fiction

God, were you pleased? (Memoir of a Zongo boy) Is a tragic political satire that stars Gaawa a rare genius, born to two outlaws and raised distinctly in Zongo, one of the backward slums of Bachola. Gaawa sees problem with everything around him – right from his own parents’ penury; the community’s staunch attachment to a religion whose god he believes only punishes the poor for the wrong of the rich; the system of education that only educates in order to subjugate; to everyone accepting mediocrity as faith. He questions everything including the existence of God. In fact his problem is with the entire 21st century civilization. No school could contain him.
But little did Gaawa know that daring to bring change to the very philosophy that birthed society requires more than just vociferous arguments. His antagonists would be both nature and man. The true test of his beliefs comes when at the age of 15, he tragically loses both parents in a space of 3 months and wrongfully gets convicted of murder and sentenced to death two years after. Gaawa is just starting but it seems he is the kind of hero that is born dead.
Is this the end of a genius who was notoriously raised to force change or his destiny transcends the prison walls? Let’s dig in!