politics might help the reader appreciate the novel better. But, it should have been the other way around. ‘Chronicles From the land of the Happiest people on Earth’ is at once a literary hoot, a crafty whodunit and a scathing indictment of political and social corruption. It is a stirring call to arms against the abuse of power from one of our fiercest political activities, who also happens to be a global literary giant.
If you want to know what kind of novel can be written by someone who has survived as a sort of insider in a difficult land but who has kept their creative conscience and their powers of invention alive then ‘Chronicles…’, answers that question. It is Soyinka’s greatest novel, his revenge against the insanities of the nation’s ruling class and one of the most shocking chronicles of an African nation in the 21st century and has to be widely read. I found it engaging and extremely challenging.
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