Bakamé’s Revenge

An aeroplane carrying the national football team crashes shortly after take-off. Sabotage or negligence? The trail leads to the home of the unsuspecting hyena Mpyisi, and his wife Fleurette receives an unwanted visit. Mpyisi, though, is only too well aware of who the real culprit is: Bakamé the hare, who knows how to use other people’s weaknesses for his own personal gain. Gritting his teeth, he decides to put a stop to his archenemy’s wrongdoing once and for all, and he sets off on a long journey to see the great magician Bwana Kero.

This picaresque story about Bakamé and Mpyisi, which contains plenty of sex and black humour, is a perfect illustration of what drives people and can make them so unappealing. That famous African darkness, the dangers of the continent, the open eroticism and the eerie atmosphere of the jungle take shape in a baroque way in both words and pictures. The hare’s cunning, lust and egocentrism are at the centre of this story, but other characters’ traits are also explored in depth. A satirical look at a world in which desire, violence and magic are inextricably entwined.