The Negro Grandsons of Vercingetorix by Alain Mabanckou

Author:Alain Mabanckou
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780253043863
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2019-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

The Man from the Center

Ngampika, our physical education teacher, cultivated an air of mystery about his origins. It amused me to see him laying claim to one camp one day, the next day another. What was certain was that he was born in the central region of our country. Now, southerners think that people from the center are northerners, whereas the northerners count the center as part of the South. So Ngampika could say he was from either region, depending on what suited him at the moment.

Kimbembé’s Advocate

When my girlfriends criticized Kimbembé during the break, I would leap to his defense. The criticisms concerned his southern origins. In contrast to Ngampika, he made no secret of the fact that he was from Batalébé, which was known nationwide as one of the bastions of opposition to all the northern regimes.

Kimbembé’s presence upset many older people in Oweto, who muttered in a disgruntled tone: “This place is really going to the dogs! They send us these types from the South as if we northerners weren’t smart enough to teach our own children!”

At home, my two younger brothers and I would talk about it. They mostly just made fun of our teacher’s Afro. My parents, on the other hand, reacted like the other people in Oweto. I heard my father sigh one evening almost in resignation: “The authorities have shown us that folks from the South are cleverer than us . . .”

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