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Major Gentl and the Achimoto Wars
Achimota City, 2020 AD., Major Gentl (of Africa) and Torro the Terrible (born simultaneously in Europe and South Africa) battle for control of the city in the Wars of Existence.
Meanwhile, Gentl and his wife, Ama Three, fight against each other in a test of love, and their increasingly disillusioned children are forced to take sides. Gentl's favourite snakes serve as bodyguards against Torro's antics; Torro is protected by his own sadistic rats - he has two lives left, but is weakened by Gentl's patience. As these two prepare for the final conflict which will determine the fate of Achimota, the children of the land take up their own battle.
In this provocative, witty, part-surreal novel, Kojo Laing's futuristic world has real possibilities.
Meanwhile, Gentl and his wife, Ama Three, fight against each other in a test of love, and their increasingly disillusioned children are forced to take sides. Gentl's favourite snakes serve as bodyguards against Torro's antics; Torro is protected by his own sadistic rats - he has two lives left, but is weakened by Gentl's patience. As these two prepare for the final conflict which will determine the fate of Achimota, the children of the land take up their own battle.
In this provocative, witty, part-surreal novel, Kojo Laing's futuristic world has real possibilities.
185 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1992
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August 15, 2020
this book is pretty similar to Laing's other books, in that the book follows some sort of bizarre logic of its own, the sentences are dense and strangely put together, and non English words and phrases (mainly taken from African languages, although not all) are sprinkled throughout. i think the odd syntax might also be borrowing a bit from african languages although that's mostly speculation on my part. in this book Laing has helpfully provided a foreword in which he says that "It is usual in Ghana (with such a cosmopolitan mix of cultures) to intersperse one language with words from another. This ought to be done universally for the idea is to create one gigantic language."
this seems like a clue to his whole literary project - create some sort of composite of all the cultures and languages he's working with. the basic plot of the book, as far as i can make out, is that it's the year 2020 in Ghana. the major cities have been swallowed up by the growth of Achimota city, and the remainder of the country has vanished, possibly due to being stolen by first world nations. our protagonist is Major Gentl, a soldier named for his extreme gentleness, which allowed him to win the first 'war of existence' against Torro the Terrible, an agent of the first world nations attempting to conquer Achimota city. at the beginning of the book the second war of existence against Torro is about to break out, and most of the book deals with the fighting of this war. the world outside Achimota city isn't really discussed in much detail, but there are several points where we do hear hints of what is happening there, and these are in marked contrast to the light hearted tone of most of the book, hinting that the first world nations have sealed themselves off from 'inferior' parts of the world, and have some sort of transhumanist project in progress which they require resources and labour for. most of the book is humorous and light hearted though, and there are puns, odd plays on words, dick jokes, and just a lot of offbeat characters and situations. this is an easier read than Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters, partially because this is much shorter, but the plot is also a bit more focused and there are less digressions and tangents.
here's a description of the city:
"The buildings were generally small, dwarf bungalows that sometimes disappeared into the ground, but the city had achieved the use of proper space: every house touched every building, whether by the nudge of a window, the slice of a wall, or the jut of a sewerage pipe, and yet there was so much space that the breeze didn't know what to do with it. Pogo helped the wind by suddenly releasing twenty handkerchiefs which the children raced for in wonderfully clean ceramic-street runs. Allah! And in streets like Kojo Thompson Road, great long buildings could move and change direction, could face the sun or back it, with their huge ball bearings under the foundations. Ride on you shoogly horses!"
a description of a house with some unusual features:
"Nana Mai's house was a short fat bungalow with many cellars for research, and when you leaned on the house to the left it leant with you for four feet, when you leant to the right it leaned with you for three. Roses and zinnia came bursting out of its roof, from flower-pots high. And the sitting room had so many levels that it was often difficult to see the guest who was doing the talking. The grey parrot in this room had no cage, and had been taught to talk science while guarding the windows from no one, with ferocious pecks of glass. The door was two unusual gentlemen, one with a hat that could barely shut: these two men had bullied a market woman, and as their punishment were sentenced to be doors in Nana Mai's house for six months. They were wedged together with bamboo, and stood on small rollers, so that they could be shut and they could be opened. They had chosen to be one door instead of two doors, for they could then chat while they were being pulled or pushed. And most important while they were in the house they could acquire valuable research experience from Nana Mai, being aspiring professors of physics. Only one at a time could eat or go to the toilet, for it was forbidden to go through their two spaces at once, hollow physics."
Major Gentl meets a pig:
"Under a high coconut tree with erosion at its roots stood an extremely serious pig trotting on the spot, with bacon shining in its eyes. It approached Gentl and said, still trotting, 'Please, Major, I am the president of the New Pig Experience, an association formed for pigs, through pigs and by pigs. We salute you as the originator of the heightened appraisal of animals in Achimota City. Through you snakes have become important, fish have become ministers, rabbits have fought wars, and pigs have been put in charge of their own African bacon. We salute you! There are even pigs driving satellites in the city skies. But unfortunately we have been approached by Torro the white South African Italian, and present Minister of Defence, to kill you. At first we were outraged. How dare this thick necked beast suggest your death to us! But then as time went on, we saw merit in his argument: first of all he, Torro, looked very much like a pig himself, including the new scars on his resurrected neck; second, since we pigs loved you so much, we thought we could turn you into an ancestor since you are so good. We now want you to become a piglet saint. And thirdly, we believe that all the strategies are so subtle in this great city that we could gain something good by killing you the good person, and leaving the bad living. I beleive you do't solve paradoxes here. The association has therefore sent me to demand of you an answer to the merits and demerits of your own death, as proposed by Torro. If you agree to die, then as the president, I am authorised koraa to kill you on the sport, with or without your snakes. If you don't agree, then I have the same authority to kill you immediately, since we have already decided in advance that you could be more useful to the city dead than alive."
Major Gentl catches a glimpse of the first worlders directing the war:
"Gentl saw shapes and heard sounds coming through his cracked binoculars from the frosty lands: first of all any vision or any perception could have its opposite uselessly presented straight to the brain without the perceiver willing it at aaawl; secondly, different types of metal had become the rather ludicrous manifestations of immortality; thirdly, humanity was declared as something truly belonging to another century altogether, something completely out of date; and then next, the outer had completely displaced the inner, the mind had become absolutely external, with a curious paradox they thought they had solved.It had turned out that all the outer stimulus that they were busy creating was for a mythical inner that no longer existed there; so that all the vast impetus being created to make the outer something like a thing in itself had nothing to percieve it; and after this Gentl saw that a few of them had seen that the world was something like a jigsaw puzzle; let only a section of humanity push out towards the galaxies, EVEN WHEN ALL THE OTHERS WERE READY TO JOIN THEM, and you would get a travesty of that very humanity that they hungered for, you would get truncated human beings - half puzzles - wishing they were more whole than they were, yet travelling all the same, as if brains were everything and the truest and broadest intelligence was nothing."
this seems like a clue to his whole literary project - create some sort of composite of all the cultures and languages he's working with. the basic plot of the book, as far as i can make out, is that it's the year 2020 in Ghana. the major cities have been swallowed up by the growth of Achimota city, and the remainder of the country has vanished, possibly due to being stolen by first world nations. our protagonist is Major Gentl, a soldier named for his extreme gentleness, which allowed him to win the first 'war of existence' against Torro the Terrible, an agent of the first world nations attempting to conquer Achimota city. at the beginning of the book the second war of existence against Torro is about to break out, and most of the book deals with the fighting of this war. the world outside Achimota city isn't really discussed in much detail, but there are several points where we do hear hints of what is happening there, and these are in marked contrast to the light hearted tone of most of the book, hinting that the first world nations have sealed themselves off from 'inferior' parts of the world, and have some sort of transhumanist project in progress which they require resources and labour for. most of the book is humorous and light hearted though, and there are puns, odd plays on words, dick jokes, and just a lot of offbeat characters and situations. this is an easier read than Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters, partially because this is much shorter, but the plot is also a bit more focused and there are less digressions and tangents.
here's a description of the city:
"The buildings were generally small, dwarf bungalows that sometimes disappeared into the ground, but the city had achieved the use of proper space: every house touched every building, whether by the nudge of a window, the slice of a wall, or the jut of a sewerage pipe, and yet there was so much space that the breeze didn't know what to do with it. Pogo helped the wind by suddenly releasing twenty handkerchiefs which the children raced for in wonderfully clean ceramic-street runs. Allah! And in streets like Kojo Thompson Road, great long buildings could move and change direction, could face the sun or back it, with their huge ball bearings under the foundations. Ride on you shoogly horses!"
a description of a house with some unusual features:
"Nana Mai's house was a short fat bungalow with many cellars for research, and when you leaned on the house to the left it leant with you for four feet, when you leant to the right it leaned with you for three. Roses and zinnia came bursting out of its roof, from flower-pots high. And the sitting room had so many levels that it was often difficult to see the guest who was doing the talking. The grey parrot in this room had no cage, and had been taught to talk science while guarding the windows from no one, with ferocious pecks of glass. The door was two unusual gentlemen, one with a hat that could barely shut: these two men had bullied a market woman, and as their punishment were sentenced to be doors in Nana Mai's house for six months. They were wedged together with bamboo, and stood on small rollers, so that they could be shut and they could be opened. They had chosen to be one door instead of two doors, for they could then chat while they were being pulled or pushed. And most important while they were in the house they could acquire valuable research experience from Nana Mai, being aspiring professors of physics. Only one at a time could eat or go to the toilet, for it was forbidden to go through their two spaces at once, hollow physics."
Major Gentl meets a pig:
"Under a high coconut tree with erosion at its roots stood an extremely serious pig trotting on the spot, with bacon shining in its eyes. It approached Gentl and said, still trotting, 'Please, Major, I am the president of the New Pig Experience, an association formed for pigs, through pigs and by pigs. We salute you as the originator of the heightened appraisal of animals in Achimota City. Through you snakes have become important, fish have become ministers, rabbits have fought wars, and pigs have been put in charge of their own African bacon. We salute you! There are even pigs driving satellites in the city skies. But unfortunately we have been approached by Torro the white South African Italian, and present Minister of Defence, to kill you. At first we were outraged. How dare this thick necked beast suggest your death to us! But then as time went on, we saw merit in his argument: first of all he, Torro, looked very much like a pig himself, including the new scars on his resurrected neck; second, since we pigs loved you so much, we thought we could turn you into an ancestor since you are so good. We now want you to become a piglet saint. And thirdly, we believe that all the strategies are so subtle in this great city that we could gain something good by killing you the good person, and leaving the bad living. I beleive you do't solve paradoxes here. The association has therefore sent me to demand of you an answer to the merits and demerits of your own death, as proposed by Torro. If you agree to die, then as the president, I am authorised koraa to kill you on the sport, with or without your snakes. If you don't agree, then I have the same authority to kill you immediately, since we have already decided in advance that you could be more useful to the city dead than alive."
Major Gentl catches a glimpse of the first worlders directing the war:
"Gentl saw shapes and heard sounds coming through his cracked binoculars from the frosty lands: first of all any vision or any perception could have its opposite uselessly presented straight to the brain without the perceiver willing it at aaawl; secondly, different types of metal had become the rather ludicrous manifestations of immortality; thirdly, humanity was declared as something truly belonging to another century altogether, something completely out of date; and then next, the outer had completely displaced the inner, the mind had become absolutely external, with a curious paradox they thought they had solved.It had turned out that all the outer stimulus that they were busy creating was for a mythical inner that no longer existed there; so that all the vast impetus being created to make the outer something like a thing in itself had nothing to percieve it; and after this Gentl saw that a few of them had seen that the world was something like a jigsaw puzzle; let only a section of humanity push out towards the galaxies, EVEN WHEN ALL THE OTHERS WERE READY TO JOIN THEM, and you would get a travesty of that very humanity that they hungered for, you would get truncated human beings - half puzzles - wishing they were more whole than they were, yet travelling all the same, as if brains were everything and the truest and broadest intelligence was nothing."
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