Here is the plot briefly. The hero (you can't really call him that) Clarence is a white man who has ended up in some part of sub Saharan Africa. Why and how he got there or his purpose is not explained. When we meet him at the beginning of the novel, he is scorned by other whites, he is broke and unable to pay for his lodging but he still is full of self-importance considering himself worthy enough for an audience with the king. Although he has no specific skills he is supremely confident of finding employment as an advisor to the king. Unable to navigate the crowd and the "stench" of Africa he fails to get near the king when the king visits the North.
So with a beggar as a guide and 2 youths for company he begins a long journey to the South in the hope of meeting the King down south after literally selling his pants to pay for a meal. Suspicious of the beggar and puzzled by the maze-like forest he is not sure that his journey is going to be successful. This portion of the book reads like something out of Joseph Campbell's treatises on The Hero and his mythological journey. At the end of the journey they reach this village where unbeknownst to Clarence he is sold to the Naba of the village as a "breeder". He settles down in the village with Akissi who keeps house for him and waits for the king.
When the king finally arrives we see a remarkable transformation in Clarence. We come to understand that the purpose of the quest which on the surface appears to be an audience with the king, is actually a journey of self-revelation (again very similar to the Hero's Journey) when Clarence finally sees himself with all his imperfections. Overcome by shame he is hesitant to see the king, but finds himself called for despite his odor and faults to stand in the radiance of the king.
The book concludes with Clarence "finally at the end of his seeking, and at the end of all seekings". Yes it is an interesting premise - a white man disgraced in Colonial Africa undergoing transformation, coming face to face with his own faults and stench, but this book was hard labor! It is a story of quest and as someone who is vaguely familiar with quest stories in Mythology i was kinda prepared for this one. Still there was nothing to hold my attention and i found the journey to the South portion excruciatingly long. Maybe I will someday figure out why Tony Morr isson and Henry Louis Gate praise this work, but I would much rather read Chinua Achebe!
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