Books – Old and New – and Gold

Things Fall Apart

I had the pleasure of meeting with the Scarsdale High School Teachers’ Association book group this afternoon, December 10. They had read Chinua Achebe’s masterful novel, Things Fall Apart, and invited me to talk about that and about Nigeria.

Today I began with a quick overview of Achebe’s biography. Then I quoted Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s introduction for Everyman’s Library edition of The African Trilogy that puts No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God together with Things Fall Apart. She quoted a review that appeared soon after his book came out in 1958. She says, “Achebe, the Times Literary Supplement wrote, had ‘genuinely succeeded in presenting tribal life from the inside.'”

I spoke about the significance of the novel for African literature, drawing on Adichie’s text. Achebe uses African proverbs, tells African stories, and gives us fully developed characters.

Adichie said, “Achebe takes his characters seriously but not too seriously; he finds subtly subversive ways to question them and even laugh at them, and he refuses to rescue them from their foibles.” Okonkwo, the tragic hero of Things Fall Apart, is trapped by his own flaws. Most readers feel some sympathy for him, though many also dislike his behaviour.

For Adichie and other Nigerians growing up 25 or 30 years ago, there were no children’s books written by Nigerians or other Africans who wrote about people like them. So reading Achebe was a revelation.

Today there are many African children’s stories available though more are needed.

Born on a Tuesday

The Nigerian writer Elnathan John has come out with a new novel that takes place in Northern Nigeria, Born on a Tuesday. Ainehi Edoro wrote about it in her blog Brittle Paper. 

She tells us that the Almajiri are the male children sent out to get an education in the Muslim world.

She says, “Born on a Tuesday (which has been lovingly nicknamed #ElnathansBoat on social media) tells the coming of age story of an almajiri boy named Dantala who finds himself caught up in an increasingly radicalized Islamic community. Set in the northern parts of Nigeria, the novel offers a rare glimpse into an underrepresented side of contemporary life in Nigeria.”

It’s true that there is little or nothing I’ve read or come across that depicts life in the north of the country. I’d like to read this – one more on my list! It was published in Nigeria; the author says he is pleased that it’s available first in the country he writes about.

I have a little time. The U.S. edition is not yet out.

Coincidences and Connections

I mentioned Cece, my colleague on the board of the US National Committee for UN Women. She encouraged me to submit my book for the Orange County Literary Guild competition.

Cece told me she heard a speaker, Dr. Anene Ejikeme, a Nigerian woman, who said she knew my husband’s family. Not too surprising. Clem and his brother Geoffrey have been successful, each in their own fields, with Clem in engineering and Geo in medicine.

Clem’s cousin Jonathan was the Bishop and then Archbishop of the Anglican Church in their part of Nigeria, so the best known Onyemelukwe.

I looked up Dr. Ejikeme and found that she is a professor at Trinity College in Texas. She has written several books, including The Art of Nigerian Women. I thought I might buy it for our son Sam for Christmas. I was disappointed to find it’s still in the works and there is a Kickstarter campaign underway to fund the publication.

But I also found that she teaches fascinating courses on African history. And she has an article, “From Traders to Teachers: A History of Elite Women in Onitsha, Nigeria, 1928-1940,” in the Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2011. This coming after the book on Onitsha Market literature from last week! I’m curious what led her to the topic. I will ask.

We Need Communities

“We Need to Create Communities for a Lifetime” is the header of the lead article in an email from the AARP. The title, though not the article is an echo of what I’ve been thinking and writing about in my struggle with race issues. My love of community in Nigeria, in Clem’s village and with his extended family, feeds my soul, makes me eager to visit, and propels my book talks.

Whether I’m speaking about my memoir or sharing information about the country, everyone tells me my enthusiasm comes through.

Philippine Gold

Yesterday I went to New York City to see an exhibit at the Asia Society.

It was a stunning display of gold from the Philippines! Ingrid, who took my friend Marilyn and me on a tour of the exhibit, explained the history of some of the pieces. Many came from graves.

“The regalia, jewelry, ceremonial weapons, and ritualistic and funerary objects attest to the recently uncovered evidence of prosperity and achievement of Philippine polities that flourished between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, long before the Spanish discovered and colonized the region,” their description says.

The intricacy of the designs was amazing. The museum offered large hand-held magnifying glasses to carry along. I used mine extensively.

What have you seen recently that amazed you?