The Essence of Industry

Examining the entrails of a sheep, a voodoo priest in Darfur suddenly understands the root of Africa’s problems. Its societies are spectators of their own dissolution, mired in the lethargy of the colonial era while blaming the West for their own impotence, with groups fighting one another instead of cooperating to bring about positive change. But the oracle also knows a way out: the theft of the Essence of Industry which has cemented Europe’s dominance for centuries and which will, when brought to Africa, help its people take matters into their own hands. Jayson and Marbadu are despatched on the tugboat Gora to navigate the dangerous passage across the Mediterranean on «A trek in the style of the Argonauts, journeying from Africa to escape clichés, to find a clever way of turning the tables, to embark on a daring raid to bring back the best rather than stand as a beggar hammering on a gateway into a supposed paradise» (Frankfurter Rundschau). But even the most heroic attempts at self-empowerment become an uphill struggle against the resolutely intransigent power underpinning the status quo, which sees only one role for Africans washed up onto its beaches...