By Peter E. Omoko

The urge to create a world devoid of human decadence has, in recent years, become a recurring motif of much of modern African literature.

F.F. Ifowodo’s 204-page novel, Farewell to Eldorado published by F. Parker Publishing Co., Oleh, revolves around the crisis of refugees and the quest by world leaders to address it.

It suggests that the hope of peaceful coexistence among human beings is only in the realm of wishful dreams. This is because every human society consists of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Society, no matter what, is always fraught with the depraved, corrupt, and power-lust individuals who will go to any length to achieve their selfish aims.

Having published a play, The Grip of the Cartel (2019) in which he examined the evils of human trafficking, Ifowodo continues the craft of literary activism in his new novel, Farewell to Eldorado.

The work confronts the dreary human conditions of vulnerable people across the globe, created by failed political systems. Ifowodo examines the conflict inherent in the resettlement of refugees who troop to Europe from different countries, ravaged by war and political instability, into a fictitious new nation, named Eldorado. The author tells us at the beginning of the novel that this new country known as Eldorado is,

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An island between Africa and Europe; it was a settlement for refugees who had fled from their countries for one reason or the other. Some left their countries because of economic hardship, some because of political victimisation and some others left their war-torn countries for peaceful existence somewhere else” (11).

From the novel, the UN had organised other wealthy countries in the world to create a new settlement in an island where these refugees, running from various injustices in their home countries, could start a new life.

The new land is expected to be a model of human society. All the basic human amenities such as housing, good water supply, electricity, as well as good roads are well provided.

There are free food and a free transportation system in this new country – a fantastic world found only in the imagined world of Disney! These orientations sum up the ideal on which the theme of Farewell to Eldorado is built.

The author reveals in the novel that from among the refugees, Casca Games, a political refugee, is selected as a representative of the UN envoy to oversee the activities of this dream world pending when an election would be conducted under his supervision to usher in a formal government that would control the affairs of Eldorado.

His choice, however, does not augur well with other characters in the novel, especially the duo of Don Mascara, an ex-warlord who is interested in Casca Games’ fiancée, Marie Barbers, and Madam Susan, a human trafficker who has lost one of her precious girls, the same Marie Barbers to Casca Games.

Conflict arises when Don Mascara teamed up with Madam Susan to contest for the governorship and deputy governorship positions in the new state.

The duo having lost their influential status the moment they entered Eldorado, sought various uncivilised means to grab power. Don Masacara, a rebel leader, had plunged his former country into a senseless war. The author reveals that:

Prior to his onslaught, his country was peaceful. Unemployment was moderate, essential commodities were available and there was considerable housing for all. But Don Mascara was perturbed about one family’s eternal hold on the country.

With the emergence of Don, the once peaceful country was no longer the same. What he could have achieved constitutionally, he attempted through violence and the death of citizens that followed was unprecedented (20).

With this revelation about Don Mascara, the reader is drawn into the impending implosion that awaits the new settlement. Madam Susan on the other hand is a highly connected and ruthless human trafficker.

She lures innocent girls from her country with the promise of giving them jobs in Europe into prostitution. Madam Susan served as the girls’ “mentor, their manager, and their professional guide.

The girls did the business of sleeping with men and Madam Susan collected the money” (60). Through this act, she became influential. In no time, she had gone beyond an individual prostitute to an international provider of sexual pleasure to loose men in foreign countries.

She began to run brothels and she became connected to the worldwide human trafficking business. She was seen cruising in exotic cars and her children got admitted into private universities where fees were astronomical.

She began to make money from her brothels, from human trafficking, and from preparing fake travelling documents. Her feelings of compassion for fellow human beings dried up” (65).

However, the atmosphere in Eldorado does not support her kind of lifestyle and business. Besides, all her girls having reached Eldorado took advantage of the freedom it offers and deserted her. She became helpless.

Thus the thought of becoming the deputy governor to Don Mascara in this new settlement becomes a plausible bargain. At least, her influence can be restored. “With the thought of Don Mascara, her mind became calm. She would reach out to the world human trafficking moguls”(62).

In their bid to grab power, by all means, necessary, Don and Susan resort to blackmail and threat.

The police chief of Eldorado becomes their willing tool. Other contestants in the election were threatened to drop their ambition, the few who could not be cowed protested to the headquarters of the UN building where the body in charge of the elections in the Island resides. Don was disqualified from taking part in the election and became enraged. He reaches out to his rebel associates outside the Island to supply him men and ammunitions to burn down the new State in the case that he is not allowed to grab power by force. Don tells his bodyguard, Dimaro:

With these men I’m about to capture by my side, I’ll do anything unobstructed in this State. If I’m prevented, I, Don Mascara with my men will burn down this State. I’ll bring down Eldorado” (84).

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Casca Games, on the other hand, became threatened when his well-fortified residence was invaded by Don and his men in a bid to kidnap his fiancée, Marie Barber. Casca Games thought the only way to stop Don and Susan from destroying the new state is to disqualify them from contesting the elections. But the UN chiefs believe otherwise.

According to them, Eldorado was an experiment that gives people a new environment to change from formal ways. The UN Secretary tells Casca Games thus:

that’s the experiment, given a different background, given a different environment with all the comfort, would they still behave the way they did in their home countries? If they turn out bad, then they are bad eggs, and as such, they should be thrown out” (100).

This idea did not go down well with Casca Games who believes that people with depraved humanity like Don and Susan should not be allowed to get near to power. Therefore Casca Games lost interest in the entire idea of Eldorado the moment it was agreed that Don should be allowed to contest the elections. The author tells us that,

To Casca Games, what they were experimenting with was deadly. He did not agree with them that it was near impossible to exclude people like Don Mascara from a community. They had argued that people like Don Mascara should be properly managed because there would always be such persons in any community (193).

However, Don was allowed to contest the election but he lost despite the violence and rigging involved. Don and his men kept to their promise of destroying Eldorado in the instance that he lost. The accompanying post-elections’ razzmatazz that followed only justifies the title of the novel, a “Farewell to Eldorado”.

What Ifowodo has done in this new book is to preach the artistic gospel that in politics, individuals with questionable credentials should not only be banned from intermingling in state affairs but out-rightly refused the opportunities to participate in the process of nation-building.

He, therefore, uses the characters of Don Mascara and Madam Susan to foreground the two basic social and political divide that constitute the oddities of many war-ravaged societies – warmongers and selfish profiteers.

The novel is not only a satirical depiction of the lack of will by world leaders to purge themselves of selfish individuals like Don and Susan, but it also proposes a salient treaty that codified the ingredients that make for a peaceful human society.

What is inherent in the book, therefore, is that until the rotten eggs are removed from human society, society will continue to be plagued by the depravity of its own creations. As a fine thinker, Ifowodo envisions a new world where human beings can live and be satisfied only if each individual abide by the rules of engagement.

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