About
Author: Namwali Serpell (Zambia)
Genre: Historical, Sci-fi
Setting
Place: Primarily Zambia
Time: 1900s-2024
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 3
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 2.9
Introduction
The title of this novel ‘The Old Drift’ comes from the ‘autobiography of an old drifter’ by one Percy Missen Clark, a colonial man settled at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in 1903. His actions kick of the intertwined fates of 3 families that this book marvellously captures.
Genre-bending, this books starts as what seems like historical fiction, experiments (half-heartedly) with magic realism, before jumping into sci-fi. It spans several generations well over a century – capturing well the pre- and post-colonial experiences of Zambia, a plethora of characters, and assumes epic proportions.
Review
If errare humanum est indeed, then it follows that si fallor, sum.
For if I am mistaken, I exist!
The Old Drift, to say the least, is an ambitious novel. It follows the paths of 3 families – with all their lives and mistakes of several characters – somehow connected by the old drifter – a racist colonialist Percy M Clark. The 3 families are –
- Agnes’s – Percy’s blind granddaughter who marries a black man – has a son Lionel who, in turn, fathers Joseph
- Sibilla’s – the illegitimate daughter of Percy’s competitor – who marries an Italian ‘general’, has a daughter Isabella who has a daughter Naila with an Indian man
- Matha’s – granddaughter of N’gulube – a black man Percy had accidentally shot when hunting – who single-mothers Sylvia. Sylvia, a prostitute, gives birth to Jacob
If the number of characters seem overwhelming, it is because they are – and I haven’t even listed all of them. Despite the very wide scope of the novel – it does a remarkable job of building its characters, their stories – and paints a magnificent picture of Zambia – as well as the other places the characters move about – Italy, England and India along the way.
An Eden of Forking Digressions
Both picaresque and epic at the same time, the novel is engaging, well researched and instructive, but tends to get confusing at time, requiring the readers to refer to the family tree at the beginning often.
In a sense the book suffers, like Arundathi Roy’s second novel – the Ministry of Utmost Happiness, from a lack of focus. This I found in 2 broad narrative choices.
- Being a well-researched book – the author, has mentioned in an interview, that she had a lot of content to work with – and seems liberal with a choices to include them in the books. Quite a few work very well – For instance, Matha was not supposed to be an ‘Afronaut’ and the arc was added later when the writer read about Ba Nkoloso – a fascinating Zambia personality. At other times, they seem like a pointless diversion.
- Particularly in the final section – the protagonists are much more vocal of the politically consciousness. So every social development in the story seems to be accompanied by a political commentary – which seems coming more from the author than the characters themselves.
Also, towards the final chapters, the coincidences start stacking up high enough that they start to beg plausibility. These led me occasionally to feel that the novel worked better as picaresque piece than on the whole.
But irrespective of all these complaints, the novel remained very engaging and entertaining throughout its otherwise long length.
Picture Credits:
- Cover Picture: Victoria Falls, Trip Advisor
- https://www.rhodesianstudycircle.org.uk/percy-missen-clark/
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/zambian-space-programme