The Blunder

Cameroonian writer Mutt-Lon skewers self-centered and condescending humanitarian efforts of people from the first world in his sharp English-language debut, based on the historical French physician Eugene Jamot, who went to Cameroon in the 1920s to fight a sleeping sickness epidemic. The French can’t see the racism of their “civilizing mission” and miss the fact that several hundred of Jamot’s patients go blind from treatment as he burnishes his reputation. Mutt-Lon follows Damienne Bourdin, a young doctor assisting Jabot who flees in the wake of “native” uprisings against French colonialism. In 1963, after the country gains independence, she returns from France, ostensibly working on a documentary based on her book about the Jamot Mission, but with the secret agenda of finding Edoa, the Cameroonian woman who helped her escape. As the story of the past unfolds in flashbacks, it becomes clear that at the time of her escape, Damienne was the one in distress while Edoa was just fine, thus upending the white savior narrative. Mutt-Lon takes a straightforward approach to Jabot’s and Bourdin’s perspectives, making the colonial critique even more bracing. This impressive work finds the humanity of its targets. (July)