Author Description

Excerpted from Martin Tucker’s Preface to Albert Russo’s novels 'Mixed Blood' and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’ (both published by Domhan Books in New York). “Albert Russo’s work has many distinctive qualities. 'Mixed Blood' and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’ are especially distinguished by Russo’s startingly precise grasp of the historic period of mid-twentieth-century Central Africa. In this sense, his work bears twinship to V.S. Naipaul’s (Nobel Prize for Literature) 'A Bend in the River'. Such a time no longer exists because one history has changed and another has happened, and still another is happening under our ticking hours. Like his predecessor Naipaul, Russo has captured the attitudes of his white colonialists, his black politicians of various hues of moderation and extremity, and painted a seemingless timeless portrait of a naive American Peace Corps volunteer. (Perhaps naivity is the one constant in the history of change.) Again, like Naipaul, Russo is compassionate and satiric, but unlike his British counterpart, Russo holds out hope that messages of goodness and idealism and decency remain within hearing, that they remain to be recorded in a different and deeper key in another time. Rooted in a past time, ‘Mixed Blood’ and ‘Eclipse over lake Tanganyika’ have an undeniable relevance to contemporary time.” Critic and professor of English at C. W. Post of Long Island University, as well as poet, Martin Tucker has published over twenty volumes of literary criticism. He is the editor of the prize-winning literary journal ‘Confrontation’, and the author of ‘Africa in Modern Literature’. He has also written a biography of Joseph Conrad and of Sam Shepard, both critically acclaimed, and has contributed to the Encyclopedia of American Literature (A Literary Guild Selection). Setting: The story, based on historical events, is set in the former Rwanda-Urundi, a tiny landlocked territory in Central Africa held under Belgian trusteeship until 1962. The action takes place mainly in Buja, the lovely and seemingly dormant capital overlooking majestic Lake Tanganyika. At the time, the city’s population is about 70,000, comprising Congolese and a minority of Europeans of various origins, as well as Asians and Arabs. Background: The time is just before Independence. The Tutsi, of nilotic origin, have been ruling over the region for the past four centuries. Under their yoke are the Hutu who constitute about 84% of the population and the Twa or pygmies (1%). But the Tutsi who consider themselves as the land’s aristocracy are themselves divided, both in lineage and politically. There are two main factions: - the hardlners headed by Prince Ruego who intend to pave the way toward socialism and to loosen their ties with Belgium and the West. - the pro-Western faction, the Christian Democrats, whose representative is the prince’s fun-loving father, the Mwami (king). Plot: Damiana, the enticing wife of Tobias Antoniades, a wealthy Greek merchant twenty years younger than him, has the reputation of being a hot ticket in town. Among Damiana’s lovers are the Mwami himself, a Belgian police officer and Dimitri Stavros, a cinema owner. Damiana has added to her list a young American, Oswald Radcliffe, who works as a paramedic at the Evangelical mission. Oswald is a poet and an idealist. Dimitri is terribly jealous and wants Damiana to divorce her husband. He knows about her affairs, and since Damiana doesn’t take him seriously, he decides to approach her husband, telling him about the Mwami and the Belgian police officer. That doesn’t deter Damiana, for Tobias, a weak man, with a heart ailment, scoffs at Dimitri. Outraged, Dimitri takes an unexpected step and goes and sees political opponents of the Prince, and meets with the Hutu leader Ntyca. He then comes back to Tobias and tells him that if the Prince wins the elections, all the foreign-owned businesses will be nationalized, including his. Tobias and other important representatives of the white community are summoned by Ntyca, and Tobias is ultimately convinced that he and his influential peers should support the Hutu majority financially. The Prince, under house arrest, is released by the Belgians. The situation gets out of hand and consequently becomes very dangerous for the Hutu. The latter demand that Dimitri kill the prince. They threaten to down the Greek if he doesn’t accept. In return, they promise him a safe-conduct and a transfer of funds to Europe. Stavros shoots the Prince, while the latter is delivering a speech on the terrace of the Restaurant Tanganyika. Stavros flees, but in the middle of the night, his car breaks down. He waits on the side of the road when another car stops. The driver offers to give him a lift. The driver is none other than the king himself. The culprits are found out and the Hutu conspirators, Stavros as well as Tobias are executed. This novel has the ingredients of an African and a Greek Tragedy at once and I had originally thought of calling it PRINCES AND GODS.