Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi

Eyo is the heart wrenching story of a ten year old girl sold into slavery by her own parents.

The story opens with a disturbing scene in Eyo’s neighborhood in Jungle city, a poverty stricken slum in Lagos, Nigeria. Jungle city “had a reputation for being the most violent, notorious, and criminal ghetto in Nigeria...It had narrow, untarred streets, winding alleys, and shanty settlements and stood defiant on reclaimed marshes, surrounded by decomposing garbage, burning wood, and rotting animal carcasses—the latter being remains from the abattoir on the fittingly named Malu (Cow) Road, the entryway into Jungle City.”

This was Eyo’s home. She occupied a one bedroom “face-me-i-face-you” apartment with her parents and two younger siblings. Every morning, she woke up before sunrise to bathe and prepare for yet another day of hawking ice water with her little brother. One morning her mother informed her of a decision that would change her life forever. Both her parents had agreed that her uncle take her to London, the land where dreams turned into reality. There, she would have a better life. She would be with white people and learn new things. She would go to school. All promises she could never even dream of in Jungle city. She would be stupid to give up such an opportunity. Or so she was made to believe.   

Leaving behind her younger sister and brother, Eyo boards a plane to the UK (pronounced “Uukay” by Eyo) filled with hopes and dreams of a better life. Soon after she arrives in the UK, Eyo realized she was in for a total shock. After several months of physical and sexual abuse while working as a domestic help, Eyo is eventually sold to sex traffickers who specialized in child sex trafficking. The years of sexual abuse as a young child rendered her “super-experienced”  for her age and fueled demand for Eyo by many customers.

This was not the “Uukaay” Eyo was promised. In the ensuing chapters, life loses meaning as she is passed from one heartless sex trafficker to another. She got through some days by pretending to be a robot in efforts to protect herself from the unimaginable life that has become her own. She did only that which was required of her and tried hard not to feel anything. But is this possible?

Sanusi does a phenomenal job communicating very raw and intricate emotions as Eyo transforms from a ten year old into a teenager, evolving from African flower to African Lolita to Jungle Girl. With every turn of a page, I found myself wanting to reach out and pull Eyo out of the story. I cringed over and over and over. It took me months to write this review as I was afraid of stirring my emotions plus I didn't think my review would do this book justice. But, the worst part was the helplessness I felt knowing that there are thousands of Eyos' out there who can’t find their way.  Writing this review is my little way of contributing and I hope you will be inspired to make a difference and fight for the rights of Eyos' around the world.

I particularly love how at the end of the book, Sanusi empowers her readers with an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children like Eyo by visiting /http://www.afruca.org/ to campaign against the trafficking of African children to the UK.

I encourage you to at least check out this website even if you aren’t up to reading such a charged book. Remember, knowledge is power.

Eyo is available on Amazon. Click here

Rating: 5 bows 

Finally non-food related photos of my visit to NYC...Enjoy!:-)

My first time visiting NYC in the spring and I'm totally hooked. This was hands down my most enjoyable trip to New York so far. The air felt clean and the city much less crowded. I think it also helped that I had no agenda when I visited..if only it would always be the case :-)

              

View of Manhattan..not for a lover of trees:p

Uplifting Bible verse

Some weeds come in vibrant colours...

Central Park

@ the Julliard School

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangaremgba

I did a little background about the author and found out that Tsitsi Dangarembga grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but spent part of her childhood in the UK. She is a physician by training which may explain the title of the book and the reason I was drawn to this novel. Been in the healthcare field myself, I am always excited when I come about a fellow nerd who is also a lover of literature:). Also, I was intrigued to read a book that examines the psychology of Africans especially because mental health is not a very popular topic in the African society. Without further adieu...

Nervous Conditions is a narrative told by Tambu, a hard-working and intelligent 14 year old who grew up in a rural Zimbabwean community. Her desire to be educated is met by her father's resistance in a male dominated society. Her brother can go to school but she must stay home to learn housekeeping. Her father tells her,

"Can you cook books and feed them to your husband? Stay at home with your mother. Learn to cook and clean. Grow vegetables."

Tambu is rescued by her wealthy British-educated uncle (Babamukuru) and leaves her rural hometown to enroll at Babamukuru's missionary school. Nyasha, Babamukuru's daughter, is about Tambu's age and also attends the same school. Nyasha is a curious and intelligent young girl with the wisdom of an 80 year old and perhaps the stubbornness of a mule. Tambu, on the other hand, is determined and wise without been disrespectful. Despite (or because of) their polar opposite personalities and upbringings, Tambu and Nyasha develop a special friendship as they grow into adulthood and begin to question the society they live in. In their own ways, they challenge aspects of their culture, ask difficult questions and with resolute determination, travel the road less traveled...

Nervous Conditions is definitely in the feminist genre but I think it certainly did more than just explore the lives of post-colonial African females. Overall, I found it to be a thought provoking African novel that explores 1) the psychology of post-colonial African male and female (both young and old) 2) the awareness of social, cultural, psychological and economic inferiority created by colonialism 3) how the two aforementioned factors contributes to one's state of mind and ultimately impact the choices an individual makes.  

I borrowed the book from the library but it's available on Amazon. Click here

Rating: 4 bows

Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo

Changes is an unpretentious love story set in Accra, Ghana. Ama Ata Aidoo tells the story of three educated, financially independent females who juggle their roles as career women, wives, mothers and daughters in an overwhelmingly patriarchal society.

Esi, the main character, walks away from a bad marriage because her husband (Oko) who was initally mesmerized by her "air of independence" had begun to resent her for the same reason. Oko wants more of Esi's time but when Esi's attempt to balance career and wifely duties fail to meet Oko's demands, she is forced to make a choice. Esi files for divorce and leaves her marriage of six years in an atypical fashion--she sends Oko packing from her house, a bungalow that comes with  her government career as data analyst with the government's statistical bureau.

In the face of familial and cultural pressures, Esi follows through with her decision to divorce Oko. Soon after, she is swept off her feet by Ali Kondey, a very good looking man "with beautifully white and even teeth." The attraction was mutual though there is one little problem--Mr Kondey is already married (to Fusena) with kids.  Yet, Esi and Ali live an alternative lifestyle, seeing each other many nights a week before Ali has to return home to his wife and kids. Ali eventually asks Esi to become his wife and once again, Esi finds herself at a crossroad as she considers becoming a second wife to Ali.


Esi's grandmother is both surprised and proud of Esi's new dilemma. Afterall, this choice that Esi presents her was unthinkable in her own days. She congratulates Esi for having a choice and warns her of the consequences of such a choice as she says:

"Leave one man, marry another. Esi, you can. You have got your job. The government gives you a house. You have got your car. You have already got your daughter. You don't have to prove you are a woman to any man, old or new. You can pick and choose. But remember, my lady, the best husband you can ever have is he who demands all of you and all of your time. Who is a good man if not one who eats his wife completely, and pushes her down with a good gulp of alcohol?" 

Opokuya, Esi's best friend, is a strong and boisterous character who "moved like lightning and laughed through the days of the year." She is a registered nurse and qualified mid wife who is married with kids.  On the surface, her marriage to Kubi epitomizes the type of marriage every woman can only dream of and invokes envy from her colleagues and her best friend. We later get a more realistic picture her marriage to Kubi and we are left to decide whether she has it better than other women or not. Opokuya and Esi do not see eye to eye on Esis' reason for divorcing Oko. When Esi exclaimed she could not understand why Oko now loathes her resilience and independence, Opokuya responds:

"men are not really interested in a woman's independence or her intelligence. The few who claim they like intelligent and active women are also interested in having such women permanently in their beds and their kitchen."

Fusena is the third female character. Soon after graduation from teacher training college, she forgoes her teaching career and instead becomes a wife (to Ali Kondey), mother and homemaker while Ali completes his master level training abroad. Now, she regretfully sits back as her highly educated husband becomes involved with another highly educated woman.
 
Indeed, Ama Ata Aidoo's Changes is a gender conscious and political novel that explores African femininity through the lives of Esi, Opokuya and Fusena without shying away from the turbulence that plagues post-colonial Africa. I took many messages away from this book but the most frightening is that many of the complex issues brought to life in Changes remain real issues for African women living in modern Africa today. And, if life is so challenging for the educated, financially independent, urban African woman, what can we expect for the uneducated, dependent, rural African woman?

I borrowed this from the local library but it is also available on Amazon. Click here

Rating: 4 bows




P.S.
I think I got a little carried away with this review...next one will be shorter :p

missing in action

One of the biggest reason I have been MIA is due to some technical difficulties with my dear computer--so bad, I had to send it off to geek squad for a couple weeks. Thank goodness for my iPhone, I would not have survived those two weeks! Either way, I'm happy to say, I did read a couple books and currently half way through a third so I'll be posting reviews within the next week or so.

Okay, I'll confess, I played a little too. It is spring in Boston and it's becoming increasingly difficult to stay indoors reading couch-potato style. Hence, I have been spending a lot of time outdoors.  I did a little travelling too. I was in NYC and had such a wonderful (read wonderfully expensive) time! No, really, it was quite amazing---great company, delicious food, magical weather...what more does anyone need? Also, the annual African film festival commenced while I was there so I had a chance to see some shows:-)

Pictures to come. Stay tuned, will you?

Book 4: What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra

Yasmina Khadra’s “What the Day Owes the Night” tells a heartfelt story about the fight for independence, the fight for love and the fight for self-esteem in a world of uncertainty. This beautifully written book transported me to Northern Africa. It is narrated by Younes, an Arab boy who was forced to leave from his home after his father’s long-awaited harvest is set aflame. Suddenly deprived of his companion dog and a place he calls home, he migrates with his parents and younger sister to Jenane Jato, an Algerian slum possessed with unbelievable poverty. In the authors words, Jenane Jato is described as: 

"a slum of scrubland and shacks teeming with squeaking carts, beggars, hawkers, donkey-drivers struggling with their beasts, water-carriers, charlatans and ragged children; a stifling clay-red wasteland of dust and filth that clung to the walls of the city like a malignant tumour.” 

It was this futile life that drove his father to send Younes to live with his rich uncle in Rio Salado, a beautiful city on the west of Oran, Algeria. Rio Salado’s beauty is in stark contrast to Jenane Jato--there, “everything the sunlight touched turned to dream.” It is in sunny Rio Salado that Younes (renamed Jonas) makes friends with three other boys about his age. Like a “pitchfork,” they were inseparable.  Through their ageless friendships, the author explores loyalty, brotherly love and integrity.
Younes is educated and becomes a pharmacist like his uncle but life still dealt him many hard blows. Algeria is suddenly torn apart in a devastating war for independence and he must choose his fate; is he Younes or Jonas, Algerian Muslim or French Christian? Worse still, his love life is in shambles. Emilie, his childhood crush and now most beautiful girl in town, confesses her love to him but his youthful fling deems their relationship sacrilegious. Needless to say, even his love life is a story of war.
Younes' love life may have turned out a little different had he listened to his uncle, a happily married man who is kind-hearted and full of wisdom. About women, he says:

“Sunset, springtime, the blue of the sea, the stars in the sky, all the things that entrance us exert their magic only in the orbit of woman, my son...Because beauty, the one, true, unique beauty is woman. The rest, all the rest, exists simply to adorn her.”

Now you know why I’m in awe of his character :).
I have to say, this was a timely read for love month! Though I was sometimes frustrated with the love story, the overall plot was fast-paced, rich and intensely engaging. The author definitely has a way with words; his descriptions of poverty, emotions, beauty and grime were astounding! I will definitely go back to collect more quotes from the book. I highly recommend!

Rating: 5 bows

Yasmina Khadra's What the Day Owes the Night is available on Amazon

Click here to purchase

Book 3: Open City by Teju Cole

Last year, I read Teju Cole's Every Day is for the Thief and really enjoyed it. I was excited to learn about Open City but I'm afraid that my excitement didn't last past the first few pages of the book.

Teju Cole’s Open City is about Julius, a German-Nigerian physician, who resides in New York City. Julius, who has a somewhat supernatural ability to pay close attention to the mundane, wanders around the streets of New York reflecting on bed bugs, birds, his childhood in Nigeria, past and present relationships, culture, music, art and everything in between. Julius’s character is unlike any human being I have ever encountered which makes it very hard for me to believe that he is a real person. He is the type that has a well-informed opinion on just about anything. Being a full-time medical doctor in a busy academic center, it is quite preposterous how knowledgeable he is in not one but several other subjects such as history, classical music, art and philosophy to name a few. He remembers random lines from poems or books he read many years earlier. Even his friends or strangers he encounters are not "regular" folks but rather, folks with especially heightened sense of intellectual curiosity and vitality. Ah..who are these people? Or should I say, are these real people or are they simply projections of Julius’s imagination?

Albeit, in the last two chapters, the author tried to portray Julius as a human being but by then it was too late. Even the seemingly real interactions at this point in the book appeared abrupt and forced. However, it was in these last few pages that I found a quote I’ll definitely ponder on for a while. I would like to share it with those who will not make it to this part of the book:

"Each person must, on some level, take himself as the calibration point for normalcy, must assume that the room of his own mind is not, cannot be, entirely opaque to him. Perhaps this is what sanity is: that, whatever our self-admitted eccentricities might be, we are not the villains of our own stories. "

Overall, I found Teju Cole’s Open City monotonous, flat and boring. Flipping the pages was like pulling teeth--I was un-engaged for the most part and prayed earnestly that the book should end. I applaud myself and anyone else who reads this book cover to cover. We get 5 bows for making it through and Teju Cole gets 2 bows for helping us realize our resilience and patience.  

Rating: 2 bows

 

Teju Cole’s Open City is available on Amazon

Click here to purchase

Book 2: Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou

This story was set in the mind of a 42-year-old porcupine. Well, sort of. The porcupine’s mind was reflecting on his life as the “harmful double” of a human being in a Congolese village. His master or double, Kibandi was initiated by his father at a young age of 11. Kibandi’s initiation marked the beginning of his "masterhood" of his animal double. Together, they killed several dozen human beings in Kibandi’s lifetime. Kibandi ordered and his double executed the killings.The descriptions of the killings were intense so perhaps its not surprising that the porcupine needed a soul cleansing through confession to the poor baobab tree. Throughout the book, the reflective porcupine confides in the tree for what seemed to me like a really long time. I often found the details of the porcupine’s adventures unnerving so if you get easily creeped out, beware. I wonder if my impression of the book is a bit clouded by my own superstitions or my fear of animals but let it be known that Alain Mbanckou’s “Memoirs of a Porcupine” only exacerbated my animal phobia.

Overall, a well written book. I believe it must take incredible literary talent to write a story from an animal’s perspective. And, to write a story with only comma’s as punctuation i.e. not a single period within or between chapters throughout the entire book! While I think that's mighty impressive, I also think parts of this period-less book sometimes read like a never ending rant. That said, I may check out one of his other books provided it's not so scary. Stay tuned.


Rating: 3 bows

Alain Mbanckou’s “Memoirs of a Porcupine” is available on Amazon.

Click here to purchase

Book 1: Tomorrow Died Yesterday by Chimeka Garricks

Chimeka Garricks is genius. If I didn’t have 19 other books to read, I’ll read  Tomorrow Died Yesterday over one more time! What I appreciated the most about this book is that it was not predictable. I couldn’t anticipate the suspense as I flipped the pages and that was captivating and very refreshing. Also, the emotions in this book were palpable: I grimaced, laughed out loud, blushed, and almost cried.

The book is divided into different time periods and goes something like: present, past, present, past. At each time period, the story is told by one of the four main characters: Kaniye, Tubo, Amaibi and Doye (two female characters are introduced later on). All four boys grew up together on Asiama Island, in the Nigerian Niger Delta region, in the 1970’s. On the surface, it seems like just another story about the wretched political corruption in the Niger Delta region, but it was anything but.  Don’t get me wrong, the book explores the violent conflict in the Niger Delta but it also tells the story of the real victims. The story begins in the present introducing us to the four friends, now adults “thriving” in their various walks of life. Then, the author effortlessly weaves in their childhood in Asiama, opening the reader to the history of the characters, and the impact of society, family and friendship in shaping the persons they have become. When we come back to the present, we have a richer and better informed view of who the characters really are. I find that such a window into the characters past really drew me in, creating a peculiar sense of intimacy with the characters. I was particularly intrigued by how the writer portrays the vulnerability, warmth and sometimes cruelty that can go hand in hand with friendship, even friendship amongst children.

Fast-forward to the present, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the love story between Kaniye and Deola. Kaniye seems like quite the special guy--sensitive, charming, funny and above all, knows how to treat a woman’s taste buds! Naturally, I paid special attention to the food throughout the story. Boy, I would do just about anything to try Aunty Eno’s edikang-ikong soup and Kaniye’s native soup.

Every single Nigerian should read this book. Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) should make a movie out of this so that people who don’t read will have no excuse. Prior to reading this, my knowledge of the situation in the Niger Delta was quite limited. At the end of the story, I am considerably more informed about the struggle in the Niger Delta. Knowledge is power--we cannot fix a problem that we don’t understand. When you read this book, I believe you will empathize with Doye when he says

“ There is no future for the children of the Niger Delta. Their tomorrow is already dead. It died yesterday.” 

But, you will also share Amaibi’s hope for a better tomorrow and be inspired to fight the right battle with the right weapon. On that note, I’ll leave you with Amaibi’s wise counsel: 

"We need to change the way we do things. We need to stop fighting the wrong battles. Our people must drop their arms and get off the streets and creeks. The war will not be won there. The war will be won in lecture halls as we expand the minds of our young people.”

Rating: 5 full bows

Tomorrow Died Yesterday is only $2.99 on Amazon. Click here to purchase.

The Challenge

New year. Many goals. Same love affair with food. Revived appetite for literature.

I am incredibly blessed to be stepping into 2013 with so much joy and energy. Sometimes, I just want to sing out loud and skip all the way home. Ever feel like that? Well, I have decided to channel all this energy into another one of my hobbies: reading! As a science student in high school, my schedule did not really allow me to take literature classes but I worked it out with the teachers so I could have access to all the poetry and prose I could lay my hands on! I remember memorizing so many lines out of Wole Soyinka's "Lion and the Jewel", I could have recited the entire book in my sleep.

Over the years, my love for literature has only grown. I can't say I always have a book in hand, but I find time to read. In efforts to be more intentional about reading, I enrolled in a literature and medicine course last fall and have been exposed to some very fine medical essays, many of which were written by patients and healthcare providers. I only have two more classes to go and I was looking for the next cool thing to do outside of work when I stumbled upon a blog of African literature. I'm African and I wasn't exposed to nearly enough African literature growing up so you can imagine the excitement when I stumbled upon this treasure of a website. Perhaps, much of the joy also stems from the fact that I am away from home and books about home certainly remind me of many fond memories of the motherland.

My goal is to read 20 novels by African authors in the next 6 months and this blog will keep me accountable. I will not only read the books but I will also rate them and provide a short review. I hope you won't just cheer me on from the sideline but that you'll be inspired to explore African literature in your free time as well!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!