The Crabs of Bangui

"The Crabs of Bangun is a hoax, one more proof that there can be no end to the ingenuity of crooks. But in it, Asong is more than usually visual, clipping chips of people, places and emotions for our ocular and sensual experience. His penetration of the human heart, motives and thoughts in this monument of human gullibility is so accurate you wouldn't think this is only a story. It unfolding with relentless pace, consistently entertaining this tale is a triumph of the imagination.

Every man lives for himself, using his freedoms to attain his personal aims, and feels with his whole being that he can at any moment perform or not perform this or than action...The higher a man stands in the social scale, the more connections he has with others and the more power he has over them, the more conspicuous is the predestination and inevitability of every act he commits. Upon this philosophy, a former banker, Hansel Bolingo, suddenly finds [or makes] himself the regional representative of a Chinese firm that deals in crabs in Bangui. This catapults him into a position of instant wealth. His mouth-watering affluence draws immediate attention while his hypnotic powers cause hundreds of [not-so-honest] citizens to clamour for shares from which he builds up a huge fortune. But he soon discovers that he cannot deceive everybody all the time.

is a stand-up humorist, a consummate portrait painter, an accomplished literary scholar, and a celebrated prolific writer with over a dozen novels to his credit.