His name is Bunda. Jaime Bunda. And if he would like to play detectives, drawing inspiration from the methods of his British counterpart, he is far from having the stature or the skills. To embody the hero of his detective novel Jaime Bunda, secret agent, the Angolan writer Pepetela (real name Arthur Pestana) has chosen a character that is explosive to say the least. Jaime Bunda spends his days lamenting his fate. His imposing posterior has earned him the nasty nickname “Popotin” since childhood. His single love life is limited to a secret fluttering relationship with a married woman. By way of accommodation, he occupies a cramped room in the house of a cantankerous old aunt.
As for his career, it is stalling since, although close to forty, Jaime is still a trainee in a police service in Luanda where he is not given any mission. His boss and his colleagues are wary of this alleged investigator parachuted in by a high-ranking cousin, who “gave the order to hire him without going through the usual formalities. He would do the tests and training once admitted, down with the bureaucracy that prevents effective crime fighting! Is Jaime here to learn the trade or to spy?
However, the situation changes the day when, miraculously, Detective Popotin finds himself in charge of a case to solve: find the culprit of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl. Suddenly restored to his importance, the professional who slumbered in Jaime gained confidence, understanding the importance of restoring his image. But due to lack of experience, he embarks on an investigation that is far-fetched to say the least, which leads him to roam the city from nightclub to restaurant to pick up unimportant details, to fall asleep during spinning mills or even to hire a henchman to settle his own private affairs…
“A perfect crime!” »
The novelist has fun plunging his protagonist into the most improbable situations, while constantly loading him with more flaws ad infinitum. Already clumsy and incompetent, Jaime reveals himself to be cowardly, gluttonous, lazy, vain, naive, alcoholic…
But its creator nevertheless absolves it of all these flaws because of its passion for detective books. It is indeed in this literary genre that Jaime Popotin finds both references, answers and inspiration: “And now he found himself in charge of a delicate affair. A crime without clues. The perfect crime! There is never a perfect crime, justice always triumphs, Evil will be defeated, he had learned these irrefutable truths from books. And he was going to show that his idols, Spillane, Chandler or Stanley Gardner were right, there is no perfect crime, but indeed imperfect investigators. »
Walking alongside his character, Pepetela in turn has fun questioning the very form of the genre novel. Far from the development of a classic investigation, he entrusts his plot to four successive narrators and structures his book as a series of investigations within the investigation, not hesitating to throw winks at readers in asides in italics. “Why so much haste, narrator?” Let’s first find out what Jaime Popotin did in the night, because his phone call will not take place until tomorrow morning. The investigation is long, the clues minimal, but Jaime ends up having a suspect, or so he hopes, because no one wants to risk incriminating this high political figure. Will the culprit ever be punished?
The party of laughing
Parody of detective novel, Jaime Bunda secret agent can be read as a pretext for reflection, raising the question of the influence on justice of circles of political and financial power in the Angolan context. Pepetela’s answer is clear between the lines: in this country, no case, however serious and criminal, can give rise to a protocol of statutory justice if it affects in one way or another members of the privileged class.
So it is probably better to take the side of laughing at it as the writer does through the character of Jaime Bunda Popotin. What’s the point of searching for the truth and for the culprits in a country where social and political life looks like fiction at all times?
Born in 1941, little known in France, Pepetela has built since the 1970s a major body of work that has conquered a large audience around the world and which expresses, in one way or another, his commitment.
