A good man in Africa door William Boyd

Title: A Good Man in Africa. Author’s name: William Boyd. Summary: Morgan Leafy was the first secretary in Africa. His job was very easy and boring until his boss demanded Morgan to do him two favours. The first thing he had to do was spending some time with Fanshaw’s daughter Priscilla, they fell in love with eachother. Then Morgan got gonorrhoea from is girlfriend. He didn’t told Priscilla and when she wanted to sleep with him he refused and ended the relation. The other task was that Morgan had to help Fanshaw with a politic case. Morgan’s had to get in touch with Sam Adekunle, who was the most important figure of the Kinjanjan National Party. The reason was the coming elections. The British people wanted a pro-British party in Kinjanja. The KNP was the most pro-British party. Unfortunately Sam switched roles with Morgan and put pressure on him, because he slept with Sam’s wife. Sam discovered this and started to blackmail Morgan. Sam also new about Morgan’s black girlfriend. If Morgan’s boss would hear this he would get fired. Fanshaw had many unpleasant things to do for Morgan and also did Adekunle. Adekunle wants to sell his land. Adekunle has to convince the city council for selling the land. The head of the city council is doctor Murray. So Adekunle wants Morgan to bribe Murray so that he can sell the land. This didn’t work.Morgan will lose his job, but Murray advised him to start a new happy life. My own opinion on this book: This is really a emotional book. The main figure hasn’t a peaceful live and everything goes wrong. His girlfriend Priscilla doesn’t want to be with him any more. Morgan had caught gonorrhoea from Hazel and that’s the reason that he couldn’t have sex with Priscilla, but he couldn’t explain it to her and Priscilla left him. Other things went wrong too. Everything in his job went wrong. He made terrible mistakes and a superior also blackmailed him. These things were very heavy for him and I liked to read how he finally cleared the mess he made. Sometimes there were rather humoristic parts in the book.. Another thing that’s very good in this book is the critic about the British colonial past in West Africa. You can see that it is still a very sensitive point. The elections for example didn’t pass by without problems with an army, because the Kinjanjan people discovered that the British people were involved in it. The book handles about a recent theme. Characters: Morgan Leafy: He’s a fat and lazy man and has low moral standards. He is very clumsy and is often very disappointed by himself. He is also oversexed. Morgan doesn’t express himself good towards other people. Morgan mostly wears sweaters and he sweats a lot, because of the heat and his fatness. Priscilla Fanshaw: She looks very beautiful and is always well dressed. She is Morgan Leafy’s social superior and she let him know this very well. Mr Fanshaw: He’s a dominating and self-willed man. He likes to give orders. He’s is a man who comes from the east and is also dressed as people are in the east. Mrs Fanshaw: She is very dominating and arrogant. She can, just like her husband, force people to do something. She is almost as pretty as her daughter Priscilla. Mrs Fanshaw is always well dressed and she’s very self-confident. Sam Adekunle: He’s a man who always wants to have everything under control. He even blackmails people for that. He can’t be easily taken by surprise. He has a lot of self-confidence. Sam Adekunle is a coloured man and always wears native African clothes. Celia Adenkunle: She wants freedom and she’s a very unhappy woman, because she has to live with a man she doesn’t love. She’s very uncertain about her situation. Celia isn’t very beautiful. She is very thin and her legs are bony. Most of the time she’s normally dressed, but at her husband’s parties she has to wear native clothes, which she doesn’t like. Dr. Murray: He wants to do the right things. He wants to bother his superiors, because they don’t play a fair game and because they want to abuse the university in which Alex Murray works. Murray believes in a better future and want to stop the superiors to take everything over. Murray is a good man and he’s always normally dressed.