A book worth reading in the new year

By John Wafula

Fast-paced and fascinating, The Man in Green Dungarees is a story of grinding poverty and two young people’s efforts to escape it as they grapple with failure and alcoholism, love, rejection and hypocrisy. But it is also a story about crime and punishment; enterprise and success.

Ng’ang’a Mbugua, the author, weaves the plot around the rise of John Benjamin, also known as Kemau Wajoroge, a bright young man who fails to secure a university place by a single point. Like the entire Imenyi Village community, John Benjamin expects a lot of himself while his father, Kama Wakambo, expects even more of him.

John Benjamin, the book’s hero, is one of the best students at Imenyi High but that was not enough. As the narrator says: “Everyone expected John Benjamin to be the top student.’’ The unreasonably high communal and parental expectations and the simplistic definition of academic success, pile pressure on the young John Benjamin. Worse still Hilda, his opportunistic childhood sweetheart, dumps him after he fails to meet these expectations. He finds solace in traditional brews, often drinking himself into a stupor. Soon, alcohol enslaves him. John Benjamin sinks so low that the narrator, after rescuing him from a ditch, says: “Had he died by the roadside, even dogs would have needed courage to devour him.’’

But John Benjamin’s life takes an about-turn when he rescues a stray dog, Poppy, and builds a kennel for it. From that point on, he immerses his energy and passion in building kennels and marketing them, eventually stashing away a tidy sum of money. In about four years John Benjamin rises from a useless village alcoholic to the owner of a company, Dogs Reloaded, a farm in Thika, and is on his way to becoming a real estate magnate. All these from the humble background of hawking cockroach killer on the city’s streets with his childhood friend, the unnamed narrator whom John Benjamin only calls “Sir”.

The Man in Green Dungarees, which derives its title from the green overalls that John Benjamin buys after selling his first kennel and which become ubiquitous with him and his employees, is unique in many ways.

The informal and friendly conversational style which the narrator - John Benjamin’s childhood friend who is a failed farmer-turned-city hawker - adopts is captivating and infectious.

“Where were we before we were rudely interrupted?” the narrator asks as the storyline opens. The words create an aura of informality and friendship, hooking in the reader. Further, the use of phrases such as: Let me tell you something, my friends; By the way…; Are you listening… create familiarity that keeps the reader turning pages.

Another unique aspect of the book is that it is told by a hawker amid the hassle and bustle of the city’s streets and the hazards that come with the job. Fear of council askaris and police officers who harass them pervades the narrative. One hears the hawkers’ rhyming chants as they market their wares and feels their perpetual hunger, all of these providing a backdrop for the story.

The well-thought out names of places, institutions and people in The Man in Green Dungarees stand out in the reader’s memory long after reading the book. Characters such as Parmenus Marifoti, Sleeping Joram, and Kama Wakambo; institutions such as  Imenyi High and the Church of Jacob’s Ladder, and place names such as River Thabia and Emma’s Inama Boutique are laden with symbolism.

On John Benjamin’s rise from poverty to prosperity lie myriad obstacles. The author demonstrates that commitment to one’s innovative idea (building kennels), honing marketing skills and attracting customers are not enough ingredients for success - one needs support.

John Benjamin’s father introduces him to Sleeping Joram who loans him building materials; tycoon  Permenus  Marifoti buys his first kennels and introduces him to a huge urban market; his girlfriend Emma nominates him for a business incubation course which in turn leads to his TV appearance that exposes him to a huge market; a Thika farmer offers him land and introduces him to bank loans. Lesson? To prosper, an entrepreneur must build and nurture a supportive network.

Finally, the narrator is so inspired by John Benjamin’s rise from a wretched life to prosperity that he vows to return to the village and begin rebuilding his life afresh.

“Do I admire him? A great deal. Do I envy him? Maybe. Do I feel challenged by him? A whole lot,’’ he muses.

Read the book, be challenged, and act.

The book was published in September by Oxford University Press, Kenya. It costs Sh250 a copy.