Oct 6

Oct 6 Madgermanes by Birgit Weyhe

Madgermanes is an impressive, affecting study of homeland, identity, communication, and political exploitation. It’s also a powerful piece of storytelling with artwork that punches. And there are birds, lots and lots of birds.

At a glance, this is a graphic novel following three Mozambicans as their lives merge and diverge during their time as overseas labour in the former German Democratic Republic - East Germany.

The characters - José, Basilio, and Anabella - are young and ambitious. The overseas programme is an adventure and they’re considered the country’s ‘new elite’. East Germany provides strange wonders: snow, cherries, heated air, funky fashion, libraries, adult education classes, music, and blockbusters.

But the workers are forbidden from socialising with locals, live under curfew, and have their wages withheld. José is renamed. Out on the streets, the response to their skin ranges from novelty - “Wow! He’s so black!!!” - to slurs, refused service, and fisticuffs. When the Berlin Wall falls, the rude welcome becomes increasingly violent.

Bloody foreigners! Get out of here!
Out!!!
Germany for Germans!
Suddenly, all of Hoyerswerda seemed to agree.
All at once, one side of the building caught fire!
And the police just stood by and watched … - p.140

The three protagonists tell their stories in their own distinct voices. They present themselves frankly, and this intimate, confessional tone made me quickly care for them. Though parts of their lives intersect, they don’t always give the same account of events: information is withheld, memories are cherry-picked, details are buried. It’s through the layering of each account, that the full picture emerges.

“Weyhe’s illustrations have a frankness that speaks quickly and clearly.”

Madgermanes asks universal questions: What is home? What is it to live abroad? How do we manage painful memories? But it deals with these in a personal way. José, Basilio, and Anabella respond to their shared environment differently, resulting in completely different experiences.

That the accounts feel real is no trick of clever fiction. Comic artist and illustrator Birgit Weyhe became fascinated by the real-life Madgermanes when she ran into German-speakers in northern Mozambique. José, Basilio, and Anabella are based on Weyhe’s research and interviews.

Madgermanes blurs the line between fact and fiction in an exciting, effective way. It feels like an important social document: an illustrated documentary, hefty and smooth in hand. You don’t read Madgermanes for the plot, but to learn who the Madgermanes are, what happened to them, what they’re still waiting for, and how they coped when the ground beneath their feet turned to ash following the burial of the German Democratic Republic and the cessation of civil war in Mozambique. They went from key labour to illegal aliens in one country, and hero to zero in the other. And into this political blackhole went all the earnings due at the completion of their contracts.

Now, where are those birds? Happily, everywhere! The imagery in Madgermanes is worth a study of its own. Weyhe’s illustrations have a frankness that lets the art and the words speak quickly and clearly. She brilliantly captures facial expressions, adding humour or irony or pain to the dialogue. The use of animal imagery feels fresh: memory as a sea-urchin, pain as a clawed night-beast, homesickness as birds in a tree, love as a field, life as a cheetah, failure as a cat in pieces.

Though Madgermanes was first published in 2016 and deals with events thirty years old, it feels timely. The issues - economic migration, racism, feminism, abortion, labour conditions, worker exploitation, political disingenuity, profit before people - are straight from today’s headlines.

Madgermanes was translated from the original German to English by Katy Derbyshire. It must be an interesting process: not only translating meaning and voice, but translating into the specific space available in each panel. Derbyshire captures the voice of Aunt Catarina to devastating effect in the book’s emotional climax, as well as the twee homeliness of the African proverbs. (In a brilliant volte-face, Anabella scolds Basilio for his gushing proverbs, only to learn the surprising reason why he uses them.)

Madgermanes caught me off-guard. It’s a powerful piece of storytelling with startling artwork. What makes the tension bite even deeper is the knowledge that behind José, Basilio, and Anabella are 20,000 real Madgermanes still waiting for the wrong people to do the right thing.

Published this month by V&Q Books, Madgermanes is an excellent example of art and storytelling being used for serious effect. This is learning made raw and cool and unforgettable.

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Many thanks to Birgit Weyhe, Katy Derbyshire, and V&Q Books for my advanced reading copy. It’s a beautiful production - that yellow! - and a book I both raced through and savoured.