A good man in Africa door William Boyd

An ultimate Murphyan story Morgan Leafy, a diplomat working for the English embassy in Kinshasa (somewhere in Africa). He never is lucky and everything goes wrong all the time. William Boyd tells his story in “A Good Man in Africa”. It all starts when Priscilla, the daughter of Fanshawe (Morgan’s boss) arrives at the airport. Morgan directly falls in love with her. First she returns the love but after a while she leaves him because he don’t want to be just more intimate with her. The cause for this is his ‘active sex-life’, which gave him a sexual disease that he doesn’t want to pass it on to Priscilla. This all happens just after Dalmire, Morgan’s assistant/successor, and Priscilla starts a relationship with him. Because of the coming elections, Fansahawe asks Morgan to socialize with Adekule, the leader of the party that has the biggest chance to win (the KPN), so that the British can exert some influence on the government. Morgan tries to come near Adekunle but Adekunle does not really take him seriously. To come a bit nearer to Adekunle, Morgan decides to visit him at his house. There he meets Ceila, Adekunle’s wife. He falls in love with her and they start a relationship. One evening, after Morgan has been visiting Ceila and he is sitting in his car, Adekunle rises behind him and says that he knows all about the relationship. And that Morgan has to pay him back by becoming Friends with Doctor Murray, a high-class doctor, because he is the only one who can stop him of building a Hotel near a garbage dump. Morgan makes an appointment to play a game of golf with Murray. Two days before the game has to be played, Fanshawe calls Morgan that one of his servants has been struck by lightning. When Morgan has arrived he discovers that it will be difficult to move the body because the natives believe in all kinds of superstitions. The only team that can take it without problems is Murray’s. Morgan calls Murray who tells him that he can’t do it because the servant is not a member of the university. Morgan becomes angry and insults Murray and, of course, the game of golf is cancelled. After removing, putting back and re-removing the body by himself, Morgan sees that Murray is competing in a golf contest. When Morgan tells this to him, Adekunle makes it possible that they are in the same team. He also explains his new strategy: Morgan has to bribe Murray for ₤10 000. When Morgan tries to bribe Murray, he says that he cannot accept to be bribed and that he will report it. When Murray also hears that Adekunle is behind it he is even more resolute. This could mean the end of Morgan’s Carrier…. The book consists of 3 parts. The first one tells the middle part of the story, the second one is a flashback or a ‘What-happened-before’ and the third part is really the end. Each part has some chapters, which have also been cut into pieces. In a sense, this story is impressing. It is a perfect reflection of Murphy’s Law (Anything what can go Wrong, will go wrong) and it is, in that way, very realistic and tragic. The poor character of Morgan Leafly who always encounters blow after blow and misfortune after misfortune consolidates this effect. It might be a little bizarre, absurd and some times exaggerated but real life can become really weird too. I still do not understand that people think this book is really comical. For me, it is more a tragedy than a comedy because my identification with the main character is really strong on some points. An example is the way Morgan (an sometimes even Boyd himself) puts down the things in a perspective I might put them in. Example given: Morgan tied to bribe Murray and now has a big chance to be fired, Adekunle just called that he had another plan so that the bribing was for nothing, the country is in revolution and armed groups want to throw over the government. “For the first time in several weeks, he sensed a modicum of composure entering his life, probably due to the fact that there was little he could do now to alter or influence facts.” (p. 265)