Black Moses|Alain Mabanckou

Photo: English PEN

“Tokumisa Nzambe po Mose yamoyindo abotami namboka ya Bakoko,” which means “Thanks be to God, the black Moses is born on the earth of our ancestors” in Lingala, is a mouthful for most. Thus, everyone—excluding the priest who christened the titular protagonist—settles for “Moses” after the biblical character who frees the Israelites, from slavery. To this end, Moses, an orphan, spends his teenage years pondering his name and how it guides his destiny, if at all.

Alain Mabanckou’s novel opens in an orphanage in 1970s Congo-Brazzaville. The director, Dieudonné, is a malicious man given to abusing his authority. He beats the children in his care, replaces staff with family members, and demands sex from single mothers before their children are accepted by the orphanage.

When a political revolution rocks the Congo, the orphans are forced to swap their religious teachings for tenets of scientific socialism, regurgitated under the guidance of Dieudonné, who seeks to ingratiate himself with the new president with flattering weekly editorials.

In search of a better life, and after the inexplicable disappearance of his substitute parents Papa Moupelo and Sabine, thirteen-year old Moses escapes with Songi-Songi and Tala-Tala, menacing twin brothers who nicknamed him Little Pepper for spiking their food with pepper as revenge for their mistreatment of his friend. The trio end up on the streets of Pointe-Noire, where they recruit gang members to steal from residents. But life as a petty criminal is hard under the twins’ command. They extort Moses, warn him to stop stealing food then giving it to the poor, and brutally beat him for attempting to free a cat they intended to eat.  

The gang soon disbands, but by then, Moses is living with Maman Fiat 500, the Zairian owner of a brothel he’d helped with her groceries. She finds him a job as a dockhand and things start looking up for Moses until the mayor—eyeing a new political post—launches an attack on prostitutes with his “Zero Zairian Whores in Pointe-Noire” campaign. Some of the Zairian prostitutes are beaten and raped by the police; others meet their end in unmarked graves, demonstrating those on the fringes of society are nothing but pawns for self-serving politicians obsessed with maintaining power. 

With another person he loves missing, Moses mind unravels to the point he begins wandering the streets in a getup similar to his hero Robin Hood, the mythical outlaw who robbed the rich and gave to the poor, sealing his fate as a crusader for the marginalised. 

Mabanckou skilfully employs sarcasm to mock the raging seas of sycophancy, inequality, violence, and politicking in Congolese society. When members of the Union of Youth visit the orphanage, Moses wonders wryly why they are not “youthful and their hair is whiter than manioc flour.” He also goes on to dissect Dieudonné’s tactic for staying in power. “…he changes with the wind. Today, he’s one of the great defenders of the Revolution brought by the northerners, whereas yesterday he fought against them on the side of the southerners.” 

Black Moses reveals the brutal consequences of these injustices, showing how they conspire to violate the psyche of individuals, leading to society’s eventual descent into madness. 

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