The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor

In my review of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze, the new novel by Ethiopian author Maaza Mengiste, I noted that apart from Nega Mezlekia and Dinaw Mengestu, not much Ethiopian literature was available in English. This prompted an outraged reply from one reader.

Another reader, signed Selamawit T, recommended books by four Ethiopian authors, but all proved to be long out of print and nearly unavailable. She then suggested several titles by Hama Tuma.

But although Tuma was published in the Heinemann African Writers Series, only one copy of his reportedly best book, The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor, was available through Amazon—for $245.08 plus shipping. The New York City library system had a single copy, which could not be checked out, but happily the Brooklyn library came through for me.

The title story, “The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor,” is one of a series of “cases” that make up the first half of the book. These are not “cases” of the Sherlock Holmes type. They are court cases, intended to underline the savagery and injustice of the Derg regime that followed the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie.

Unfortunately, their formulaic structure makes them tedious after a while. Each one begins with a little essay on an aspect of Ethiopian society before introducing another innocent defendant. The judge and prosecutor (and sometimes the defense attorney) toy with the defendant for a while before a brutal sentence is handed down. The tone is heavily sardonic.

I was thinking of giving up on the book when I skipped ahead to the second half, called “Tales of the Highway Fire and Other Stories.”

These stories are very different and much more gripping. Like the short, taut tales in The Savage Night by the Algerian writer Mohammed Dib, they feature the characters thrown up by a repressive society—guerrillas, spies, collaborators, torturers—and underline how suspicion, secrecy, and violence can destroy marriages and families. One story even echoes the terrible choice faced by the main character in Beneath the Lion’s Gaze: whether to save a patient who will only face torture and a more painful death.