The Fetish Fighters

Francis Van Wyck Mason (1901-1978) was an American historian and author from Boston who was a World War One veteran and Harvard graduate. He started writing professionally in the 1920s finding success selling stories to pulp magazines, including fictional adventure tales of the French Foreign Legion appearing in Argosy. Four of these serialized novellas have been collected in a beautiful volume by Steeger Books, anchored by the 100-page The Fetish Fighters from 1931.

Our story begins in a Foreign Legion’s African outpost in Kouande, which is in modern-day Benin (next door to Nigeria). It was a French colony called French Dahomey beginning in 1892, but still largely populated by black Africans. Wikipedia is helpful in providing some historical and and geographic context - not that you really need it.

It’s also important to understand that the French Foreign Legion was a branch of the French Army that welcomed foreign nationals into the fighting force. They were highly retrained and well-paid soldiers who largely handled the muscle behind France’s occupation of African regions.

Our hero is muscular American Lem Frost who was just promoted to Seargeant within the Legion. However, Frost has no time to celebrate his promotion before word arrives that a bunch of native religious fanatics known as The Fetish Fighters, are putting on war paint and planning to attack the outpost. The African fighters are comprised of both male and female cannibal killers with a taste for colonizer blood.

You’ll need to set aside 21st century sensibilities and racial decorum while reading “The Fetish Fighters.” The N-word is bandied about casually and the African bushmen are of the non-subtle ooga-booga variety. But part of the fun of an adventure story from nearly 100 years ago is the antiquated stereotypes at play. You can either be offended or you can enjoy a fine adventure story and be happy about how far we’ve come as norms change over a century. Context is everything here.

With the sound of the war drums approaching and only 68 men at the French outpost, the Legionnaires need to work smarter, not harder. The tension and combat scenes are well-crafted. There are way too many characters for a modern reader to track, but you only need to be invested in the fates of a few. The interpersonal drama among the soldiers was a bit much, but you can probably skim over much of it. It’s pulp fiction, after all, and there’s no test at the end.

Overall, if the idea of a classic French Foreign Legion adventure sounds up your alley, The Fetish Fighters, as well as the other stories included in this volume, are an excellent way to go. Recommended. Buy a copy of the book HERE.