No Bride Price is a swift-moving novel of action set in a new African nation. Its tragic hero, Lombe, is a young and ambitious civil servant. He moves uncertainly about the slippery corridors of power, quickly falling foul of his Minister. The tensions build up within the capital until a cathartic coup bursts open the corruption.
Algeria’s fratricidal war has divided democrats, seriously damaged civil society and left a political
vacuum in the face of the ruling parties. There is almost no opposition with a proper base that can
take the demands of the people forward.
A year ago, waves of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa swept away western-backed