Imagine escaping the ‘dark’ continent of Africa, migrating to a nation known for its abundant opportunities, land of milk and honey, better yet, the land of the free and home of the brave. But once there, not free enough to leave in order to bury your own father when he dies.
Such was Jende’s unfortunate predicament. Helpless and devastated he settles for a recording of the funeral proceedings.
Jende has no papers or legal status and faces the possibility of deportation back to Cameroon, a nation he had eagerly left with no intention of ever returning, at least not permanently.
Up until the moment he had received the damning news that his asylum application had been unsuccessful, America presented innumerable possibilities despite the rocky and rough start he had endured when he first arrived.
The hardworking and subservient immigrant had settled well into his job serving with unwavering dedication as a chauffeur to the wealthy Edwards family albeit on a work permit stringently valid for as long as his asylum application was pending.
A rejection would instantly invalidate his legal status.
The dreaded phone call from his dodgy lawyer-Bubakar, confirmed what he had lived in fear of for three years, his days in America were numbered. Jende’s return to Cameroon (where visions of a better life were the birth right of a blessed few, a country from which dreamers like himself were fleeing in throngs daily) was painfully imminent.
What had he done wrong? Had his story (of escaping to America because he feared that his father in-law was going to kill him) not been convincing enough? Should he have invented a more creative saga? He could have fabricated chronicles of an ‘activist’ fleeing political persecution perhaps. According to his cousin Winston, fictitious tales of political asylum usually did the trick.
Shortly after commencing his job for the Lehman Brothers executive Clark Edwards, Jende had openly shared with his boss in a heart to heart, that being in America was undoubtedly better than Cameroon. Having fled extreme poverty, he further explained that America gave him the opportunity to become somebody, the great nation had something for everyone, unlike Cameroon where in order to be somebody you had to have been born ‘a-somebody’ first.
So when Jende decided to close his deportation case in exchange for voluntary departure many of his friends and kin were utterly perplexed.
Surely no one in their right mind leaves America to go back to Africa.
Most adamant of all, to remain in America at any cost is Neni, his beloved wife. Neni was determined to put up a fight. Why was Jende failing to understand that she had dreams of her own? She had come so far with only two semesters left at BMCC before she could finally transfer to pharmacy school and just like that without considering alternatives her husband wanted them to return home.
Over her dead body! Neni was not going back to Limbe, to be scorned and laughed at as the ‘failed’ returnees, after all her husband had not fully explored all options.
Firstly, she was prepared to divorce him and marry her friend Betty’s cousin who had citizenship, secure papers through him, then divorce him and remarry her husband thus legalizing Jende.
Furthermore there was always the option of relocating to another state, taking on a new identity and disappearing into the system.
Should all else fail their son at least deserved his shot in America. As a result she considered giving him up for adoption, recalling how her gay Professor had expressed the desire to adopt and notwithstanding that on the one occasion he had met her young boy, Jerry had taken a liking to impressionable six year old Liomi.
Knowing full well that Jende would see the third option as the most absurd, she never dared share it with him lest he ‘kill’ her. Seeing that he had angrily dismissed all other options causing them to fight for days on end, both drifting into their separate universe each individual certain of his or her rightness and the other’s senselessness.
The author’s bitter sweet account of the dreamers is not restricted to Jende and Neni’s journey as the would-be Americans. In addition to unequivocally highlighting the plight of immigrants in search of the predominantly elusive American dream she in the same way distinctly shows that everyone in America be it an immigrant or not beholds some sort of dream.
For instance, Jende’s boss Clark holds dreams of purging financial giant Lehman Brothers of its greed and in turn saving it from collapse. His wife Cindy, emotionally burdened by childhood and adolescent demons masks her pain by immersing herself in the comforts and elite social circles their wealth affords them. Most of all the dipsomaniac yearns for a non-workaholic and emotionally available husband.
Their first born Vince abhors corporate America so he relocates to India on a spiritual journey and dreams of opening a retreat center for American executives. The youngest and innocent son Mighty simply longs to be loved and is the only individual that shares a special bond with the each member of the two families.
Unsurprisingly the professional and personal lines of the two families cross over as they share with each other their fears, hopes and dreams through moments of triumph, tragedy and bitter fallouts.
The plight of the struggling migrant is the centre of Mbue’s debut novel. She does an exceptional job of taking readers through the emotional journey of characters in search of a better life far afield only to come full circle and opt to return home with a fresh set of dreams.
Jende’s decision to return to Cameroon was largely driven by personal circumstances. The former aspiring American had had enough of fighting year in year out to remain in a country that he strongly felt did not want him.
Happy and unafraid of Cameroon, plus financially equipped to start a business, Jende goes back home, resolute that after all it was better for him to toil in his own country than to toil elsewhere. Admitting nostalgically. It’s our country. We can never disown it.
Cameroonian author Imbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller – Behold the Dreamers. Her debut novel is winner of the PEN/Faulker Award for Fiction and the Blue Metropolis Words to Change Award. Named Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post the novel was selected by Oprah Winfrey in 2017 for her book club. Imbolo Mbue holds a B.S. from Rutgers University and M.A from Columbia University and currently lives in New York City.
To date the novel been translated into several languages, adapted into an opera show and optioned for film.
