The fire of origins

the long version

"The story is unified by the actions of one man, Mankunku, a "destroyer," who is born in mysterious circumstances in a banana plantation, and whose identity is as mercurial as that of his land. We follow his development along with that of his unnamed country, from the pre-colonial era, through the horrors of European subjugation, to independence and the complexities of the postcolonial nation. Along the way, we meet charlatans and saints, workers and bureaucrats, warriors and peacemakers, in a moving melange of laughter and terror."--BOOK JACKET.