We Need New Names, 2013, Noviolet Bulawayo ****

"We Need New Names" by Noviolet Bulawayo was a compelling read. A fast moving first person narrative through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, Darling, in Zimbabwe. Her life was smooth sailing until her house was demolished, and had to move in with her family to a slum called Paradise. A contradiction in terms, indeed.

Life in Paradise was not bad after all, she made friends: Bastard, pregnant Chipo (though she was only 11), Sbho, Stina and Godknows, with whom she aimlessly roamed the richer neighbourhood in tatters, searching for ripe guavas to steal in order to assuage their hunger. Going to school was out of the question, since all of the teacher have emigrated to neighbouring countries for better pay cheque. What is more, International Aid was their main source of survival. 

As the story unfolds, things went from bad to worse and, fortunate Darling managed to join her aunt in the United States of America. Where she found herself subdued in a cultural conflict, self-loss, missing all she had left behind. Even though, her home country was a scene of abject poverty.

An entertaining read. Though, at first, I was wondering why all the Prizes. However, in the end, I came to realise that it is one special book, whose story clung on for a while after reading. Realistic characters, though, with names that weren't the norm. Additionally, I found something intrinsically despairing with Darling's narrative,  helplessly voicing out her opinions about the world she lives in. The writing style flows easily. It is just amazing how the writer emulated a child in such circumstances.

Noviolet Bulawayo is a talented writer, I am so confident that she would write even better novels in the future. Her first novel is a 2013 Man Booker Prize Nominee, 2013 Guardian First Book Award Nominee, 2013 Winner of Etisalat Prize for Literature and  2014 Pen/Hemmingway Award so far.
Finally, big thank you to the MS/HS library for lending me an electronic copy after I persuaded them to buy one.

I recommend.

Houseboy, 1960, Ferdinand Oyono ***

Houseboy as the title says is the story of a houseboy called Toundi. During the colonial period in Cameroon, he left his parents to work as a domestic male servant for the white men in his village. From one household to another he narrated his experience in form of a diary.

Firstly, he was fascinated by the European way of life; although, gradually, he came to realise that all that glitters was not gold. He saw how the white men patronised and dehumanise his fellow villagers. As a result, he started finding fault with the principles of the "so called" Europeans. Which, unambiguously, led to his downfall.

"Everybody told his own little African story to refute him and demonstrate that the African is a child or a fool....."

In one occasion his adulterous madam once told him

"....you are a conscientious worker... but you haven't got that joy one finds in African workers... You  give the impression that you are doing a houseboy's job while waiting for something else to come along"

Worst of all, Christianity was their perfect weapon to indoctrinate Africans. The same Madam asked Toundi to start forming a family since they were paying him enough. He  replied.

"Perhaps, Madame, but my wife and children will never be able to eat and dress like Madame or like white children"

She replied

"Oh dear, you are getting big ideas. You must be serious. Everyone has their position in life. You are a houseboy, my husband is Commandant... nothing can be done about it. You are a Christian, aren't you"

Another incident was:

"It was terrible. I thought of all the priests, all the pastors, all the white men, who came to save our souls and preach love of our neighbours. Is the white man's neighbour only the white men? Who can go on believing the stuff we are served up in the churches when things happen like I saw today..."

This was not a novel I thoroughly enjoyed; however I recommend it if you want an insight into (pre) colonial Africa. It is as well part of the African Writers Series, click here for more info. Please bear in mind that the novel was originally written in French, in case you might want to read the original version.

My first novel read in 2014, lets see how my reading goes this year. No pressure, please.

Imagine This, 2007, Sade Adeniran ****

A diary entry of Lola Ogunwole, born in England, abandoned by her mother, spent time in foster homes and was finally shipped off to Nigeria with her brother. In Nigeria, she was sent to live in the village with her grandmother while her brother worked like a slave in an uncle's house in the city where he finally kicked the bucket. Lola's life was not any better, only that she did not kick the bucket. In fact, hers was a baptism of fire. Always wretched and hunger-stricken.

She narrates her ordeal in her diary, her plight in the village, in the boarding school and at long last in Lagos. Her father never really cared for her, not even when she lost her only brother. He was hellbent on the fact that the African upbringing experience was absolutely acquired through hardship and pain. In short, nothing good ever happened to Lola. In my opinion the title of this novel should have been "Nothing Good Will Happen" instead of "Imagine This".

Although, I have so far enjoyed novels in epistolary and diary format, "Imagine This" was a bit too much to be in the diary format. The dates were not actually necessary to bear in mind each time you flip through a page. Moreover, a bit of pruning would have done the novel some good. I found Lola re-writing her plight over and again. In spite of that, it was the African Regional Winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize: Best First Book. In addition, I enjoyed the read; though,  it sort of ended in a cliffhanger. I read somewhere that the author is working on the second part of the novel. Hopefully, something good will eventually happen to Lola now that she is a woman.

Finally, it is interesting that stories like this were brought to light. That is, young children that suffer in the name of culture and training. Novels with similar storyline are Powder Necklace by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond  and the award-winning Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Bear in mind that even if there was a good dose of hardship in this novel, it is still a [serious] young adult genre. I would enjoy the second part of the novel more since Lola would be a grown up woman by then.

I recommend.

Diaries of a Dead African, 2003, Chuma Nwokolo, JR. ****

If you say "I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani" was the first novel that expounded on the 419 topic, that is because you have not yet read Diaries of a Dead African. Published six years before. An epistolary novel, a diary entry of a father and his two sons.

To start with, the first entry belongs to the father, Meme Jumai, a poverty-stricken farmer, so wretched that his wife abandoned him and left him with nothing. He barely had enough food to survive on until the next harvest. In his diary, he narrated how his every day survival was a contant struggle and how he gradually turned into a laughing stock of  his village. Firstly, because his wife left him and secondly, because starvation was ridiculously doing away with his life. In fact, it eventually hastened his death.

Next, is the diary of his son Calamatus Jumai, con-man by profession, whose entries I thoroughly enjoyed. He came back to his village Ikerre-Oti to bury his father. However, after reading his father's diary, he felt so sorry for him that he vowed to avenge his death. Unfortunately, he died in the process (as a matter of fact he killed himself) because he felt ashamed when a secret that humiliated his persona was revealed. Just like that all his plans ended in a fiasco.

Then, comes the diary of Abel, Calama's elder brother, a writer that was doomed to failure. He wrote anyway. He was determined not to repeat the same mistakes as his predeceased family members. Even so, there is no way escaping the fact that he was already in a weighty problem when his late brother made him beneficiary of an important 419 bank account.

As I mentioned previously, I took delight in reading Calama's diary; it goes without saying he is my favourite of the three. I found him hilariously funny. He was candid about his business (419er), never kept it secret. And would not mind initiating any one who was willing and has the talent. Sadly, he eventually died in the most piteous way. Few entries from his diary:

......Were you waiting for me to print and post you an invitation for your father's burial? When you heard he was dead, what did you think would follow? Baptism ceremony? Look, carry yourself out of this house before I call my boys, otherwise what will happen to you would surprise you.

Referring to one of his friend in the 419 business,

Despite all his money, FazO had a complex or something. The worst thing he hates is for anyone to call him a thief.... Me, I don't mind if people call me a monkey - so long as I still have my money. 

From one of his letters to his victim:

.....Please don't try to escape with my share of the money. I don't want to arrive in Vegas and start hearing story that you went for summer holiday to Parrot or is it Canary Island.

Diaries of a Dead African could be a  perfect example of what Chinua Achebe was referring to, when he said that English was an international language. That, African writers should use it in a way in so as to deliver their message and carry their African experience. No need to use it as the natives. Nwokolo did just that

I greatly appreciate the fact that there are writers who would risk coming up with a different style of approach. Which, of course is stunningly attractive. This novel was fun, interesting and quite comical. Nothing like anything you have ever read before. I wholeheartedly recommend it to all and sundry.

I first heard about it on Image Nations and it caught my eye.

Zenzele: A Letter For My Daughter, 1996, by J. Nozipo Maraire *****

This is more than five stars read, no way I could do it justice with my review; however, I will endeavour. A Zimbabwean woman writes a letter to her daughter, Zenzele, in a university abroad, discussing issues (social issues) that affects us as Africans. It is an epistolary novel.

She wrote about growing up in a racial segregated Rhodesia and the meaning of being an African woman. Also, about the African culture through the eyes of  Europeans, how underestimated we are to them and how ignorant they are of our civilisation. Again, she expounded on interracial marriages, relationship to other westerners with African heritage and falling in love. Furthermore, she put in writing their fight for liberty, her relationship with God not the European God but God in her own image "dark-skinned Jesus and his Angels". Finally, she narrated about life in the village, there, lay their library and their encyclopedias. The lyrical, the romantic and the tragic that shaped them as Africans.

 "Rhodesia", named after a so called "Cecil Rhodes", was under the predominantly white government. Native Africans were banned from all manner of well being. They were forbidden access to the chick-European suburbs except, of course, they were to work as house maids. They lived in a state of constitutionalised racism that limited their education, laughter, play and pain. All they knew was deprivation, austerity and hard labour. Until, after years of bloodshed and struggles to obtain freedom, they regained their land and put up the name Zimbabwe that gave them the keys to the Kingdom of their country. Nevertheless, in the process of ensuring that their children received every opportunity of the "western privilege" something went wrong. "Well being" was translated into a material definition of success. They all wanted to be like their colonial master instead of cultivating their own culture.

To her mother-in-law to be an African woman means be at peace within, to always listen to that inner voice and not let others take it away from you. To her mother it means to work hard. However, it is left to Zenzele to define herself as the African woman she wants to be.

Most of the times, Zenzele's mother used stories to discuss some of those topics mentioned before. For instance, she wrote her daughter the story of her cousin (mother's cousin) that was sent to UK on a scholarship, awarded by the village people, to study medicine. After many years of isolation living abroad, he came back without a degree. Not just that, he was as well ashamed of Africa in so far as he refused to understand and speak his native language, not even to his mother in her deathbed. He was always on his high horse. When he was queried, he responded

"Proud of what? of the mud huts? of the children running around in rags, playing with rusted tins? of coup after coup? proud of potholes in the streets, queues for sugar, buses that do not work? Is that what I am to hold my head high about?..........Poor beggars, we should be ashamed, not proud!.... the world most miserable excuse for a continent.....a cultural desert and a political swamp... and so on and so forth". 

He was told that he sounded like a parrot of the European anti-African jargon.

She continued:

"Our continent has no life, no definition, and no spirit of its own. It is an object to be acted upon. It needs to be molded, freed, bought, sold, aided, and sabotaged, all at the whim of the benevolent and all-seeing Europeans." 

As Chinua Achebe said and was also repeated in this novel "Until the lion learns to write, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter."

What a brilliantly written novel! Poetic, elegiac and lyrical, full of emotions, inspirations and wisdom. A must read and a re-read. In fact, I highly recommend it to all people of African heritage or simply to all lovers of African Literature.

Actually, J. Nozipo Maraire is a Zimbabwean doctor, married with four children, a full-time practising neurosurgeon. She attended Atlantic College in Wales, received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and went to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. And then completed her neurosurgery training at Yale. She currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to her for writing such a moving novel!

With this I end my reviews for the year 2012!

So Long A Letter, 1979, Mariama Bâ ****

I read this book March 2012, I really liked it. The original book was written in French language. In case you prefer to read it in its original version, I found out late.

As it is written on the book, this is an African Literature classic (just like Things Fall Apart), I think if you love African Literature you should start form both of the books I just mentioned. This is a book that would and could be read even 100 years after its first publishing.

I have to confess that I found it difficult to be hooked with this book in the beginning, but at last I did. It is just a 100 pages novel but it was thick to go through but it really worth all the effort.

I learnt a lot about life, love, relationship. How these change from one generation to another. e.g A woman refers to marriage as - An act of faith and of love, the total surrender of oneself to the person one has chosen and who has chosen you-

Woman's Daughter -Marriage is no chain. It is a mutual agreement over a life's program. SO if one of the partners is no longer satisfied with the union, why should he remain? It may be him, it may be me; Why not? The Wife can take the initiative to break-

This is one of African Classics, as I earlier said, story took place during post-colonialism in Senegal. It is your starting point to African Literature. I admire everything about this book.