Reading the Caine Prize Shortlists

A blogger friend asked me once whether I've read the winning story of this year's Caine Prize. I was ashamed to have responded in the negative. Consequently, I have decided to read all the shortlisted stories from 2009 to 2011, the ones I have (or have downloaded). Reviews would be posted every Wednesday and Saturday till I complete them all.

About the Prize: The first prize was awarded in 2000, at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair 2000 in Harare, and the 2001 Prize at the Nairobi Book Fair in September 2001. The winner is announced at a dinner in Oxford in July, to which the shortlisted candidates are all invited. This is part of a week of activities for the candidates, including bookreadings, booksignings and press opportunities. (Read more here)

Proverb Monday, #36

Proverb: Aboa no pε kɔkɔɔ ayε nti na ɔde ne ho kɔtwere sie.
Meaning: An animal that wants to become red, rubs itself against an anthill.
Context: If you want to achieve something, you take actions necessary to do so*.

No. 943 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

*If you want to achieve something you go to where you can achieve it or you associate with the right people or individuals who can offer that help (my own interpretation).

Quotes for Friday from Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah

Homeward-bound from your great hunt, the carcass of an elephant on your great head, do you now dally on the way to pick up a grasshopper between your toes? Page 30

I have never seen the sense in sleeping with people. A man should wake up in his own bed. A woman likewise. Whatever they choose to do prior to sleeping is no reason to deny them that right. Page 37

[P]ower is like marrying across the Niger; you soon find yourself paddling by night. Page 45

Worshipping a dictator is such a pain in the ass. It wouldn't be so bad if it was merely a matter of dancing upside down  on your head. With practice anyone could learn to do that. The real problem is having no way of knowing from one day to another, from one minute to the next, just what is up and what is down. Page 45

Chris has a very good theory, I think, on the military vocation. According to this theory military life attracts two different kinds of men: the truly strong who are very rare, and the rest who would be strong. The first group make magnificent soldiers and remain good people hardly ever showing let alone flaunting their strength. The rest are for the swank. Page 46

Nations ... were fostered as much by structures as by laws and revolutions. These structures where they exist now are the pride of their nations. But everyone forgets that they were not erected by democratically-elected Prime Ministers but very frequently by rather unattractive, bloodthirsty medieval tyrants. The cathedrals of Europe, the Taj Mahal of India, the pyramids of Egypt and the stone towers of Zimbabwe were all raised on the backs of serfs, starving peasants and slaves. Our present rulers in Africa are in every sense late-flowering medieval monarchs, even the Marxists among them. Do you remember Mazrui calling Nkrumah a Stalinist Czar? Perhaps our leaders have to be that way. Perhaps they may even need to be that way. Page 76

That every woman needs a man to complete her is a piece of male chauvinist bullshit I had completely rejected before I knew there was anything like Women's Lib. You often hear people say: But that's something you picked up in England. Absolute rubbish! There was enough male chauvinism in my father's house to last me seven reincarnations! Page 88

There is no universal conglomerate of the oppressed. Free people may be alike everywhere in their freedom but the oppressed inhabit each their own peculiar hell. Page 99

[T]he cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood. You should be proud that this bright cockerel that wakes the whole village comes from your compound. Page 122

When a rich man is sick a beggar goes to visit him and say sorry. When the beggar is sick, he waits to recover and then goes to tell the rich man that he has been sick. It is the place of the poor man to make a visit to the rich man who holds the yam and the knife. Page 127

A man whose horse is missing would look everywhere even in the roof. Page 177
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Read the review here

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

93. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini's debut novel, The Kite Runner (2003; 391), could easily pass as the best non-African authored book I've read this year, if not for 1984. The novel tracks the life and friendship of two individuals, Amir - the son of a Kabul merchant - and Hassan, the child of their servant, Ali as they grow in the affluent suburb of Wazir Akbar Khan District of Kabul. As their friendship unfolds, the history of a land that has been plagued by local and international wars unfolds. In fact, it is this very wars, leading to the overthrow of monarchs and governments, that dictated how the friendship between these two individuals went. Yet, the precursor of all the events is the age old tradition or practice of discrimination based on physical features.

Amir has slim face and nose and is a Pashtun so is considered to be aristocratic, worthy of ruling the land and Hassan his friend has a moon-shaped face, slit-eyes and a Hazara so is cast to be a servant forever. With only a year separating their births, Hassan - the younger - and Amir continued the friendship between Amir's father, Baba, and Hassan's father, Ali. Yet Ali and his son Hassan knew their place in Baba's household, always keeping to their hut and coming to the main house to only to serve. Though Amir plays with Hassan he actually does not consider him to be his friend; yet the latter is absolutely loyal to the former. 

Everything changed the day Hassan won the Kite championship. Hassan - an experienced kite runner - decided to bring Amir the last kite he cut that gave him the title to be kept as his trophy. When Amir followed Hassan and saw what Assef and his two friends were doing to Hassan, he stood aloof. Afraid. Did nothing. Saw the chance to claim his father's sole attention. And took it.

May be Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn't he?

Amir's inability to redeem himself led to more problems and complications. Later, accused of theft, Ali and Hassan left the Amir's household.

After a series of political upheavals and revolutions Baba and Amir moved to America. Living a fulfilled life in America, Amir received a call from his father's partner Rahim Khan offering Amir the chance 'to be good again'. This call took him back to Afghanistan through Pakistan to correct a past wrong; to uncover family secrets; to identify who he really is and if all his life has been lived in lies. 

Behind all these is the story of a country that was changing from a peaceful, stable, economically active country into a country whose name would forever remain synonymous with war, shari'a, death, foreign invasion and more. Khaled Hosseini traced the history of Afghanistan from the 1960s when the country was ruled by a monarch to the period of American invasion and the overthrow of the Taliban. Beginning with a fully-running country where religion is not a problem, the story ended with a country in ruins and desolation; a country where common food is the preserve of the elite rulers and their bootlickers; a country where people are stoned to death for not wearing the hijab. All because individuals and countries always think that they know what is best for this country. From the overthrow of the King, the entry of the Mujahideen, the Russians, the Alliance troops, the Taliban and finally the Americans, Khaled Hosseini shows how each of these groups and countries contributed to the ruins within which Afghanistan finds itself today.

Written in the first person, without unnecessary flamboyancy, Khaled has written a book that would remain with the reader for a long period of time. This is a story that teaches a lot and opens eyes. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see more than the current Afghanistan we know and want to know how the Afghanistan we now know came to be. I look forward to reading his A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Proverb Monday, #35

Proverb: W'anka sε wonie a, obi renka sε wowɔ hɔ
Meaning: If you don't say you are here, no one will say you are there
Context: If you don't stand up for yourself, no one else will

No. 4444 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Library Additions

Few books have come into my possession which I would love to share with you. As always.

• Harare North by Brian Chikwava. Having been described as one of the 'exciting new generation of African writers' Brian Chikwava has moved on from strength to strength ever since he won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2004 with his short story Seventh Street Alchemy. Brian has been one of the most recommended authors to ImageNations and even though I took the recommendations seriously the book proved elusive until I visited the Silverbird Lifestyle Shop located within the Accra Mall. What I have is a beautifully bound book (hardcover, of course!) from the stables of Jonathan Cape selling at GHC 28.5 or US$ 19. My only encounter with Chikwava is through his short story The Wasp and the Fig tree published at the Granta magazine.
• Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. Mahfouz is a Nobelist. What more there is to say? His book Cairo Trilogy of which Palace Walk is the first is also on my list of Top 100 Books. Besides, since I have not read the required three authors to effectively take a country out of the Africa Reading Challenge, this book would also qualify for this challenge, that is if I read it in time.
• A Place of a Beautiful Nonsense by Alba Kunadu Sumprim. This is a new book by the author of The Imported Ghanaian. I have to really talk about this book (before reviewing it) in my new books category. I have known the author for a while now and the day she read this book to me, one-on-one, I told her 'you've sold me'. It's a graphic representation of life in Ghana written in satire. She illustrated the book herself.
• The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Who wouldn't buy this book, a book that had sparked several controversies, a book that led the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to issue a fatwa on the author on February 14, 1989. This is the greatest valentine a writer could ever have in his writing career. I haven't read any Rushdie and though I have Fury it is an Advanced Reviewers Copy and I have certain fear of ARCs; a fear that they might not be the final deed. If read before the issue, good. But after the final publication? not for me! I hope to enjoy this book. And by the way it is also hard-cover. The book is also on my Top 100 Books to be read list.
• Theatre by  William Somerset Maugham. This author was recommended to me by Kinna of Kinna Reads when I was preparing my Top 100 Books Challenge. And since Kinna never really mentioned any particular book of his and so I supposed that any book I pick would be okay. Consequently, I added Of Human Bondage and The Moon and Sixpence to this challenge. However, having found Theatre means that at least I can replace one of the books on the list. Thanks Kinna and I hope it doesn't disappoint me.
• The Godfather by Mario Puzo. After watching the three-part movie I decided to read his books but I have not been able to actualise it; however, now that I have the book on my shelf I believe I am a step away from this.
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I know you have started scratching your head, asking if this reader is serious. I am, dear reader, very serious. In Dan Brown I am not seeking exquisite prose. If this is what I want I would go to Proust, Flaubert, et al. In Brown, I seek controversy, issues that could require further research. I read and loved Da Vinci Code; through this book I came to know Phi (the golden number that is so rampant in nature), fibonacci sequence, Priori of Sion (whether they existed or not), and many other things. 

These are the books I have acquired and my reason for purchasing them. Reviews of these would be posted here though considering my 'almost' chronological reading pattern, it might take some time. Though sometimes my mood changes and I choose a recently-acquired book for reading.

Quotes for Friday from Mema by Daniel Mengara

[Y]ou can say that the person over there was my wife, but you can never say that the person standing over there was my brother, my mother or my father.  (Page 24)

Wisdom has spoken through your mouth and we all know wisdom is sacred. (Page 25)

We have come to beg back our daughter and wife. And we are doing so openly. Is there shame in begging for what you have lost in foolishness? (Page 26)

In the privacy of the bedroom, however, women were said to be the real masters of the household. It is in the secrecy of the conjugal room and bed that the real decisions were made, and such decisions, the rumour went, were decisions imposed upon the village by women. Women ran the village, but gave the men the false honour of carrying the empty title of leaders of their households in public. (Page 33)

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Read the review here

92. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe

Title: Anthills of the Savannah

Author: Chinua Achebe

Genre: Fiction/Tragedy/Politics

Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 233

Year of First Publication: 1987

Country: Nigeria

Anthills of the Savannah, a 1987 Booker Shortlist, is the fifth book of Achebe's oeuvre I have read. This novel is quite different from the first four of Achebe's books in terms of the narrative style, the prose, the setting and to some extent the theme. Had Achebe not written Things Fall Apart  and my favourite The Arrow of God, this book alone would have established the Man Booker International Prize winner (2007) as one of Africa's literary giants.

In this very unique novel, Achebe treats the issue of despots, male chauvinism and power from a rather different and unexpected perspective. He opens up the struggles that goes on behind the power scenes and how easily an innocent, generally good individual could easily transmogrify into an absolutely demented despot. Anthills of the Savannah is a tale of three friends: Sam, Ikem and Chris and the girlfriends of the last two: Elewa and Beatrice (BB) respectively. The story begins with Sam as the head-of-state following a coup d'etat. Sam is an army General and since his school days has never failed in anything he does. And so could take any advice and follow through with success and he did when he 

fell [...] under the spell of [their] English headmaster who fought the Italians in Abyssinia in 1941 and had a sword from an Ethiopian prince

and so enrolled in the cadet corps in the country and went on to train in Sandhurst. As head-of-state with democratic tendencies in a military rule, his colleagues encouraged him to seek 'life presidency' through a referendum. Though this was not his original idea and he initially resented it (and Chris, the Commissioner for Information and Ikem, the editor of the National Gazette were both against it), it was the unsuccessful bid for this life presidency coupled with other events that set the platform that would eventually lead to tragic events for these three Lord Lugard College friends. 

However, when Sam got to know, through these other 'colleagues' that his childhood friends were jealous of him because they think they were the ones who should have been occupying his current position as head-of-state, he decided to assert himself and put them in their proper place. First Ikem was suspended and Chris refused to write the suspension letter. He was later accused of organising thugs and presenting them to His Excellency as people from Abazon who want to meet the head-of-state to talk about the drought in their area. Abazon, an area north of Kangan - the fictional country where the story is set had earlier resisted the president's quest for life-presidency. This 'subversive' behaviour invigorated with a speech Ikem gave at a university. According to the State Research Council, he had advocated for 'regicide' when after his lecture a student had asked him if it were true that the Central Bank of Kangan was working to put the president's image on the nation's currency, to which Ikem had answered

Yes I heard of it like everybody else. Whether there is such a plan or not I don't know. All I can say is I hope the rumour is unfounded. My position is quite straightforward especially now that I don't have to worry about being Editor of the Gazette. My view is that any serving President foolish enough to lay his head on a coin should know he is inciting people to take it off; the head I mean.

So when after several vain calls through to Ikem the next day, Chris and Beatrice visited Ikem's apartment only to be informed by his neighbour that Ikem was taken in handcuffs the night before in a military Jeep, Chris new that his friend was in danger. And when it was reported that 

In the scuffle that ensued between Mr Osodi and his guards in the moving vehicle Mar Osodi was fatally wounded by gunshot

he knew Ikem Osodi had been murdered and that his own life is in danger, after all 

[I]nvestigations are still proceeding with a view to uncover all aspects of the plot and to bring to book any other persons or persons, no matter how highly placed, involved in this treasonable conspiracy...

This set a series of tragic events that involved a nurse, a student leader, Chris, Elewa and Beatrice, leading to the denouement. Chris had to travel incognito out of Bassa, the capital of Kangan. And this particular section of story is similar to what Achebe's country man, Wole Soyinka, had to go through as set out in his memoir You Must Set Forth at Dawn. 

Though a significant portion of the novel was narrated by an omniscient narrator, the narrative started off in the first person with Christoper Oriko, Ikem Osodi and Beatrice telling their individual stories on how they became involved in Sam's government and how deep their friendship ran with several tangential stories all linked to the main story. The narrative also made sparing use of punctuations and though I was worried a bit, it accentuated its literariness. There were some places that I felt the author's quest to achieve literary 'gemstones' were overstretched, thus sacrificing ease of comprehension to beauty of language. It was as if, Achebe, set out to make Anthills of the Savannah a literary masterpiece and it is therefore not a wonder that it made the Booker Shortlist.

However, is there any Achebe that isn't worth the read? If so, I have not yet come across one even as I work gradually into his works.

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Brief Bio: Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe (born 16 November 1930) popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist". In 2011, The Guardian of London named An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books ever written.(Source: Wikipedia; edited links)

ImageNations' Rating: 5.5/6.0

91. Eno's Story by Ayodele Olofintuade

Title: Eno's Story

Author: Ayodele Olofintuade

Illustrator: Bolaji Liadi

Genre: Children Fiction
Publishers: Cassava Republic

Pages: 46

Year of First Publication: 2010

Country: Nigeria

Eno's Story by Ayodele Olofintuade is anything but a 'child's' story. It is our story: the story of adults, the story of men, the story of women, the story of pastors, the story of traditional leaders, the story of humanity. It is THE story, one worth being told and Ayodele has done it with finesse.

In few and simple words Ayodele has tackled one of the most widespread problem facing 21st Century Africa, a continent with a high rate of technological advancement that is perhaps paralleled only by the rate of growth of churches. Thus, in Africa the collision between science and religion has begun and representatives from both sides have questioned the others capability to question its importance. Yet, when an institution that literally preaches superior moral uprightness leave sloughs of castaways in the wake of its growth, one cannot but question its own morality and responsibility to the people it serves. Though the motive of churches has always been to fight the evilness of traditional practices - as is their claim - it is this same belief (in evilness and their ability to spot them) that has given credence to traditional practices and beliefs, thus exacerbating the problem of witch-labelling. So that today, the belief in witches and the ability to spot witches, not from a reference manual like malleus maleficarum, but from simple behaviours and characters has led to several children and adults been cast out from the society within which they live. Most of the time, and like in previous times, people with exceptional abilities are considered witches. This is the theme of Eno's Story.

Eno has been tagged a witch by her uncle though to her father Eno is a princess. Her uncle points to Eno's mental ability, coming first in class after staying a month away from school, her love for cats and the passing away of her mother as that which make her a witch. So when Eno's father did not return home one day, her uncle was left to his devices to confront Eno's witchery. Sent to a pastor for deliverance, Eno's life spiralled downwards until she ended up in an uncompleted building.

The beauty of this story lies in the point of view of its narration and its ability to reduce a national problem (disgrace) to its barest threads - stupidity. Most stories treating this subject are told from the adults' point of view or are treated with the heavy-handedness that it deserves, rubbishing the practice without showing how the young 'witches' feel or think of their new supernatural status. And this is what Ayodele has tackled with finesse. And to think that she did this with several doses of satire capable of making uninquiring minds bow in shame, makes the story enjoyable. For it was fun reading what Eno would have done had she had the power to make things happen as she was being accused of.

Complete with illustrations and targeting children between four and (perhaps) ten, Eno's story is germane to recent sightings of archaic practices, practices that cannot stand up to a 21st Century world and writing it for children, Ayodele presents us with a unique opportunity to solving this problem at root level before it should blossom in the minds of future adults.

Eno's Story was shortlisted for the NLNG Prize - the Nigerian prize for Literature. 

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Brief Bio: Born in Ibadan in the early 70's, Ayodele Olofintuade spent her holidays with her grandfather who lived a stone's throw from Olumo Rock. He nurtured her young mind by making her read Yoruba classics like Ireke Onibudo, Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje, Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irumole to him. She read Mass Communication at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu.

She is a teacher and editor, who has been a graphic artist, sales girl, cybercafe attendant, dance instructor, librarian and information technology teacher. She has worked with children in one capacity or the other in the past 13 years and is a volunteer counsellor at Salt 'n' Light camp, a camp for teenagers for close to 10 years. She is passionate about children and their issues.

She is the mother of two boys, 13-year-old Alexander and 17-month-old Ifeoluwakiisa. She presently works in Ibadan International School as a Creative Writing teacher and lives with her children and her cat, Kit-Kat.

ImageNations Rating: 5.5/6.0

Ayodele has agreed to be interviewed on ImageNations.

Proverb Monday, #34

Proverb: ɔdomankoma Wuo nyε obi a yεne no di kamamenka
Meaning: Almighty Death is not a person we play with
Root and Context: Someone once took Death to Court, saying he had not been given notice of his intent. Death replied that he had given it, but had been ignored. The person had had many illnesses and by going to the doctor, had got adjournments. Now the court would allow no more. Hence: Death's final judgement cannot be appealed against.

No. 2247 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Quotes for Friday from Lewis Nkosi's Underground People

When the girl departed, leaving behind the smell of jasmine and eau-de-cologne, the two men watched her intently as she sashayed down the aisle of the plane, her marvellously rounded buttocks growing separate and independent with each step, suggesting something dull and Dutch, but also African, supple and graceful, a certain heathenish mobility of the body, as if responding to the subtle rhythms of the African tom-tom.

Page 34

Living under the same roof, even sleeping in the same bed, doesn't necessarily mean closeness. The way I look at it, it's simply a way for one of the couple to enforce marital obedience.

Page 110

Darling, you must always insist on having a seat next to a woman when you travel. The worst a woman can do is fall asleep on your shoulder and snore throughout your night flight!

Page 114

It's not that the men are afraid of death. It's only that, well, a snake crawls on its belly and has eyes that can look backwards.

Page 192

The day you come across my uncle Sekala no-one will need to point him out to you! Try to imagine a monster six-foot-ten, with a face like a train locomotive or the front of Mount Taba Situ, and you have the exact image of my uncle. Children have been known to cry when he has but looked at them; an attempt at a smile from him is likely to send children running for shelter behind their mother's skirts. When he makes a joke he smiles so hard that his eyes seem to close up and vanish, bringing to perfection his exceptional ugliness!

Page 195

Tense, hostile and jittery, they huddled around the mouth of the rock, listening to the sounds of the bush and the strain on their nerves was worse than on the two men who had already entered the cave; for in a time of danger action is an antidote to fear while inactivity paralyses the brain.

Page 205

In an age gone by, but not really so long ago that we cannot remember, when our fathers fought they titlted their spears against an enemy that could be seen, men with flesh and blood and bones like ourselves, not ghosts that, when they are challenged, melt into darkness!

Page 206

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Read the review here.

90. Mema by Daniel Mengara

Title: Mema

Author: Daniel Mengara

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 122

Year of First Publication: 2003

Country: Gabon

Read for the Africa Reading Challenge

Mema is a reflective novel in the first person. It's about a young boy recollecting the days of his childhood and of his village and how things have perhaps changed. However, the novel is more than just the reflections and recollections of a young boy. Through this reflections and recollections, Elang Sima - the narrator, tells of how his mother whom he referred to only as Mema remained strong - physically and emotionally - in all her decisions, refusing to succumb to traditional roles and societal pressures.

Mema is known to be strong, bold and irrepressible. She has the proclivity to play all the manly roles in her household, caring not what others would think of her. She attended all medzo instead of her husband and she was fluent, traditionally, interspersing her innuendo speeches with proverbs and wise-sayings. Because of these characteristics she was both loved and hated with equal measure. According to the latter group, her haters, she was a witch. How a woman could virtually beat her husband was beyond comprehension. Then her husband falls sick suddenly, and after she had taken him to all places she knew and done all she could but to no avail, she decided to send her husband to the one place left to be visited - the mimbiri camp. She was advised, diplomatically and physically, not to send her husband to the mimbiri camp for they are evil. Paying no heed to the incessant calls and pulling a machete to kill anyone who stands in her way, Mema takes her husband to this place where he would never return. A day after Mema's husband's death, both of her daughters also died. With the convergence of events, she was labelled a witch and was treated with silent malevolence for none was bold enough to face her. The rest of the novel narrates how Mema resolved to protect this particular narrator - Elang Sima - making sure that he receives the 'white man's education' so that he could become an important person in future like Osuga Zame, the eldest son and child of Mema's husband's sister, who was fighting over her uncle's children with Mema.

The narrator was entirely not sure of what he could remember and uses a lot of repetition to create emphasis, as if telling himself that's the truth. And even though the book is slim at 122 pages, the repetition affected nothing. A lot is packed within this pages as we get to know how the village court is organised and how language plays an important role in such courts. The narrator also pushed to the fore the traditional mode of marriage contraction. Thus, against these background the reader is able to infer that there are changes taking place within the community. The beginning of the story is a bit deceptive and veers off from the main story. 

In the beginning, Daniel Mengara, allowed the narrator to tell us the background to his village and his people. The fact that they fought for the Fulassi people who 'are white people, just like the Dzaman and the Nguess'. If knowledge of the local language is anything to go by Dzaman would be the German people, the Nguess would be English and Fulassi, French. In a few paragraphs we are told how the Ngabone gained their independence after the big war. However, by writing in this fashion, several seemingly unlinked stories within the story, Mengara weaved a narrative tapestry that is an exemplification of his description of how his people. My only problem is that we didn't get to know of his other surviving brother as the story was concentrated on him and the mother keeping all others almost on the periphery.

This novel could be read in a single sitting. The poetic prose is beautiful and the traditional stories told to advice would lull ones senses. Yet, they don't descend into the hut-and-calabash archetypal stories of Africa. They represent the curve of transition that was taking place and consequently was more of a marriage or a cross between the old and the new. The results of which is Mema, a novel that is wise. I loved the strong woman the most as she represents today's African woman, not the type always typified in such h-a-c novels; the kind who bows to husband abuse and malevolence; the kind who puts their survival in the man's whimsical heart. Mema was not any of these mis-representations. Mema is the woman I saw in the university, those I meet at work and on the streets; the ones who would take the local economy by the horn, even with their little or no education, selling whatever is saleable to earn a living.

Mema by Daniel Mengara is a must read.

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Brief Bio: Mengara Daniel was born in a small poor village in the Department of Minvoul north of Gabon. At the end of his primary school in Newton Minvoul, he enrolled at the College of Jesus and Mary Bitam and colleges and Bessieux Quaben Libreville. He received his literary Bac in 1987. After a degree in English Studies at the University Omar Bongo in 1990, he continued his studies at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis in France. From there, he obtained an MA (1991), a DEA (1992) and a Ph.D. in New Plan Study English in 1995. Since 1996, Daniel Mengara is Professor of Language Studies French and Pedagogy of French at Montclair State University in New Jersey (USA). He has published numerous articles and books including two novels, Mema (English, 2003) and The Song of chimpanzees (2008). In 1997, he founded the Society of Research on African Cultures (Sorace) in New Jersey with a view to promote and work towards the rediscovery of the historical and cultural heritage of Africa. Mengara Daniel is 42 years old. He is married and a father. Daniel Mengara has been the presidential candidate for the BDP against Ali Bongo in 2009, after the death of Omar Bongo. (Source: Translated from French using the Google translate service)

ImageNations: 4.5/6.0

July in Review, Projections for August

July, the beginning of the next half of the year, wasn't that bad in terms of reading though comparatively it was not up to the standards of January. In all I read four books:

• Dew in the Morning by Shimmer Chinodya: This is about a young boy writing about his village and the changes it has gone through, morally, culturally and environmentally. This book effectively takes Zimbabwe out of the African Reading Challenge; thus, any subsequent book I read by a Zimbabwean would not be recognised as part of the ARC since I have read more than three authors from that country.
• 1984 by George Orwell: This was read for the Top 100 Reading Challenge. 1984 is a dystopian novel about the future of the world if the rhetoric and ideologies being promoted or bandied about are implemented fully. It also shows how leaders think and uses fear and obfuscation to deceive the ruled to propagate their self-interest. After reading Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and 1984 I look forward to reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
• Underground People by Lewis Nkosi: This novel captures the last stages of the fight against apartheid. Here, Nkosi brings to the reader a serious issue written almost like a satire with a school teacher turning into a commander of guerrilla fighters. It easily passes as the best book I have read this year.
• Mema by Daniel Mengara. Read for the Africa Reading Challenge, the author is from Gabon and it's the first Gabonese novel I have read. A series of reflections by a young boy. The reflections are mostly about his childhood home and his mother who resisted all external pressure and threat to keep him to her. A full review will be posted on this blog in the coming days.
• I also reviewed Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Weep Not Child though this novel was not read within the month, or even year, under review. In this review I basically looked at the importance names play in Ngugi's novel and how much a part blacks played (and still play) in the master-servant tango that has plagued the continent for so many years. 

In all I read a 915 pages, which is almost three times what I did in June. I also go an autographed copy of Fiona Leonard's novel The Chicken Thief, the only BOOK I purchased in the month of July. Thinking about it, I forgot to buy myself a book on my birthday; something I have been doing for the past two years. Finally, I also edited two short-stories I have written.

August would see me reading Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah a book I purchased in 2010. It would be my fifth Achebe. I would also be reading Neo-Colonialism the last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president. Following would be The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and a collection of short stories edited by Yvonne Vera titled Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing. If things go as planned I would add Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner to the list of books.

These are just projections and could change depending on my mood and my reading habit.

Proverb Monday, #33

Proverb: Ekuro wu a, na dwoa ahwete
Meaning: If a sore heals, the inflammation in the gland disappears
Context: If a major event is settled, the smaller problems cease to exist

No. 2247 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.