Martin Jumbam

Beads of Memory Martin Jumbam

In the wake of General Franco's demise, a Cameroonian student, Leinteng Basha, arrives in Madrid. He soon befriends two other African students, Bassey Okoro from Nigeria, and a drifter from Equatorial Guinea, Jesus Ndongo. Together, they navigate as best as they can through the challenges of loneliness, homesickness and especially the indifference, if not outright hostility of their host country. Leinteng keeps a diary in which he details in simple, straightforward but captivating prose, the travails and joys of his days in the Spanish capital. Through the diarist's sharp eye for detail, the reader is irresistibly drawn into the labyrinth of life as lived by an African student in post-Franco Spain.