'Um James Bond Subdesenvolvido': The Ideological Work of the Angolan Detective in Pepetela's Jaime Bunda Novels

Abstract

'UmJamesBondSubdesenvolvido': The IdeologicalWork oftheAngolan Detective inPepetela's JaimeBundaNovels STEPHEN HENIGHAN Attheoutsetofhisliterary careerPepetelastatedthat:'afirmo que nao há, näo pode haver, a criaçaodumpaísverdadeiramente independente sem urnaliteratura nacional pròpria,que mostreao povo aquilo que o povo sempresoube: isto é, que tem urnaidentidadepropria'.1In Pepetela'snovels,theCreolizedparadigmofthecityofLuanda actsas a nucleusthatdisseminates Angolannationalidentity.2 The Movimento Popular para a Libertaçâode Angola (MPLA), whichhas governed Angolasince independencein 1975, drewmostof itsleadership,and muchofitsinitialsupport, fromtheCreolesofLuanda. Havingfought forsixyears(1969-75) as an MPLAguerrilla andlaterserved forsixyears (1976-82) as DeputyMinister of Education,Pepetela constructed his angolanidade in a waythatwasconsistent withMPLAideology. After his departure fromactivepoliticsin 1982,Pepetela'squestforangolanidade soughttomythologize cultural hybridity. His mostambitious novel,Lueji, O Nascimento deumImpèrio (1989) juxtaposesa retelling oftheriseofthe Lunda empireofnortheastern Angoladuringthesixteenth century with the efforts of a mestica Luanda dancerin the earlytwenty-first century to mounta balletcelebrating theLunda queen, Lueji,whosenameshe shares.The dancer'sefforts succeedonlyafter sheacceptsan untutored young manfrom theinterior asherdancingpartner andlover. Thisfusion ofcoastandinterior, mestico andethnically African, elements encapsulates theconsolidation ofnationalidentity through thefusionofthecoastal Creoleculture withthediverse cultures oftheheartland. The profoundrealignment in thesignificance of the Creole eliteto nationallifethatoccurredafterthe fallof the BerlinWall threwthis Pepetela, ARévolta daCasadosídolos (Lisbon: Edicöes7o,io8o). backcover. 2The Creolization of theAngolancoastalelite,particularly in thecitiesof Luandaand Benguela, occurred between theseventeenth and nineteenth centuries: 'Thisthree-hundredyear -old community ofblack,Portuguese-speaking, RomanCatholics consisted ofa close-knit setoffamilies, someofwhoseancestors had beenaccustomed to making marriage alliances with foreign merchants sincetheseventeenth century' (DavidBirmingham, 'Angola', inPatrick ChabalwithDavidBirmingham, JoshuaForrest, MalynNewitt, Gerhard Seibert, ElisaSilva Andrade, A History ofPostcolonial Lusophone Africa (London:Hurst & Co.,2002),p. 148).The advent ofthePortuguese EstadoNovoin 1926,and itspromulgation oftheColonialActof 1930,curtailed theCreolecommunity's effective power, butthelong-term consequence ofthis legislation wastoconvert theCreole culture intoa template for nationalist visions ofangolanidade pitted against thecolonial ideology that negated theconcept ofa distinct, separate Angola. 136 STEPHEN HENIGHAN creative modelintocrisis.Constitutional reform during1990 and 1991 sawtheMPLAdropitsadherencetoMarxism. AsHodgesmakesclear,'the leadingLuandafamilies felt constrained bythedominanceofthestatein theeconomyand byofficial ideology, and began to seek morelatitude forthe developmentof privatebusinessinterests'.3 Uncoupled from theUtopianimperative, 'thecircleofcloselyinter-related Luanda-based creolefamilies who wereactivein or identified withthe MPLA'4were freedto neglectnationalwelfareas theyenrichedthemselves through cronyistic petroleum-and diamond-basedcapitalismthat left most Angolanspoorerthaneverbefore.Pepetela'snextnovel,A Geracäo da Utopia (1992), follows thelivesoffour Angolanrevolutionaries from1961 to 1992.Awarefromtheirstudent daysthatmostutopiascrumble, they believethatas Sara,thewhitedoctorsays:'Em Angolaserádiferente.'5 The novel'sfinalsectiondepictsa Luanda ruledbygraft-driven capitalism wherepoliticalleaders '[q]uerem imitara linguagemdo Reagan e da Thatcher',and thepopulationisdepoliticizedbythedrugofborn-again fundamentalist Protestantism. There are limits, however, to Pepetela's critique. The corrupt neweliteis incarnated byVítor, a guerrilla turned 'novo rico' MPLA cabinetminister, and Elias, the American-educated founderofa wealthy evangelicalchurch;bothare blackmen fromthe Angolaninterior. The country's potentialforrebirth is represented by Judite, Sara's mixed-race doctordaughter, and her boyfriend Orlando, a left-wing economist,'urntipo alto e magrinho,com urnabarbicha tímidaa tornaro queixo ainda maisafilado.Pelos traçosda cara,devia terumremotosanguebranconasveias,figura tipicadas grandesfamilias caluandas'.^ Theproblem Pepetelaconfronts inthewakeoftheMPLA'sabandonment ofMarxist ideology ishowtogeneratean affirmative modelofthehybrid nationwhen the Creole class itselfhas betrayedthe nationalproject. A Geracäo da Utopia raisesthe possibility of the resurgence of a better generationof Creoles,yetthishope is conceded to be remote: Judite and Orlandoare unabletohavechildrenbecause they cannotafford an apartment in Luanda. The evaporation ofhiscreative paradigmstymies Pepetela's fictionalembodimentof the Angolan presentformostof the 1990s. O DesejodeKianda(1995) chartsthecollapseofthenational projectand the decline of the alliance betweenthe Creoles and the 3 Tony Hodges, AngolafromAfro-Stalinism to Petro-Diamond Capitalism(Lysaker,Oxford, Bloomington:Fridtjof Nansen Institute and the International AfricanInstitute/James Currey/ Indiana University Press,2001), p. 12. 4 Hodges, p. i6q. 5 Pepetela,A Geracäo da Utopia(Lisbon: Dom Quixote, 1002), p. 112. 6 A Geracäo da Utopia, p. 264. 7 A Geracäo da Utopia, p. 263. PEPETELA's JAIME BUNDA NOVELS I37 interior initsdepiction ofthefailing marriage ofJoäoEvangelista, theson ofan Ovimbundufather fromHuambo and a Kimbundumotherfrom Luanda, and hiswife, a Luanda Creole social climbernamed Carmina Cara de Cu, who remakesherself as an ardentcapitalist and consumer afterher belovedMPLA renouncessocialism.Parábolado CagadoVelho (1996), describes thewarbetween theMPLAandJonasSavimbi's UNITA entirely from thepointofviewoftheruralpoor.A Gloriosa Familia(1997) attempts a newapproachbytracing theformation oftheCreoleidentity in oppositionto the Dutch occupationof Luanda between1641 and 1648.The mixed-race VanDum family demonstrates boththeadmirable and the reprehensible sides of Creole culture.In theircampaignto preserve theirhybridized, Catholic,Portuguese-speaking identity against thepressures oftheDutchoccupation, they are resourceful, flexible and acceptingofall races...