192. The Repudiation by Rashid Boudjedra

Repudiation (Three Continent Press, 1995 (First Pub. 1969); 195) by Rashid Boudjedra investigates the lives of a people from the home to the nation-state. This focused investigation begins at the mirco or family level and progresses gradually, adding on several limbs, to the macro or national level. Regardless of the issues being investigated – religion, sex and sexual orientation, the state, plight and rights of women in a patriarchal state – the theme of ‘repudiation’ runs through them all.

Boudjedra investigated the Algerian family unit in certain chosen facets. At this level, he discussed three main issues which are also characteristic of the larger society. The first is the repudiation of women in the household by their husbands; the Algerian family household, like most households in Africa, is of the compound model where sons and daughters and husbands and wives live with cousins and nephews and aunts and uncles and grandparents with, mostly, an older male playing the role of the patriarch directing affairs of the compound. The second issue is that of lasciviousness pregnant and inherent in such household compositions, which when pricked delivers incestuous relationships of unimaginable dimensions. These incestuous tendencies grew out of the religious ban – implemented by ‘to-the-letter’ religious patriarchs –prohibiting females (girls and women) of the household from leaving the compound without the prior permission of the patriarch; consequently, over-ripe teenagers brimming with sexual hormones who cannot any longer control their sexual desires – either through the five-times per day prayers or through mental suppression and pretence – lean back to their cousins to save them from their debilitating sexual fantasies. And in ignorance they experiment.

The third issue is about the state, plight and right of women living on compounds ruled by strict patriarchs. Boudjedra discussed this in terms of their freedom of movement and freedom from sexual oppression – where a man, through religious texts and its practice, is given all the rights to marry more than one wife yet that woman isn’t given the right to decide on her life. The repudiation in this context is different from divorce; by repudiation, the man, perhaps fed-up with the monotonousness of monogamy, neglects his connubial responsibilities with this wife and takes up that role by marrying another. Since the wife in question has not been divorced – only neglected, sexually – she cannot marry and is still under the control of this patriarch who monitors her for any adulterous tendencies. It could also be used as a tool for punishment. Rashid’s – the narrator – father, Si Zoubir, employed it for both reasons when at fifty he married fifteen-year Zoubida. The women on Si Zibour’s compound – including the wives of his brothers – were so sexually oppressed that Rashid described them as having only one right: the right to own and maintain a sexual organ.

My mother is a repudiated woman. She reaches orgasm alone, with her hand or the help of Nana. In our city the number of marabouts is constantly increasing. We live in feudal society; women have only one right: to own and maintain a sexual organ. [Page 79]

And yet this right to own and maintain a sexual organ only ends at its maintenance and not its use. This sexual repudiation of these crones led to another kind of malignant decadence: the solicitation of sex from young and virtually unspermed boys and, for those who could brace the consequences, from marabouts or individuals who pretended to be marabouts. The repudiation also made sex the most discussed topic amongst the women folks, away from the prying ears of the young and the men. Whilst the women became starving nymphomaniacs their husbands patronised brothels in obscure corners of the community. Their worth as women arises only during or at the point of marriage where they assume pecuniary importance; even this semblance of importance is demeaning for it is at this point that their prices are determined and are sold like cows:

Later I understood it was poverty driving the taleb to homosexuality since getting married in our city is extremely expensive. Women are sold in public squares, chained to the cows, and brothels are inaccessible to small purses! [Page 80]

There are other issues Boudjedra discussed which transcend the boundaries of the family into the wider culture and country: sexual orientations and molestation (sometimes by men of the high religious ranking) and the location of hypocrisy hidden within a pietistic society culminating in a general repudiation of religion. This repudiation of religion was partly caused by the repudiation of women; the narrator writes:

Let father continue straining over the smooth body of his young wife, he would never again be left in peace! Traps. I swore aloud, denied God, religion and women. Zahir [the narrator’s elder brother] hated the tribe and pissed in the water used for the ablutions of the holy men and the Koran readers. [Page 61; [my insertion]]

And this repudiation was not repudiation of one religion but of religion in general. Heimatlos – Zahir’s homosexual partner – described himself as an atheistic Jew and the bible as a ‘beautiful poem ever written by man’.

The children tortured by religion and by the dichotomy between preach and practice and raped by men and women eager to believe in their pureness and the sanctity of their religion elapsed into unstable mental states. This behaviour of a hypocritical and sycophantic society with wide gaps between talk and walk led Zahir to take to alcohol and exile where he eventually died. Zahir, a homosexual by orientation, was scorned, misunderstood and vilified by the very pious adults who sexually molested young boys (and girls through child marriage); the likes of Si Zoubir who fought for a theocratic state that would protect the patriarchal culture and force each person to live by the tenets of the traditional religion. This interference of the state into the religious lives of the people led to the repudiation of government.

Thus, women and the psyche of the young boys (who became men) were the ultimate victims. But that’s not entirely true. The patriarchs didn’t remain unaffected in a household where everybody was. Si Zoubir, facing an increasing challenge from his emotionally and psychologically unstable children unable to marry the two sides of the coin – their father’s behaviour and their mother’s plight; their father’s words and his deeds – and having become sexual predators to the young women on the compound, became hysterical and psychotic, beating them at least opportunity and accusing them of plotting to kill him and the baby his young wife was carrying.

In deconstructing this story of a country, Boudjedra removed the shiny foil off every event to expose the rot within. For instance, at the wedding between Si Zoubir and Zoubida, the rejected and the poor – blind men, cripples, beggars –overfed themselves with free food and drink that they eased themselves at the very location they ate, turning the feast into unsightly putrefaction. Similarly, Boudjedra showed how the continuous celebration of Id had engulfed the community within a cocoon of pungent smell of blood and dung of slaughtered animals. This scatology reeks of Jose Saramago's Blindness. The Id itself stressed and stretched the emotional cord of young boys who were expected to show their bravery through their calm observation of the slaughter.

However, the children’s general repudiation of life – as lived by the primogenitors – was crushed by the uncles, who were too eager to enjoy the trappings of power their sex afforded them, and the same women who suffered from these trappings further tightened the noose. So that those [children] who stood up to the few religious fanatics, who have found a way of influencing the new post-independence government, were summarily arrested and jailed.

Boudjedra’s thesis of comparison indicated that redemption only lies in the repudiation or abjuration of religion; that is, to eliminate the symptom you must uproot the cause. For in comparing the various sections of the city, the rot from religion decreased from the Moslem quarters to the Jewish quarters down to the European quarters.

Using long sentences, interspersed with shorter ones, long paragraphs, and monologues, Boudjedra achieves a narrative that is sometimes philosophical and at other times poetic, that is if there is a distinction between these two. Though it was Rashid narrating his life stories to his French girlfriend Celine, he proved sometimes to be an unreliable narrator trying to hold on to fading memories and incidences of his life. Like me, you may not agree with Boudjedra entirely – I don’t believe religion is the only repressive force, for he somewhat, through silence or omission, upheld European Capitalism, claiming that the sheer lack of religion in that quarters meant there was no putrefaction; however, his story is bound to generate a lot of discussions.

It’s recommended.

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About the author: Rachid Boudjedra was born in Aïn Béïda, in eastern Algeria in 1941. He went to school in Tunis, where he studied at the élite Lycée Saddiki and became familiar with the basics of both Arab, and western culture. In 1962 he began studying philosophy in Algiers, in which subject he eventually graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris.

After having published six novels in French in 1981 he began to write in Arabic. He resumed writing in French in the mid-1990s.

His first book La Répudation (1969, tr: The Repudiation), which was translated into several languages but banned in Algeria until 1980, won the Prix des enfants terribles, funded by Jean Cocteau.

Boudjedra’s goal is also, in his own words, to question the official Algerian interpretation of history and uncover its contradictions. Illustrating this approach, he tore aside the myth of a glorious past in "Les 1001 nuits de la nostalgie" (1979, tr: The 1001 Nights of Nostalgia). (Source)

138. Burning Grass by Cyprian Ekwensi

Title: Burning Grass

Author: Cyprian Ekwensi

Illustrator: A. Folarin

Genre: Ethnic

Publishers: Heinemann (AWS)

Pages: 118

Year of First Publication: 1962

Country: Nigeria

Cyprian Ekwensi' Burning Grass is a story about the life of Fulani herdsmen narrated through Mai Sunsaye. Mai Sunsaye is a leader of his people and a medicine man, a man who knows how to treat people. One day, whilst with his sons grazing their cattle an incident occurred that would affect all their lives including the children. A Fulani girl a slave of the fearful man Shehu was being chased by a man with whips. Mai Sunsaye paid for Fatimeh with his cattle and ordered man to leave. Thus, Fatimeh became free.

Rikku, the youngest son Mai Sunsaye loved Fatimeh and the girl also showed signs of affection toward him. However, it was Hodio who eloped with her. As a leader of the people of Dokan Toro, Mai Sunsaye had been opposed by Ardo. One day, Ardo's men released a bird with magic which inflicts people with sokugo 

a magic that turned studious men into wanderers, that led husbands to desert their wives, Chiefs their people and sane men their reason.

Drawn by the bird, and with his household burnt, Mai Sunsaye began a journey that would take him to several places, meeting several people, and participating in several activities. He would meet eldest son Jalla, would run from him and move on to Old Chanka and then to New Chanka. His son Rikku would follow him and so would his wife and daughter, in search of their father and husband. Initially, Mai Sunsaye set out after the bird, then the search turned into a search for his son, Jalla, and when Jalla was found it turned into a search for Fatimeh so that his son Rikku, who had suffered emotionally and physically by the elopement, would be well again.

Whilst on this journey, Fatimeh had also gained a reputation, one that grew from people's  fear. She wore only white, traveled with a lion, owned a herd of cattle and journeyed only in the evenings. These added onto her legend. When Fatimeh left with Hodio, they had met Jalla and another incident had happened. At New Chanka, Shehu's men had attacked Hodio and he had defended himself but could do nothing to the re-taking of Fatimeh as a slave. But the woman found her way out and was now living an itinerant life. Mai Sunsaye's adventures would include meeting Fatimeh, who would heal him from the sokugo, meeting Ligu, who would help him fight Shehu and his men for his son Rikku who was arrested when he was running away from Kantuma, bringing his family together and fighting Ardo and his men and to lead the Dokan Toro people. Mai Sunsaye, through this affliction, visited his sons, supervised the marriage of Jalla and witnessed his flight from manliness.

This story portrays the life, struggles, and travails of cattle herdsmen and their aversion towards city life and its sedentariness. The enjoyment of the book is the narration. Events take place at a fast pace and though the reader could make some predictions, because things fitted in so perfectly, it was still a pleasure to read them. The reader can find himself or herself hoping that nothing untoward happen to the old man (Mai Sunsaye) who was oblivious of the cause of his zeal to travel or leave home. Ekwensi employed the traditional narrative style and it suited the story very well. 

Though one is tempted to ask which great medicine man cannot fight sokugo charms or even show any form of magic whiles on his journeys, these don't detract from the story. It is a quick and fan read. Jagua Nana has been touted as Ekwensi's best.

________________

Cyprian Ekwensi (Source)

About the author: Cyprian Ekwensi ( September 26, 1921–November 4, 2007 ) was a Nigerian writer who stressed description of the locale and whose episodic style was particularly well suited to the short story.

Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi was born at Minna in Northern Nigeria on September 26, 1921. He later lived in Onitsha in the Eastern area. Ekwensi attended Government College in Ibadan, Oyo State, Achimota College in Ghana, and the School of Forestry, Ibadan, after which he worked for two years as a forestry officer. He also studied pharmacy atYaba Technical Institute, Lagos School of Pharmacy, and the Chelsea School of Pharmacy of the University of London. He taught at Igbobi College. He lectured in pharmacy at Lagos and was employed as a pharmacist by the Nigerian Medical Corporation. Ekwensi married Eunice Anyiwo, and they had five children.

Ekwensi began his writing career as a pamphleteer, and this perhaps explains the episodic nature of his novels. This tendency is well illustrated by People of the City (1954), in which Ekwensi gave a vibrant portrait of life in a West African city. It was the first major novel to be published by a Nigerian. Two novellas for children appeared in 1960; bothThe Drummer Boy and The Passport of Mallam Ilia were exercises in blending traditional themes with undisguised romanticism. (Source)

107. A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo

Title: A Grain of Wheat

Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo

Genre: Fiction/Colonial Literature

Publishers: Heinemann (AWS Classics)

Pages: 267

Year of First Publication: 1967

Country: Kenya

A Grain of Wheat has been noted as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's best novel. It was voted as one of the Best 100 African Books in the Twentieth Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. As the third published novel, A Grain of Wheat embodies distillates from Ngũgĩ's two previous novels: Weep Not Child (1964) and The River Between (1965). In this story, the fight for independence, started in Weep not Child and The River Between converges and hints of elitism, greed, and discrimination against the independence fighters that blossomed into the novel Matigari had just begun. 

Mugo wa Kibiro's prophecy (in TRB) that 'there shall come a people with clothes like butterflies' had come to pass and Waiyaki - the protagonist in TRB - is reported to have been 'buried alive at Kibwezi with his head facing into the centre of the earth' to serve as a 'living warning to those, who, in after years, might challenge the had of the Christian woman whose protecting shadow now bestrode both land and sea.' The natives have fought the colonial government and the Queen had agreed to independence. With few days to Uhuru - independence - the people of Thabai and Rung'ei areas are making all the necessary preparations to make the day a memorable one whereas party leaders and freedom fighters are looking for speakers to mark the occasion. This is the setting and period - December 10 and 12, 1963 - within which A Grain of Wheat placed.

To make the celebration memorable, the leaders of Thabai are impressing upon Mugo to be the main speaker. Mugo through his actions and, mostly, inactions have climbed to a certain status that he himself is afraid of. He is scared of accepting the appellations women shower on him. Something is bothering him. He does not see himself worthy enough to lead the people. He asks himself

Yes, could they really have asked him to carve his place in society by singing tributes to the man he had so treacherously betrayed?

But women continued to sing Mugo's praises at the market, in their homes. His queerness and taciturnity increased his popularity. Something he did not expect. He was regarded as the equal of Kihika, achieving hero-status when several beating after days of hunger-strike, to confess the oath, left eleven detainees at Yala Camp dead leaving him.

However, behind this openly mirthful - seemingly impeccable - preparations for Uhuru lies the search for the ultimate traitor; the individual behind the betrayal of the Movement's leader, Kihika, by General R. and Lt. Koina. Kihika had ran into the forest to fight the colonial government and natives who worked for colonial government, like Teacher Muniu and Rev. Jackson both of whom - using the bible - spoke against the struggle for independence. Reverend Jackson Kigondu - a native pastor - had

called on Christians to fight side by side with the whiteman, their brother in Christ, to restore order and the rule of the spirit.

And with such lines, Ngũgĩ showed the role Christianity - through some native pastors - played in dividing the natives and subjecting them to colonial rule. After several search, analyses, and elimination, Lt. Koina and General R settled on Karanja as the perpetrator of this unforgivable crime. 

Using a back and forth narrative style, Ngũgĩ provided the reader the background of most of the characters involved and their role for or against the uhuru struggle. And through this we get to know that most of the so-called freedom fighters had at one point in time betrayed the Uhuru cause. They had denounced their oath in detention and quietly come home to their family or had denounced the oath and openly joined forces with the colonial government in its fight against the natives. The motivating factor amongst the latter group of people was that Uhuru does not imply the end of white rule. And Karanja belonged to this group. 

Karanja loved Mumbi but before he could open his mouth, Mumbi had accepted Gikonyo's. Years later, after the two had married, Gikonyo was taken to detention, Karanja capitalised on this opportunity to win Mumbi. He denounced his oath, became a homeguard - killing people natives at will - and later a political chief drawing his power directly from the District Officer John Thompson. And it was during Karanja's position as a political chief that Mumbi begot him a child. Coming from detention after six years, and seeing his wife with a child, Gikonyo shut himself up: working hard to raise his economic status.

As preparation towards Uhuru gathered pace, people began asking questions. People, in their minds, wanted to know if after the departure of the whiteman and the introduction of black rule:

would the government become less stringent on those who could not pay tax? Would there be more jobs? Would there be more land? The well-to-do shopkeepers and traders and landowners discussed prospects for business now that we had political power; would something be done about the Indians?

Gikonyo was to discover, painfully, that nothing much had changed. Having planned, together with his friends, to obtain a government loan through their MP to purchase Burton's farm, and the MP having promised them, they were later to find when they visited the farm that the MP had acquired the property. And this was before the uhuru celebrations. During the uhuru celebration itself, General R observed that

those now marching in the streets of Nairobi were not the soldiers of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army but the King's African Rifles, the very colonial forces who had been doing on the battlefield what Jackson was doing in the churches.

Early on, Gikonyo had remarked:

You have a great heart. It is people like you who ought to have been the first to taste the fruits of independence. But now, whom do we see riding in long cars and changing them daily as if motor cars were clothes? It is those who did not take part in the Movement, the same who ran to the shelter of schools and universities and administration. And even some who were outright traitors and collaborators.

In the end, as a sign of resignation and helplessness, Mumbi reminded her visitors that they '... have got to live', to which Warui - an elderly woman in the village - responded 'Yes, we have the village to build'. And again, just like the fight for Uhuru, the building of the country became the burden of the ordinary people and not the elites who had inherited everything.

How dirt can so quickly collect in a clean hut!

The title 'A Grain of Wheat' is symbolic. A verse underlined in black in Kihika's Bible reads:

Verily, verily I say unto, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit (St. John 12:24)

According to bible.cc, a corn is the same as 'a grain'. Thus, Kihika knew that the struggle for independence, or uhuru, would require the utmost sacrifice on the fighters' part. And that except they are prepared to fight and die, their situation would not change. He was therefore the 'grain of wheat' that died and brought forth much freedom. Using Christian analogies, Ngũgĩ compared colonialism to the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt. And several biblical pages were quoted to support this.

Though Ngũgĩ used an omniscient narrator, there were several places where the use of 'we', 'us' and 'you' pointed to a narrator who is one with the natives' cause. This hidden character was there at independence and was there when the struggle started; he or she seems to be the spirit of the Kenyans identifying himself with the people whenever he or she addresses the reader.

This is a story filled with symbolisms, metaphors and analogies. It shows hope, hopelessness, and hopefulness in a stochastic distribution. It also gives voice to the unknown soldiers of Kenya's past and present; those who have made it their aim to fight the war until the end is attained. It is recommended.

______________

For a biography of the author, click here.

For the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge

105. Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah

Title: Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism

Author: Kwame Nkrumah

Genre: Political Non-Fiction

Publishers: PANAF

Pages: 283

Year of Publication: 1965

Country: Ghana

Read for Amy's Bloggers' Alliance of Non-Fiction Devotees, BAND

CAVEAT: This review has been delayed for several reasons. First it is to afford the reader enough time to think about the subject matter deeply and present it lucidly. However, after several days, it became clear that no amount of thinking would lead to a clearer review. Thus, to understand the wealth of facts and figures, of information within this pages, kindly get a copy. What is presented here cannot even be described as a pin-prick of what the book offers. The second reason is that today is Kwame Nkrumah's birthday. He would have been 102 years.

When Kwame Nkrumah published this book in 1965, it was banned in the United States. A year after, on February 24, 1966, he was overthrown in a coup d'tat, which according to declassified files or documents, was sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. During this period several African nationalists were assassinated. And the UN's attitude, especially in the Lumumba case, is there for all to see. Thus, even then, the UN has only worked to help a handful of countries and individuals. 

Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism is a step by step guide to unveiling, exposing, denuding, the factors, individuals, countries, and corporations working against Africa's development and unity. From chapters such as Africa's Resources, Obstacles to Economic Progress, Imperialist Finance, Monopoly Capitalism and the American Dollar, The Truth Behind the Headlines, The Oppenheimer Empire, The Diamond Groups, Mining Interests in Central Africa, Union Miniere du Haut Katanga, Economic Pressures in the Congo Republic, The Mechanisms of Neo-Colonialism, among others, Nkrumah sought to make the world know the kind of forces we are facing as Africans (and non-Africans) on the path towards development (and the people that rule our world).

Corporations, which stole Africa's resources from the beginning by making chiefs sign papers they know very well they cannot read and in most cases papers which talk of a different contract only to turn out that these chiefs have signed off their resources, have come to control Africa's extractive industries, or broadly, Africa's primary resources and have enriched themselves - creating empires - through colonisation. These corporations, even after independence, had done everything necessary to keep the status quo. Through  vertical and horizontal integrations they have formed monopolies that control the production of the raw materials, its transport outside the country, its transformation or value addition, its price on the international market and the manufacture of the finished products. In effect, they control the demand and supply of products. And consequently, prices.

Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, did a diligent job with this book in unmasking the demons against Africa's development and unity with hard facts. Appropriately, the book opens with 'Africa's Resources', where the author shows the volume of Africa's raw materials and those who control it. The chapter opens with the paradox that even though the continent is rich its resources go to enrich, mainly, non-Africans.

Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism. Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below her soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups of and individuals who operate to Africa's impoverishment. (Chapter 1, Page 1)

After the second World War, most African countries began the fight for independence and colonialism became unfashionable. In places where the granting of independence was resisted, the natives took up arms. As disaffection towards the colonial government increased, independence became the only way out. However, post-war European countries have seen a boost in their economies that would fall should total (economic and political) independence be granted. The colonialists in granting the independence fashioned out a systematic method of dominance that would still keep them in control of the resources that is needed to drive their economies back home. This burden of keeping growth and development in developed countries became a burden of developing countries:

It is the less developed countries that continue to carry the burden of increasing development of the highly developed. (Chapter 4, page 66)

This new form of control meant to grant quasi-political control (in terms of the physical head and not the politics), while keeping economic-control, is what the author refers to as Neo-Colonialism. 

Neo-colonialism is based upon the principles of breaking up former large united colonial territories into a number of small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defence and even internal security. There economic and financial systems are linked, as in colonial days, with those of the former colonials ruler. (Introduction, page xiii)

This system was much preferred even by the French who, granting independence to Guinea removed every single-piece of investment in that country including office equipment such as light-bulbs to prevent the remaining countries from fighting for independence. This is because with Neo-Colonialism, any social and economic failings and disaffection by the people in the 'independent states' are blamed on the government of these states. And these disaffection are easily created through influencing prices.

In neo-colonialist territories, since the former colonial power has in theory relinquished political control, if the social conditions occasioned by neo-colonialism cause a revolt the local neo-colonialist government can be sacrificed and another equally subservient one substituted in its place. On the other hand, in any continent where neo-colonialism exists on a wide scale the same social pressures which can produce revolts in neo-colonial territories will also affect those States which have refused to accept the system and therefore neo-colonialist nations have a ready-made weapon with which they can threaten their opponents if they appear successfully to be challenging the system. (introduction, page xiv)

From the control of raw materials, manufacturing plants, financial capital, finished products, markets for finished and raw materials, through mergers and acquisitions these individuals and corporations have gained enormous power against which neo-colonialist countries, with their small size and little income, can hardly work against or be victorious in any bargain. Capitalism's irony is that, even though it is supposed to be a free system that breeds competition, its practitioners have sought ways to be prevent that very 'advantage' from materialising through mergers and acquisitions, with the giants in the industry swallowing one another. With their control over different industries they control the pulse of most countries, the world even. Today, monopolies have been created for almost every type of industry. So that the mining of Gold is controlled by a few (mostly two) organisations which have shares in each others organisations. And so effectively are a single unit with multifarious appendages (like an octopus). These industrial monopolies have also become the properties of a few individuals, like a pyramid. What is frequently observed is that about five directors of five major corporations would also be directors in over two hundred other corporations in different industries, serving the same interest groups. From their control of industries and new-found raw materials they seek to

...deprive rivals of their use. The manipulation of artificial scarcity is another of monopoly's tactics for maintaining profits. For three years between mid-1964 the big copper companies were running at between 80 and 85 percent of capacity to keep up prices. Steel production, too, was held back to something like 80 percent of capacity.  (Chapter 4, page 62)

In countries where nationalists fight to gain control of these resources, secession is first advocated and then war is instituted. One only needs to look at the Congo DR, a country currently managed by mining corporations, to understand how this strategy works. Where investments are made, the enormous capital flight these corporations and countries embark upon leave the producing-country crippled.

Direct private American investment in Africa increased between 1945 and 1958 from $110m. to $789m., most of it drawn from profits. Of the increase of $679m. actual new money invested during the period was only $149m., United States profits from these investments, including reinvestment of surpluses, being estimated at $704 m. As a result African countries sustained losses of $555 m. (Chapter 4, page 62)

In Chapter 5, Nkrumah showed us 'The truth behind the headlines'. This chapter is dedicated to unravelling the goings-on behind news headlines. According to Nkrumah to 'really understand what goes on in the world today, it is necessary to understand the economic influences and pressures that stand behind the political events. So that an innocuous headline such as 'Morgan Grenfell participates in new French bank (Financial Times, London, 18 December 1962) has more to say than the headline.

Morgan Grenfell & Co. acts effectively as the London end of the important American banking house J.P. Morgan & Co. which, in 1956, already owned one-third of the British company. It should not, therefore, surprise us to learn that the new 'continental' bank in which Morgan Grenfell is participating is called Morgan et Cie; more especially, since 70 percent of the capital of 10 million new francs is held by Morgan Guaranty International Finance Corporation, and 15 per cent by Morgan Grenfell. What about the remaining 15 per cent? This is divided between two Dutch banks - Hope & Co. of Amsterdam and R. Mees & Zoonen of Rotterdam - with both of which the Morgan group has had close association over many years. This association has been drawn even closer by the acquisition in March 1963 of a 14 per cent in both of them by the Morgan Guaranty International Banking Corporation, a subsidiary of Morgan Guaranty Trust. (Chapter 5, page 70)

Using different methods and strategies we are made to accept that we are incapable of doing anything for ourselves. From the Hollywood movies the covert operations of their cultural attaches/ambassadors, peace corps, information services that publishes their own bulletins, the war against united Africa and against development is fought. Not long ago, the Chinese (and even Japanese) were looked upon as we are now; fastforward to today and China and America have mutual respect for one another. It is such examples that we can point at that shows that, at least, hope exist and that is what this book seek to provide: hope.

After reading the introduction of this 283-page book, France's intervention in Cote d'Ivoire - a country it has vested interest in in terms of its resources and financial capital - and US cum NATO assault on Libya would be clearer. Readers would no longer perceive these two events as interventionists but rather a calculated attempt to keep Africa 'apart' and its resources to them. For what would the newly-supported and installed government do when businessmen from these countries troop in to ask for mining and drilling concessions? Most at times, because the powerful families and corporations behind these wars also control the media, we are presented with falsities, half-truths, staged-news and complete lies about what goes on in these countries. Obama's call for military intervention to 'protect civilians' in Libya is a veil for his real intention. However, if we use blanket names such as America, France, Britain etc. we refuse to see the bigger picture. For behind these countries are multinational corporations, the empire of a few individuals, fighting to increase their control of the world's resources. So that the problem is not unique to only Africa but to other countries as well, even in Europe. These corporations, through lobbying, election funding, control over institutions, have infiltrated governments, placed their 'men' (bootlickers) in strategic positions and so are able to influence policies.

Note that Kwame Nkrumah, in this book, did not speak against foreign investment. What it is against is exploitation and the overarching objective of these investors to make super-normal profits while impoverishing the countries in whose land the resources are.

While foreign private investment must be encouraged, it must be carefully regulated so that it is directed to important growth sectors without leaving control of such sectors in foreign hands.

Nkrumah propounds African unity as the solution. A united African would have the economy, the resources and trading amongst itself would become a force to reckon with. China's importances stems partly from the size of its economy. But it is this unity that is being fought from all sides with all manner of weapons to the extent that we have, today, African leaders who prefer to live in countries whose GDP is ten times less than a corporation working in their boundaries. Others who just want to be 'presidents'. Similarly, the Angolophone-Francophone colonialist blocks has done little to aid unity. In fact, every attempt at uniting is hampered by these blocks using baits such as aid (which only serves as a revolving credit, taking ten times more from the 'aided' country than was given), debt-cancellations, and the like. But then again, the book proffers hope and rightly so for this is their last gasp for breath.

This is a book that everyone must read. Especially so if you are an African. It aims to give facts and figures rather than dazzle you with exquisite prose; yet every topic has been painstakingly explored to its logical roots. This should be a required-reading for every African leader (Presidents, Head-of-States, Military/Rebel Leaders, Juntas etc.) and also for anyone who wants to enter into governance. Like I earlier said, this review could not do justice to the volume of information in the book's pages. Thus, it would be better for one to read the book for himself/herself to really grasp what Kwame Nkrumah is talking about. What makes this book worth the read is that the very same 'demons' unveiled as hampering Africa's development are the same problems we are grappling with. Some derided his method of solving it, yet they have come up with no better solution. Recent events on the continent and in the world at large is enough to show that nothing has changed. If anything at all, the wheels have been oiled and the spinning is faster. Would the recently-discovered oil lead to development? 

To end this incomplete review, remember that:

The change in the economic relationship between the new sovereign states and the erstwhile masters is only one of form. Colonialism has achieved a new guise. It has become neo-colonialism, the last stage of imperialism; its final bid for existence, as monopoly-capitalism or imperialism is the last stage of capitalism. And neo-colonialism is fast entrenching itself within the body of Africa today through the consortia and monopoly combinations that are the carpet-baggers of the African revolt against colonialism and the urge for continental unity.

And in order to halt this foreign interference in our affairs

... it is necessary to study, understand, expose and actively combat neo-colonialism in whatever guise it may appear. For the methods of neo-colonialism are subtle and varied. They operate not only in the economic field, but also in the political, religious, ideological and cultural spheres.

Before you become complacent of this, ask yourself what would happen to us if we should run out of these natural resources? Or if substitutes are found as they are being considered for diamond, rubber, crude oil and others? Development is now.
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Brief Bio: Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 1909 - 27 April 1972) was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the Organization of African Unityand was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963. (Read more here)

ImageNations Rating: 6.0/6.0
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Quotes for Friday from Kwame Nkrumah's Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism (I)
Quotes for Friday from Kwame Nkrumah's Neo-Colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism (II)

94. The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo

Title: The River Between

Author: Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo

Genre: Fiction/Social Realism

Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 152

Year of First Publication: 1965

Country: Kenya

For the Africa Reading Challenge

The River Between is a story about leadership, changes and identity. It concentrates on social and political change at the onset of European invasion. As a colonial literature the story is set in the period where the Kikuyu highlands of Kameno and Makuyu was at its nascent stage of Christian European invasion. Though similar to Weep Not Child, the struggle in The River Between against Christian European revolves around the issue of tradition and identity.

The story opens with an omniscient narrator who tells of Kikuyu creation; of how Murungu created Gikuyu and Mumbi, the first man and woman. The narrator also debates which ridge is the eldest: Makuyu - where it is claimed that Gikuyu and Mumbi sojourned with Murungu on their way to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga - or Kameno, where they had stopped, as each ridge claims leadership based on its own story. However, a common river, Honia, runs through the valley between the two ridges. And it is by this river that the ritual of circumcision is practised. The river also gives life to the people of both ridges.

Chege, a descendant of a line of prophets and seers most notably of whom was Mugo wa Kibiro, led his son Waiyaki into a sacred grove to show him the secrets of the land and to tell him about the prophecy that would become Waiyaki's sole objective in life and his ruin for Chege believed that Waiyaki is the son in that prophecy. 

"Salvation shall come from the hills. From the blood that flows in me, I say from the same tree, a son shall rise. And his duty shall be to lead and save the people!"

However, these two ridges are now divided along religious lines:

Makuyu and Kameno still antagonized each other. Makuyu was now home of the Christians while Kameno remained the home of all that was beautiful in the tribe.

with leadership under different personalities. Mayuku's leadership is under Joshua and his fiery brand of Christianity whereas Kameno's leadership is under Waiyaki. Things came to a head when Joshua's daughter, Muthoni, died after she ran away from home to participate in the circumcision that would usher girls and boys into adulthood. Charged to bring these two groups together, Waiyaki vowed to use education as the tool to keep the village's identity and to keep the white man at bay whereas his detractor - Kabonyi, himself an ex-follower of Joshua - vowed to use political force. When Joshua's second daughter, Nyambura, falls in love with Waiyaki, things spiralled out of control for both sides of the divide for Nyambura has not been circumcised and a Christian and Waiyaki has sworn an oath to protect the traditions and secrets of the people. This internal struggle and autophagy blurred Waiyaki's vision for he was a man who paid no particular attention to such traditions as circumcision.

Could Ngugi be speaking to us metaphorically? So that the ridges today are nothing more than the diametrically opposing ideologues and ideologies running and ruining our countries and tribes. For instance, on the political front there is Socialism against Capitalism with the the latter abhorring everything about the former even if it presents itself as the best policy to solving a problem. And vice versa. However, if Kameno and Makuyu are metaphors for ideologies or ideologues, then they would aptly represent the socio-religious divide more than the political. For from the Muslim-Christian clashes in Nigeria to the Protestant-Catholic conflict in Northern Ireland, we are confronted by a group of people with equal eagerness to tear themselves apart to preserve their faith and not their humanity. And this is what gives this localised novel, an international appeal. 

This novel, though not Ngugi's best, emphasises his interest in social realism; in documenting the changes that are or have taken place. In this story, Ngugi shows a different method of fighting the oppressor: using the oppressor's own tools. He shows that education is not mutually exclusive to the preservation of tradition and not all rituals are important to preserving tradition and culture.

As an Ngugi, need I say it is recommended?
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Brief Bio: Click Here

ImageNations' Rating: 4.5/6.0

87. Weep Not, Child by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Title: Weep Not, Child

Author: Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Genre: Fiction/Colonial

Publishers: Heinemann

Pages: 143

Year of First Publication: 1964

Country: Kenya

For the Africa Reading Challenge

To begin with, this is a book I last read almost seven years ago. It is also one of the very few books I have re-read. Though I only review books I have just (within the year) read I feel the need to share this with you.

The story revolves around Ngotho and his children and their relationship with Jacobo and the Howlands. Ngotho was a man filled with emotions and loneliness. The type of emotion one cannot do anything to assuage its excruciating pains. As a patriarch Ngotho hurts from the knowledge that even though his children show great potential he cannot help them to fulfill. Worst of all is his inability to stand against Jacobo, the anglicised local man for whom he works. And when he remembers that his son, Boro, fought in the second Big War, his impotence becomes hurting sore; it stares starkly at him. When Boro ran into the bush to fight with the fighters, Ngotho finally gathered some Okonkwo-like bravery and attacked Jacobo. This attack led to a series of disasters. As Ngotho became spiritually alienated and emotionally disturbed; as he became weaker, his enemies, Jacobo and Howland became stronger.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Weep Not Child is a story that examines the relationship that existed between blacks and whites and within blacks themselves prior to independence. It explores several socio-economic issues such as access to education, jobs and the universal right to life. It also explores the Mau Mau bush-fighters and their struggle for an independence in Kenya. When access to social amenities is unequal and others have rights that are lost to others, there is a class struggle and a type of caste system is created. For instance, and here note the play on words, whereas the Ngothos were dead-poor and representative of the Kenyan proletarians, the Jacobos were rich farmers who worked for the white farmers, the Howlands. And names become important. From a very typical and native name of Ngotho, the poor and the masses, we move to those who have sold the land to the whites and serve them. Those who bow before them and in doing so shame the black race. These are called the Jacobos - a localised name for the English name, Jacob. Then the Lord of Lords, the colonialist is represented by Howland... How Land?

This classification were strongly implemented by all the individuals involved. So that even though Kamau wanted to learn carpentry and his 'black' master would not show him all he needs to know he complained bitterly, insinuating that this was the reason why - Ngotho - his father prefers to work for the whiteman;

Blackness is not all that makes a man ... There are some people, be they black or white, who don't want others to rise above them. They want to be the source of all knowledge and share it piecemeal to other less endowed. That is what's wrong with all these carpenters and men who have a certain knowledge. It is the same with rich people. A rich man does not want others to get rich because he wants to be the only man with wealth ... Some Europeans are better than Africans ... That's why you at times hear father say that he would rather work for a white man. A white man is a white man. But a black man trying to be a white man is bad and harsh. (Page 22)

And this is where the crux of the issue lies. The Africans in the novel who adopted the lifestyle of the colonialists were harsher and brutal in their treatment of fellow blacks than the colonialists themselves. Thus, Ngugi here is not piling up the blame at the doorsteps of the colonialists or Europeans but also showing that the ability to do good is inherent and that it is not necessarily true that the oppressed race is always vulnerable and pitiable. But most times that they inflict the pain by themselves on themselves. That on several occasions, in order to please their masters, those who pretend to have the masters' 'colour and manners' go to the extreme in their maltreatment of their very own tribesmen. This observation by Ngugi is not different from many other views, like Mia Couto's The Russian Bride in his short-story collection  Every Man is a Race, where the slave boss treated the others harshly to impress his Russian boss.

Again, this novel could be a precedence to Matigari, even as it precedes it in publication. For in Matigari, which was set in the period following Kenya's independence, we see that it was the rule of the Jacobos and not the Ngothos, even though it was the latter who had fought with their lives for independence. The Ngothos (or Matigari ma Njiruungi) remained an oppressed group and even though there was a change in government (in Matigari) the land was still being misappropriated by the same Jacobos (or John Boys) for their friends, the Howlands (or Williams).

Are these symbiotic relationship different from what prevails in most countries on the continent? Are they different from the today, where governments sell national assets for nothing, if only the capitalist entrepreneurs would promise their children good university education abroad? Or where governments refuse to see the harm being wreaked upon its country because that's where his personal sustenance comes from? Is it different from the present era, where the paunch is put before development or where the "I" supersedes the "We" even when the resource is a Common Resource?

To really understand the development quagmire, within which most African countries seem to be stuck or better still wallow, a reading of these two novels would suffice. For it is only when our present actions bestow positive externalities on posterity that we can hit our chest and say 'yes we've done well'. However, as it is now, we are light-years away from attaining such feat. Ngugi by this book alone has provided us with the solution to our problem by diagnosing what the problem is.

If you have not read this novella, whose title was taken from Walt Whitman's On the Beach at Night, perhaps well-chosen for the subject it addresses, then kindly do so. It is one great novel.

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Brief Bio: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, currently Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, was born in Kenya, in 1938 into a large peasant family. He was educated at Kamandura, Manguu and Kinyogori primary schools; Alliance High School, all in Kenya; Makerere University College (then a campus of London University), Kampala, Uganda; and the University of Leeds, Britain. He is recipient of seven Honorary Doctorates viz D Litt (Albright); PhD (Roskilde); D Litt (Leeds); D Litt &Ph D (Walter Sisulu University); PhD (Carlstate); D Litt (Dillard) and D Litt (Auckland University). He is also Honorary Member of American Academy of Letters. A many-sided intellectual, he is novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic and social activist.

The Kenya of his birth and youth was a British settler colony (1895-1963). As an adolescent, he lived through the Mau Mau War of Independence (1952-1962), the central historical episode in the making of modern Kenya and a major theme in his early works. (Source)

ImageNations Rating: 6.0/6.0

80. Searching by Nawal El Saadawi

Title: Searching

Author: Nawal El Saadawi

Translator: Shirley Eber

Original Language: Arabic

Genre: Novella/Women Issues/Politics

Publisher: Zed Books

Pages: 114

Published: 1968 (English, 1991)

Country: Egypt

For the Africa Reading Challenge

Searching, by Nawal El Saadawi, is a story about a woman in search of her vision and purpose in life - for that something she was created to discover - and for his boyfriend who had suddenly disappeared in a politically corrupt, myopic, shambolic and patriarchal state. Fouada is a trained Chemist. She works on nothing at the Ministry of Biochemistry. And this sinecure work is depressing her, pushing her off her vision. Fouada thinks that 'she could not live and die without the world changing at all' but the Ministry is doing nothing to help her contribute or discover something new in terms of laboratory research. Fouada meets Farid 'every Tuesday, at eight in the evening in that small restaurant when the weather was warm, or at his house on cold winter nights' except that this Tuesday Farid did not appear nor would he ever appear. Devastated by his absence and the silence of the telephone and, consequently, the absence of any apologies or reasons, Fouada becomes depressed.

Through her depression, the story of Fouada's life - her fears, her past and her visions are told: her hatred, her love, and her ambivalence towards her father, her vision to add something to the world, and her fears of what might have happened to Farid and even to her state of mind. Through this simple story, Nawal El Saadawi, portrayed the plight of women (and men) in Egypt and the lack of vision of the state. For instance, Fouada was described as hardworking even when she was doing nothing at her workplace. To worsen the situation, Saati - the landlord of an apartment she later hired to establish her own laboratory - told her he would hire her to work with him. There, there would be less to do.

As Fouada searched 'for Farid amongst the people she encountered' in buses on the streets, her frustrations and depression built up. She realised that she knew nothing about Farid - none of his relatives, his parents, the work he did and many more. The only connection between the two is the phone, his apartment and the restaurant. Every phone reminded her of Farid. The five-digit number was virtually sitting on her fingertips ready to be punched. Every thought she thought was linked with or was said by Farid. Things reached a crescendo when the restaurant was broken down by the municipality because the owner lost money and left the place. In its place was to be built a wall with the municipal's name on it. Thus, one of the connections between Fouada and Farid was broken to be replaced by the 'state'. Was Farid real? Was he a person she had met and known? Was he a phantom? As her search for him turned up nothing, she became disillusioned and isolated, bordering on mental breakdown. She questioned her mentality and the reality of Farid: 'maybe he was an illusion, a dream?' Finally, Fouada's source of encouragement, of financial support - her mother - also died.

As is characteristic of the Arab Women writers I have read, men were not spared in this short piece. Fouada's loathing for her father was palpable. I almost stopped reading, when I thought the pedantic and trite use of male characters was going too far; though the prose was excellent. Besides, though not the caricatured features of men but the inherent lordly nature they pose was seemingly real and not necessarily trite even in the twenty-first century. About Fouada's father, Nawal writes:

Her father was dead and she had perhaps been a little happy when he died, although not for any particular reason; her father had been nothing particular in her life. He was simply a father, but she was happy, because she felt that her mother was happy. Some days later, she heard her say that he hadn't been much use. She was totally convinced of her words. Of what use had her father been.

She continues

Her father flooded the bathroom when he took a bath, soaked the living-room when he left the bathroom, threw his dirty clothes everywhere, raised his gruff voice from time to time, coughed and spat a lot, and blew his nose loudly. His handkerchief was very large and always filthy. Her mother put it in boiling water and said to her: 'That's to get rid of germs.' ... That day, the teacher had asked the class: 'where are these things (germs) to be found, girls?' ... 'Do you know where germs are found, Fouada?' Fouada got to her feet, head above the other girls, and said in a loud, confident voice, 'Yes, miss. Germs are found in my father's handkerchief.' (Page 14)

And in this vein all the men, except Farid whose representation is more symbolic of the subtle fights against the government than a real character, were described. Both the Director at the Ministry and Saati - her landlord - were portly with grave descriptions. When Fouada saw the Director emerging from the car, she first saw

the pointed, black tip of a man's shoe, attached to a short thin grey-clad leg, then a large, white, conical head with a small, smooth patch in the centre, reflecting the sunlight like a mirror; square, grey shoulders emerged next, followed by the second, short, thin leg ... This body, emerging limb by limb, reminded her of a birth she had seen when she was a child. ... She saw the body laboriously climb the stairs. On each step, it paused, as if to catch its breath, and jerked its neck back. The large head swayed as if it would fall ... (Page 8/9)

Seeing Saati through the pin-hole in the door, Fouada saw his

Portly body was leaning against the window supported by legs that were thin, like those of a large bird. His eyes - now like a frog's, she thought - darted behind the thick glasses. It seemed to her that before her was a strange type of unknown terrestrial reptile - that might be dangerous. (Page 82)

At a subliminal we could reduce all the characters into symbols. The caricatured men are the overlords, the dictators and their laws that coil around the young and stifle progress. Couldn't young Fouada and Farid themselves represent the youth whose energy and vibrancy do not permit them to sit and partake in the rot of the society? Or the rusty old Ministry itself a representation of a nation that is fast losing its grandeur to corruption and laziness? Could this be the interpretation of Saadawi's novella?

At only 114 pages, this novella packs  a lot within its pages. Recommended for all.

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Brief Bio: Nawal El Saadawi - Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab women's problems and their struggle for liberation - was born in the village of Kafr Tahla. Refusing to accept the limitations imposed by both religious and colonial oppression on most women of rural origin, she qualified as a doctor in 1955 from University of Cairo and rose to become Director of Public Health. Since she began to write, her books have concentrated on women. In 1972, her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex, evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities, dismissing her. Later, in 1980 as a culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom - an activity that had closed all avenues of official jobs to her - she was imprisoned under the Sadat regime. She has since devoted her time to being a writer, journalist and worldwide speaker on women's issues. (More here)

ImageNations Rating: 5.5 out of 6.0

53. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe, A Review

Title: A Man of the People

Author: Chinua Achebe

Genre: Novel

Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 149

ISBN: 978-0-435-90534-7

Year of Publication: 1966

Country: Nigeria

A Man of the People follows Arrow of God in publication; however, this story is quite different from the first three of Achebe's works popularly referred to as The African Trilogy. In A Man of the People, the voice and the characterisation, and to a lesser extent the subject matter are different. It is as if Achebe, thirty-six years at the time of publication, and having enjoyed immense success with his Things Fall Apart debut, wanted to experiment or perhaps challenge himself to write as he had never before.

Unlike No Longer at Ease, the corruption Achebe writes of in this novel is not that perpetrated by Civil Servants but one seated in the fish's head - the corruption that was festering in the body politic, which had subsumed or smothered all developmental agenda into oblivion. 

Odili, the narrator and subject of the story, tells of how he moved from being a private school teacher to become a disappointed politician. Considering himself an incorruptible man - with an idealist view about the world - Odili was eagerly waiting for the day he would complete school, get a job and be givne a car. However, upon completion he realises that things aren't as smooth as he had thought and that in the present post-independence era

... it didn't matter what you knew but who you knew (page 17).

However, a larger part of the story revolves around Odili's relationship with Nanga - a former teacher of Odili now a Member of Parliament of Anata, considered by his constituents as A Man of the People, because of his smooth talk, his suave appearance, his fake obsequiousness and his seeming innocence which makes him a noncandidate even in a contest to kill ants. Odili disliked Nanga right from the onset but when Nanga visited his school and they met, the teacher-student bond was sparked. When Odili told Nanga that he had applied for a scholarship, the latter invited him to his Bori home so that he would influence the appropriate authorities to speed up his application form. This invitation, in itself did not impress Odili, however, because he also had a mission of his own at Bori he accepted.

Odili went ahead to tell us how things worked at Nanga's house; how money changed hands; how some women exchanged sex for contracts and money. But it was Nanga's suavity and pretentious innocence that hooked him so that I began to question Odili's integrity. How do we call a person who hates corruption but willingly enjoy the wealth of people he knows are corrupt? In Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born, The Man's - the main character - wife called them chichidodo, that is a bird that hates faces but feeds on faecal worms.

We all laughed, including the driver whose face I could see in the mirror. We joked and laughed all the way back. In Chief Nanga's company it was impossible not to be merry. (Page 61)

Thus, the man Odili hated became his friend, exchanging secrets and challenging each on the number of girls they had each bedded and how they were able to outwit them. Things would, however, take a dangerous turn when Nanga bedded Odili's 'girlfriend'. Odili's behaviour after this incident could best be described as infantile, for preceding this incident, Odili himself had told Nanga that Elsie - the girl in question - was just a kabu kabu, or a 'good time girl' and that there was nothing serious between them. Yet, it was this  which led to the break in relationship between them, providing Odili with the epiphany he needed to divest himself of Nanga's wealth-clutches.

It was only after Max had left for Court at around nine that I finally felt the full weight of the previous night's humiliation settling down on me. The heat and the anger had now largely evaporated leaving the cold fact that another man had wrenched my girl-friend from my hand and led her to bed under my very eyes, and I had done nothing about it [...] Because the man was a minister bloated by the flatulence of ill-gotten wealth, living in a big mansion built with public money ... (page 75)

Odili would visit his friend - Max - who together with friends was in the process of setting up another political party to challenge the two existing ones. Having come at an opportune time, Odili was to become their parliamentary candidate in his constituency, marking the beginning of a political feud between Nanga and him. Besides, Odili also had plans of his own on how to avenge the disgrace he had suffered  at Nanga's hands by bedding Edna - Nanga's second wife in the taking.

In the end, Odili with less money to hire thugs and buy out the people's votes was severely beaten such that he couldn't even file nominations to contest Nanga for the parliamentary, which even if he had done would have amounted to nothing, after the all the five villages - including his own village Urua - forming the constituency pledged their votes for anga, fearing that any opposition to Nanga's re-election would result in 'no development'.

Physically and emotionally broken, it took the intervention of a coup for Odili to effect his revenge, and yet when the time came it was no more a revenge for he had grown to love Edna. It should be noted that this coup was portentous for the novel was written before the first coup took place in the writers country - Nigeria.

This politically active novel has been described as a satire by a section of the reading public. Yet, categorisation of novels are influenced by reader's understanding and appreciation of events and their geographic location as I saw no such a thing. Perhaps such readers conflict the absurdity and mortally dangerous some of Odili's decisions were with satire. For in those periods when most African countries had been in their first half decade into self-rule and the early political elite were amassing wealth leaving national development unattended to, it took incorruptible people like Odili, Matigari (refer Ngugi's Matigari) and The Man (refer Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born) to challenge the establishment. And yes, such people had to make dangerous and somewhat 'stupid' decisions and this some may describe as satirical.

Yet are the politicians the only cause of their own corruption? Subtly, Odili provides pointers to those whose direct or indirect actions fan corruption amongst politicians. For instance, society has come to expect politicians to live a very different kind of life, one devoid of wants so that when one questions why a politician lives such an overly wealthy life, he is told that

... a sensible man would [not] spit out the juicy morsel that good fortune placed in his mouth (Page 2).

And the word 'politician' has become synonymous to 'good fortune'; the path to wealth and people would do anything to be associated with the fortunate few including forming gangs to fight for them when they are charged with causing financial loss or embezzlement in order that some of their wealth would personally rub on them - the Lazarus Effect. This was how Edna's father thought and expected:

Leave me and my in-law. He will bring and bring and I will eat until I am tired. And thanks to the Man Above he does not lack what to bring (Page 91).

Chinua Achebe

Having said these, I did not feel bonded to any of the characters. I hated Odili for most of his decisions  especially the source of his epiphany. One tends to ask what if Nanga hadn't taken Elsie to bed, what would have happened? He most likely would have remained at Nanga's house and enjoy all his 'ill-gotten' wealth. For there were a lot indications suggesting that he was falling deeper and deeper into the same pit. And probably that was the point Achebe wanted to make, that we only realise how wicked these politicians are only when we have been personally hurt by them.  

This book is already a classic. However, all who love to study the transition of African writing should include this in their readings or research. The beauty of this novel is that whatever had written in there is not past, is not history; it is unfolding before us this day in our various countries in various forms.

46. The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka

 Title: The Lion and the Jewel
Author: Wole Soyinka
Genre: Play
Publishers: Oxford University Press
Pages: 64

Year of Publication: 1963

Country: Nigeria

Comedic. In the Lion and the Jewel, Wole Soyinka tells a funny story - almost in style of the cunning Ananse folklores told in Ghana - involving four 'main' characters. Sidi is the Jewel: the village's belle whose beauty has been captured by a photographer and published in a magazine. As a result she sees herself as above anyone in the village including Bale Baroka, the Lion of Ilunjinle. Bale Baroka, is the Lion of Ilunjinle and its chief. He has several wives and is courting the love of Sidi, the village's Belle (the Jewel). Lakunle is a young (of twenty three years) bombastic teacher in the village who is bent on bestowing Western culture onto the people of Ilunjinle. In the meantime his priority is to stop the payment of dowry. When in school he wears an old threadbare un-ironed English coat with tie and a waistcoat. And he also loves Sidi. The final major character is Sadiku, the Lion's head wife. She became the head wife because she was the last wife of the previous chief who was succeeded by Baroka, the Lion and as tradition demands, she becomes the head wife of the new chief.

The story opens with Lakunle expressing his love for Sidi and denouncing strongly the payment of dowry. Lakunle describes the custom of dowry payment as

A savage custom, barbaric, out-dated,/Rejected, denounced, accursed,/Excommunicated, archaic, degrading,/Humiliating, unspeakable, redundant./Retrogressive, remarkable, unpalatable ... An ignoble custom, infamous, ignominious... (page 7) 

However, a young girl whose dowry was not paid is seen as she having forced to sell her shame becuase she was not a virgin.

Bale Baroka, the Lion, asked his head wife, whose duty it is to woo any woman the Bale wants for him, to tell Sidi to come for dinner one evening and to express his love for her, on his behalf. This the woman did. However, Sidi who has become famous and so having put on airs, told the woman the Baroka is too old and not fit enough to be her wife.

You waste your breath./Why did Baroka not request my hand/Before the stranger/Brought his book of images?/Why did the Lion not bestow his gift/Before my face was lauded to the world?/Can you not see? Because he sees my worth/Increased and multiplied above his own;/ ... (Sidi, Page 21)

Be just, Sadiku,/compare my image and your lord's -/An age of difference!/See how the water glistens on my face/Like the dew-moistened leaves on a Harmattan morning/But he - his face is like a leather piece/Torn rudely from the saddle of his horse ... /Sadiku, I am young and brimming; he is spent./I am the twinkle of a jewel/But he is the hind-quarters of a lion! (Sidi, Page 22/23)

And this set the stage for the Lion's cunning. Sadiku herself sent Sidi's message to Baroka and he in turn sounded surprised at his own request and told Sadiku of how he is no more a man:

Yes, faithful one, I say it is well./The scorn, the laughter and the jeers/Would have been bitter./Had she consented and my purpose failed,/I would have sunk with shame. ... The time has come when I can fool myself/No more. I am no man, Sadiku. My manhood/Ended near a week ago.

Sadiku, upon hearing this became happy and set out to celebrate though she had promised not to say a word to anyone. In her celebration, through songs, she told Sidi what has happened to the Baroka and how great women are. Sidi then asked Sadiku to help her taunt the weakness that has befallen the Lion by pretending that it was all a mistake when she rejected the Baroka's proposals. However, later we would read that Sidi became the Lion's wife.

Wole Soyinka

Though the storyline is linear as it is in most plays, Soyinka uses the character of Lakunle to greater effect. He mocks the rapid embracement of vapid Western culture through Lakunle, who, using 'big' words, damned all traditional practices. We see that though he was a young man and Sidi loved him, he was never able to take advantage of what was presented him. Sidi was prepared to marry him any day anywhere yet his abhorrence of the payment of dowry was the cause of his loss. So that the Lion, using his wisdom (call it cunning), won the Jewel. Lakunle, however, berated Sidi strongly against her not covering certain parts of her body and her carrying things on her head, which Lakunle claimed, would spoil her spine. He even went ahead to call her 'weaker sex' and 'small mind'. And with these characteristics of Lakunle, he became almost like a caricature with no firm belief.

This is an interesting story written in poetic format: structure, language and delivery.

This being the second African play I have read, I have come to enjoy the genre. This is a book I would recommend to all. I cannot compare it with any of Soyinka's plays (this being the first), however, it is similar in 'effect' to Ola Rotimi's Our Husband has Gone Mad.