Gangrene (book)

Gangrene is a 1968 novel written by Flemish writer and former Assistant Direct Commissioner in the Belgian Congo Jef Geeraerts. Also referred to as Black Venus, this is the first of four books belonging to Geeraerts’ Gangrene cycle. The narrator bears the author’s name, and the book is widely considered to be a fictionalized yet largely autobiographical account of Geeraerts’ experiences in the Belgian Congo towards the end of the Belgian colonial era, leading towards the Congo’s independence in 1960.