The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
An old colonial town named The Old Drift is located along the banks of the Zambezi River, a short distance from the magnificent Victoria Falls. An Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark makes a mistake while flustered in a smoke-filled room at the hotel across the river, entwining the lives of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. As three Zambian families (black, white, and brown) clash and merge over the course of a century, into the present, and beyond, this starts a cycle of unintentional retribution. As the years go by, their lives—their victories, mistakes, setbacks, and hopes—emerge via a variety of historical, fairytale, love, and science fiction themes.
This gripping, unforgettable novel is a testament to our desire to create and cross borders as well as a reflection on the slow, grand passage of time. It features a woman covered in hair and another who is afflicted with unceasing tears, forbidden love affairs, and fiery political ones, as well as homegrown technological marvels like Afronauts, microdrones, and viral vaccines.
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
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The book is an exceptionally well-written novel. It has the potential to become a classic. The story begins with the British colonial invasion of South Africa, specifically Rhodesia, named after Cecil Rhodes, the head of the British South Africa Company, and the frontiersmen who stumbled through a land untamed by the white man but occupied and wholly a part of the land were the indigenous blacks who were enslaved by the whites but who nonetheless maintained their dignity and though enslaved overcame the colonials found themselves still enslaved.
If one is not careful, they will lose the weaving of the family links between whites, blacks, British, Italians, and Indians across the decades.
Many of the key characters reach a climax in which the dam that controls the Zambezi River is unintentionally destroyed out of revolutionary zeal. The entire narrative is recounted from the viewpoint of the microdrone swarm, which is a creation of internet- and computer-based 21st-century technology.
With her debut book, Namwali Serpell undoubtedly made a significant impression. Hopefully, she will continue to write well and provide us with many more enjoyable reads in the future. Although one might argue that there is some sci-fi in this as such, it is not really what most people would classify as sci-fi; rather, it is more like techno, therefore it may come as a surprise that this got the Arthur C. Clarke Award. While keeping that in mind, there are perhaps a few too many coincidences clustered together, but the author manages to pull them off just about, and of course, while working on anything like this you are working in the artificial framework of coincidence.
It demonstrates that Zambia and even Africa as a whole are not as powerful as they may be, and at times you do get the impression that you are reading a collection of connected short stories.
This story, while mostly taking place in Zambia, does occasionally take us overseas, including Italy, England, and even India. Three generations of families are described in the text, with each family’s representative featured prominently in each part. Additionally, the narrative occasionally features what can only be characterized as a Greek Chorus, which appears at the start, conclusion, and after each part. Taking us through the 20th century allows us to understand how exploitation, empire-building, and colonialism affected Africa. This could have occasionally been done more effectively, and we end up in the near future. This even hints at magic realism, and yes, Zambia did have a space program, thus some of the characters were based on actual persons…
