The Poor Christ of Bomba: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Poor Christ of Bomba: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex dynamics of colonialism and cultural clashes through its characters. At the center is Father Drumont, a dedicated but disillusioned Catholic missionary who grapples with his inability to convert the local population to Christian teachings. His journey reveals the harsh realities of colonial exploitation, leading him to question the impact of his mission. The story is narrated by Denis, a young boy who idolizes Drumont but naively critiques his own community, reflecting the influences of European values.
Zacharia, the irreverent cook, embodies the pragmatic and often contradictory realities of African life under colonial rule, resisting the priest's teachings and navigating his own desires and responsibilities. Meanwhile, Catherine, a villager entangled in a love affair, and Clementine, Zacharia’s jealous wife, showcase the personal struggles faced by women amid social expectations and patriarchal control. Other characters, such as Vidal, the colonial administrator, and Raphael, the catechist, further illustrate the tensions between imposed authority and local traditions. Overall, the analysis provides a nuanced look at characters who navigate the fraught intersections of faith, identity, and colonial power.
The Poor Christ of Bomba: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Mongo Beti
First published: Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba, 1956 (English translation, 1971)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Southern Cameroon, the village of Bomba, and several smaller villages
Plot: Satire
Time: The 1930's
Father Drumont, a bearded, middle-aged, archetypal Catholic missionary who founded and for twenty years nurtured the mission at Bomba. A stern but not humorless man, he is obsessed with sex and disillusioned by his failure to persuade Africans to follow church teachings on chastity and monogamy. Frustrated by the persistence of the traditional African social and religious practices that he sees on his tour of the Tala villages, he concludes eventually that he cannot successfully Christianize the Africans. At the end of the tour, he decides to return to France. By then, he is a wiser man but is dejected because he realizes that his work has functioned to soften and prepare the Africans for an exploitative and brutal colonial system.
Denis, the fourteen-year-old narrator and Drumont's house-boy. He naïvely and ironically identifies with the Christian and European values of the missionary. Accompanying Drumont on a pastoral tour of the bush, he records, but rarely comprehends, the conversations and activities of the entou-rage and the villagers. Loving and admiring the priest more than his own father, Denis criticizes his fellow Africans for their failure to adhere to Christian principles and their lack of respect for Drumont. He is a sensitive and sweet adolescent who matures quickly as a result of the tour and his mentor's realizations about the brutality of the colonial mission.
Zacharia, Drumont's fun-loving, irreverent African cook. A realist, he uses his position to acquire wealth and sexual conquests. Indifferent to Christianity, he explicitly opposes Drumont's views and explains the “reality” of colonialism and African traditions to Denis and the missionary. He is a wily and independent man, unwilling to modify his behavior to please either his wife or the priest. After his wife exposes his affair with Catherine and the latter's fiancé soundly thrashes him, he flogs his wife and moves his mistress into his home. Rather than answer charges of mistreatment brought to Drumont's attention by his wife, he packs his bags and leaves the Bomba mission.
Vidal, the young, enthusiastic French colonial administrator of the region who uses forced African labor, floggings, and other brutal methods to build roads. Without training and a proper education, he feels that his best opportunities are in the colonies. Fond of Drumont for his essential “Frenchness,” he tries to persuade the priest to remain at Bomba, believing that the French colonial mission is correct. Parroting colonial paternalistic arguments, he fails to persuade Drumont that Africans, if left to their own devices, would succumb to Bolshevism.
Catherine, a beautiful and playful villager who is a sexually desirable member of the sixa, a work camp at Bomba for the prenuptial training of young women to encourage monogamy among the traditionally polygamous Tala people. As Zacharia's mistress, she secretly accompanies the pastoral tour, spending nights with him, often in the same house as the unsuspecting Drumont. One night, she seduces Denis, who quickly falls in love with her. Before the tour's end, she is assaulted by Zacharia's wife, the opening event in Drumont's uncovering of the true nature of the sixa, which functions as a brothel.
Clementine, a practicing Catholic and the jealous young wife of Zacharia. In spite of having just given birth to their child, she is suspicious of her husband's activities with the sixa. When she discovers that one of the girls, Catherine, disappeared at the same time as Drumont's entourage departed, she follows them to catch her husband with his mistress. An angry and self-righteous Christian, she expects Father Drumont to solve her marital problem.
Raphael, a catechist and the mission assistant in charge of the sixa. He arranges liaisons between sixa women and local men. A cowardly bully who coerces the women into sexual relations by assigning brutal work to those who are uncooperative, he flees when Drumont discovers the nature of the sixa operation.
Father Jean-Martin LeGuen, a young, inexperienced vicar recently assigned as Drumont's assistant. He is an enthusiastic priest who speaks the local language better than Drumont but is unimaginative and dependent on his superior for instruction on most matters.