DUKYARIAN RECTANGLE

Basil Okoye, a Roman Catholic priest, and Salim Kamil, a fiery Muslim Sheikh, watch in horror as their country's failure to meet its debt obligations emboldens the World Bank to confiscate Dukyaria's Deeds of Sovereignty. The ink has hardly dried on the DoS "suspension agreement" when another behemoth, the World Government Organization, declares war on religion in all its manifestations. Both clerics are naturally opposed to the twin external assault on freedom and self-determination. Both have their tasks cut out for them. For one thing, the Union of Dukyaria whose sovereignty they are anxious to salvage is ethnically polarized, irredeemably corrupt, and chronically indebted. For another, both clerics must first patch up deep doctrinal differences before they can even think of stemming external encroachments on freedom. The extremists in both camps add another layer of trouble for the religious leaders. Above all, the two activists must reconcile their craving for freedom with the embargos which their doctrine of self-abnegation might place on the freedom of others.

The challenges notwithstanding, Okoye and Kamil proceed to reassess their worldviews and agree on a strategy. Both discover that facing their common enemy dictates, first, burying their mutual differences, and foremost, finding a rallying cause. As if on cue, the WGO hands them not one, but two, compelling reasons to close doctrinal ranks and simultaneously sustain the freedom struggle. The first is the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the other, the conversion of places of worship into faith-abjuring indoctrination outfits, deceptively labelled "re-education" centres. Unfortunately, their preference for non-violent struggle is unacceptable to two other characters, Abu Danja Mamba, leader of the terrorist Homo Haram; and Pastor Emman Kalu, the business-savvy prosperity gospel preacher who makes his fortune selling miracles in lieu of meaning. The terrorist Mamba never passes up the opportunity to attack the WGO and the world organization's Dukyarian proxies. For his part, Kalu, the gospel preacher, undercuts Okoye and Kamil at every turn.

The daunting obstacles notwithstanding, Father Okoye and Sheikh Kamil embark on the final phase of the epic struggle for freedom. This is the stage at which they mount a successful legal challenge to the "re-education" policy, step up their street protests, survive assassination attempts, foil the WGO's infiltration and destabilization plots, forge alliances with external forces opposed to the world body, get the expanding clone population on their side, and, with Homo Haram not letting up in its terrorist attacks, draw world attention to Dukyaria's instability. The situation reaches a climax with the deposition of the WGO-appointed Governor-General and his replacement by a clone. The question is whether any of these will bring back Dukyaria's independence and the freedom that the people so much cherish.

The novel raises profound philosophical questions about God and Godlessness, questions which the contemporary world constantly evades,

Dettagli