Nigerian Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set to release a new novel titled Dream Count after 11 years.

On the night of October 1st, 2024, marking Nigerian Independence Day, news burst across the internet, especially on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the best-selling author of Americanah, was set to release a new novel after 11 years. This wasn’t just an announcement of a new book to hit the shelves but a celebration for fans of the writer who could not contain their joy after a long wait.  Although no novels had been published in 11 years, Chimamanda had released short stories, essays and even a children’s book in the past years.

What is Dream Count About?

It is a story of four Nigerian women with interconnected lives, navigating loves, longings, and desires. Here is the synopsis:

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America—but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

According to the publisher, Penguin Random House,

When is Dream Count Coming Out?

The novel will be released on March 4, 2025. Preorders are now available for interested readers.

How many pages is Dream Count?

The Penguin Random House website states that the novel is 416 pages long, promising readers an extended immersion in Chimamanda’s writing.

How can you Buy Dream Count?

The book will not be out until next year. However, you can start preordering from the Penguin Random House website. 

What other books has Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Written?

She has written several, from full-length novels to short stories and essays published in the New York Times and even a children’s book.

Here is a list of books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

• Purple Hibiscus (2023)
• Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
• The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)
• Americanah (2013)
• We Should All Be Feminists (2014)
• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions  (2017)
• Notes on Grief  (2021)
• Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (2023)

Chimamanda, one of the most revered Nigerian writers, also occasionally held writing workshops to help Nigerian writers better their craft. One of these workshops produced the writer of Blessings, Chukwuebuka Ibeh.

Also Read: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Advice on Writing Like A Nobel Laureate

The post What to Know About Chimamanda’s New Novel ‘Dream Count’ appeared first on Creative Writing News.

Zambian Award-Winning Author Mubanga Kalimamukwento has announced her forthcoming book, Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies.

The 2024 Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner‘s new book, Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies, is a multi-lingual, hybrid collection of essays and poems that encapsulates a kaleidoscope of emotions: at once self-excavation and epitaph, exhumation and burial song. These words are a conversation between the present and the past.

“…joy wilts, Dust to dust, the preacher calls it Ashes to ashes, as mwana tosses it mangles itself inside her nostrils now the aroma of starved earth, the brilliant white of a mother’s new coffinment waiting to receive it.”

Kalimamukwento deftly navigates the aftermath of devastating personal losses, particularly that of her mother. Through them, she invites readers to reflect on their own experiences of loss and the enduring impact of familial bonds.

About the Author

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian poet; her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in the Tusculum Review, Contemporary Verse 2, and Passengers Journal and has been translated into Italian by Menelique. She won the 2021 Deborah Keenan Poetry Scholarship and the 2022 Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Prize, selected by Carmen Giménez. Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies Shortlisted for the 2023 (Center for African American Poetry and Poetics) CAAPP Book Prize. 

Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies comes out in April 2025 and is now available for preorder

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Ben Peter,an internationally known business executive and leadership scholar, has just released two inspirational non-fiction titles. His new books are titled, Get Set, March and Clearing Your Mental Deck.

Both books are a must-read for everyone who wants to excel in business, and life as a whole. This prolific author, and business development expert outperformed himself. If you’ve read many of Ben Peter’s works, you’ll definitely agree.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading business strategists, Ben Peter has helped countless people to reignite their passion for life through:

• health products,
• live events,
• personal mentoring,
• and coaching.

He is a Professor of Management and also the Chairman and CEO of five privately held companies. Ben Peter has a Ph.D. and an MBA in Business Management, and over fifteen years’ experience in the financial services, motivational speaking and coaching, pharmaceutical, healthcare, education, and direct selling industries.

Ben’s personal life story has been a source of immense inspiration to so many people. He believes that working hard is not enough. You have got to work smart with a high dose of discipline and willingness to be intentional with every goal and vision of greatness you have. His books also carry that same philosophy.

Enough About The Author. Let’s Discuss Get Set March and Clearing Your Mental Deck.What Are They About?

Book Description Of Get Set, March By Ben Peter.

This book was written to help readers understand the importance of building a thought process, which is an essential foundation for successfully executing a winning strategy for your vision. Success in any feat is usually a thought away.

The quality of your thoughts ultimately becomes a guiding path for your actions and eventual outcome. It is vital you pause at the end of each chapter to reflect on the nuggets of truth learned while reading this book.

Get Set March will teach you how to:

• apply these principles practically to your organization or any organized system
• see how these principles will be instrumental to your progress,
• focus on the process of creating a vision of what you want,
• accomplish your vision.

The goal of this book is to help you simplify every crucial part of your project, from the conception phase to the execution phase. Too much complexity can also hamper the success of a good project plan.

The entire process of strategic implementation, from the conception stage to the project closure, is made up of critical stages that must be appropriately implemented with caution. Every step has its unique methods.

Get Set, March! is available on Amazon  and Okadabooks

A Synopsis Of Clearing Your Mental Deck

Many people are constantly on a quest to find the secret to achieving self-actualization, which is a term synonymous with success in life. The reality is that,success in life is firstly, a product of how you think and then secondly, of what you do.

Your thoughts determine your actions. We become what we think about. We manifest physically and constantly behold our minds.  

That is why this book, Clearing Your Mental Deck, has been put together to help you truly concentrate on arriving at the most important attributes that help every human attain their greatest desires. These attributes are considered by many people as the most important qualities that help us, not only to become successful, but also to attain self-actualization.

This book is currently available on Okadabooks

 Want to read more from Ben Peter. Here’s a list of books authored by Ben Peter:

• Build Up.
• The Money Cook Book.
• Principles of the Top.
• Money Code (co-authored with Charles E. Eromosele)

 If you have inquiries about the author or his works, send a DM to his publishers, Purple Shelves Publishing House. Their twitter handle is: @PurpleShelves.

I’m off to purchase my own copies of Get Set March and Clearing Your Mental Deck.

How about you? You can post your reviews of the books in the comments section. Or you can email them to CWN. We’ll be glad to publish them.

The post Everything You Need To Know About Ben Peter’s New Titles, Get Set, March And Clearing Your Mental Deck appeared first on Creative Writing News.

Electric Literature’s The Commuter is now accepting submissions of poetry and graphic narratives for publication. The magazine will pay $100 for accepted works. The deadline for submissions is, Monday, December 23rd, 2019.

Who is Eligible to Submit:

• Anyone writing in English.
• There is no submission fee.

How to Submit:

• Poetry: Submit 3-5 poems in a single document. The submission must not exceed 8 pages in total.
• Graphic Narratives: Either traditional or non-traditional forms of visual storytelling, submit no more than 3 pieces of narrative illustration, comics, or mixed media narrative.
• For comics, each piece should contain no less than 3 panels.
• The total page count of your submission (Graphic Narrative) should not be more than 15 pages.
• Submissions close by Monday, December 23rd, 2019.
• Submit here.

Payment:

• $100 for accepted works.

The post The Commuter is Now Accepting Poems and Graphic Narratives/ How to Submit (Payment: $100). appeared first on Creative Writing News.

From the author of the controversial church erotica, Holy Sex, and the conspiracy thriller, Satans & Shaitans, comes the new novel Colours of Hatred. We can’t wait to witness Obinna Udenwe’s magical storytelling, with plot twists that intrigue and enthrall us.

About This Wonderful Book:

On her deathbed, Leona seeks forgiveness by confessional. Dastardly as the sin is, it is an act of love, loyalty, disobedience, and perceived fairness. How did she get here, where she, an internationally renowned model, is forced to kill her father-in-law to avenge her mother’s death?

Set against a background of real events, Colours of Hatred, from Parrésia Publishers, is a complex web of plots detailing a woman’s journey from childhood through the fire and anvil of love, loss, betrayal, lust, and duty. Colours of Hatred is being published by Parresia Books.

About the Author:

Obinna Udenwe is the author of the award-winning conspiracy thriller, Satans & Shaitans, and the controversial church erotica, Holy Sex. He is the co-founder of The Village Square Journal – a magazine of contemporary literature, art and politics. His works have been published in journals and magazines across the globe, including: Prairie Schooner, Munyori Literary Journal, The Temz Review, and many more; and have been anthologized in Africa Roar, The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story Vol 1 & 2 etc. He is the editor of the anthology, Voices from My Clan and a co-editor of all three editions of Ebedi Review – an in-house magazine of the Ebedi Writers Residency. He won the ANA Prize for Prose Fiction 2015 and the Short Story is Dead Prize 2016.

Though Colours of Hatred won’t be available in bookstores until Monday, January 20, 2020, to be one of the first to own this nice novel, you can pre-order it, beginning Wednesday, December 4, 2019.

Pre-ordered copies will be personally signed by the author and will contain the buyers’ personalized messages

Click HERE to Pre-Order Colours of Hatred by Obinna Udenwe.

I’m off to pre-order mine. And you?

The post New Awesome Book Alert: Colours of Hatred by Obinna Udenwe (Now Available For Pre-order). appeared first on Creative Writing News.

From Parrésia Publishers—the publishers of T. J. Benson’s We Won’t Fade into Darkness, and Onyeka Nwelue’s The Beginning of Everything Colourful—comes this very beautiful book by one of Nigeria’s very notable poets and performers, Iquo Dianaabasi. Like you, we are hungry to hold Ẹ̀fọ́ Rírò and Other Stories in our hands and savor the richness of the stories in its pages.

So What’s This Awesome Book About?

A collection that is set primarily within Nigeria, the stories in Ẹ̀fọ́ Rírò and Other Stories cover varied social themes including spousal abuse, religious dogma, love, bravery, betrayal and vengeance. It speaks of the untamed resilience of the everyday Nigerian who is faced with the vicissitudes of life.

We meet Sixtus the driver whose love of a particular delicacy has him biting off more than he can chew, and we laugh to our heart’s delight. But all is not humorous in this collection. Anything can happen in the city of Lagos: a man disappears after a Champions League semi-final and we are drawn into his wife’s travails; light beams on paedophilia through the keen eyes of a gossip; we take a peek at what love and lust look like on the internet; then we head to Oguta where a ritual to revive a sick husband takes an unexpected turn. Despite the human tendency to betray and disappoint, we encounter stories that show how people tread life on a carpet of love and hope.

What You Should Know About the Author:

Iquo Dianaabasi is a Nigerian storyteller, performance poet and editor. She has performed on many stages and is the author of Symphony of Becoming, a collection of poems, which was shortlisted for the Nigeria Literature Prize, The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature and Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize. Her writing has been widely anthologized and published in online journals and print. Efo Riro and Other Stories is her first personal collection of stories. Iquo lives in Lagos, where she writes scripts for radio and works as an editor.

Ẹ̀fọ́ Rírò and Other Stories will be available in bookstores by Monday, January 20, 2020.  But, to be one of the first to own this nice collection, you can pre-order it online. Simply click to pre-order Efo Riro by Iquo Dianabasi Pre-orders started since Wednesday, December 4, 2019.

Pre-ordered copies will be personally signed by the author and will contain the buyers’ personalized messages

I’m off to pre-order my copy of Efo Riro. What about you?

The post New Awesome Book Alert: Ẹ̀fọ́ Rírò and Other Stories by Iquo Dianaabasi (Available For Pre-order). appeared first on Creative Writing News.

It was a moment of jubilation as writers and literary enthusiasts from different parts of the country converged in Akwa, the Anambra State Capital, to hail, herald and welcome the arrival of Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology —”Arrows of Words”

Edited by Izunna Okafor, the new vivacious anthology, which is a publication of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (Anambra State), is an 85-paged book that contains 118 poems and essays gathered from writers from different countries of the world, written in honor of foremost Nigerian literary savant—late Prof. Chinua Achebe.

Read: 6 Award-Winning Writers Tips

“We did this in 2016, 2017 and 2018 editions of the event. But in preparation for the 2019 edition of the event, we decided not to call for fresh submissions for a fresh anthology, but to collate the three previously published collections and publish them as a single anthology, still in honor of Achebe.

“This was also in keeping of my word during an exclusive live interview with the Anambra Broadcasting Service (TV) on 15th November 2018, to herald the 2018 edition of the literary festival. And that was how we birthed this world class anthology entitled “Arrows of Words”. We also hope to replicate this every three years after we must have published up to three collections.”

“Achebe and his works are like forests with many animate, inanimate and metaphysical inhabitants. The end of it all is infinite. It is fulfilling that young writers in this most auspicious anthology entitled ‘Arrows of Words’ are extending the Achebean complex metaphor of the  multiplicity of beings in their own words.”

“A laudable compendium of homage spun in honour of a legend. With this meritorious anthology, Achebe’s heroism is feted, and his mighty pen retained in the field of the literary arts.”

“Arrow of Words’ is shot to anthropologize that of the gods as written by Achebe, the oracle. That’s the only way to bring him closer without being overwhelmed by the splendour of our ancestors”.

“A body of writings and writers have trailed the departure of Chinua Achebe, the eagle on the Iroko of African Literature. Many have aped him, some come near, a lot fell apart. But the biggest joy is the emergence of these young writers who believe, venerate and toe the path of the sage without loosing their originality. Young writers in this anthology come across as genuine successors, not parodies of Chinua Achebe.”

“The best way to immortalize Chinua Achebe —arguably the most influential novelist that ever lived — is through the weapon of words, and the arrows of wisdom contained in this book are right on target, ensuring that the iconic storyteller can never die.”

“A wild passion to unleash the giants within runs through the arteries of this collection.”

“While he lived, Achebe, no doubt, attracted lots of feathers on his writing cap — nationally and internationally. But more than the accolades of peers and contemporaries, this anthology — Arrows of Words orchestrated by young writers from his home state in death, appears the icing on the cake. They resonate the height he soared on the iroko of literary iconography. The-hundred-plus plus collection is a timely announcement that it’s no longer morning on Achebe’s inevitable apotheosis.”

“A poignant and panoramic paean to the deceased but deathless master. The breadth and depth of contributions would have gladdened Achebe’s soul.”

by Izunna Okafor.

The post Publication of “Arrows of Words”, an Anthology in Honor of the late Prof. Chinua Achebe. appeared first on Creative Writing News.

Book title: Fabiola

Author: Musih Tedji Xaviere

Publisher: Maryland Printers, Bamenda

Year published: 2017

Number of pages: 221

Where I got it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073WY8XCH

             https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/xaviere

Why I read it: I was intrigued by the idea of reading an African YA novel

When I read it: 2017

Review written by:  Eric Ngea Ntam (PhD)

The first few lines of Musih Tedji Xavière’s Fabiola immediately draws a reader’s attention towards the pattern of child development at school. The novel can be aptly described as a bildungsroman in progress because it presents the nine-month development of Fabiola, the protagonist. Xavière’s setting, characterisation, themes, style and point of view come along with the physical and psychological growth of Fabiola, all of which culminate in a verisimilitude of the lived circumstances that those familiar with boarding life would fit their own experiences into.

The term bildungsroman (coined in 1819 by German philologist, Karl Morgenstern and later legitimated by Wihelm Dilthey in 1870 and made popular in 1905) is a German word succinctly defined as a “novel of formation” or described as “the coming-of-age novel”. A bildungsroman generally revolves around a sensitive protagonist poised for the achievement of a goal. Its plot is thus tailored to depict the hurdles, the aide and the near or complete achievement of the hero or heroine. The less than twelve years old Fabiola goes through this trajectory for an academic year and emerges a largely reformed [my emphasis], at least at her age, bildungsroman protagonist.

A careful reading of Xavière’s Fabiola reveals a plot knitted to portray the psychological and moral growth of Fabiola from child to youth or semi adult. This is evident in the setting or choice of the school, St Francis Girls’ Vocational High School (GVHS) Bafut. As an all-girl institution, Fabiola has to intermingle with her kind for a psychosocial awareness of both her sex and gender. The young Fabiola is modestly accompanied to school by her mother and are both given a hand by the taxi driver to offload her belongings (Ch. One, p. 2).

The ancient appearance of the campus is proof of its having churned out a myriad of the great ladies of all walks of life in the society. The senior who is on hand to check and usher Fabiola to the St Clare dormitory, as her counterparts do to the other foxes, is just one of the budding ladies GVHS is preparing for the global society. Fabiola is immediately put in a psychological battle the moment she sees a difference between the seniors and the foxes. The seniors’ appearance does not in any way correspond to the dictates of the school prospectus. In fact: “What fascinated Fabiola most about these girls was the grace with which they carried themselves. She envied them, their refinement, and somewhere in the back of her mind she wanted to be just as beautiful and just as curvy one day” (Ch. One, p. 3). In this yearning lies the trigger that sets our protagonist in motion.

The protagonist grows from child to semi-adult

The protagonist in a bildungsroman is often a sensitive person who is looking for answers and experience. Fabiola’s quest to understand her environment is facilitated by her meeting Yvonne, a onetime primary school mate: “What were the chances that she would end up in a place like this, thousands of miles away from home with someone she had spent almost every day of her childhood with? Though Yvonne’s company, just like Helen’s to Jane Eyre at the Lowood School in Charlottë Brontë’s Jane Eyre, lightens the burden of loneliness, it nevertheless stops the introspective Fabiola to watch with stifled emotion the departure of her mother through the oxblood coated bars of the school after having promised to come and see her again on Visiting Day.

Henceforth Fabiola is supposed to be strong in order to gradually achieve her youthfulness or near adulthood. Her entire first term is full of intimidating, if not shocking, surprises. This begins on day one of her arrival at GVHS. and include the chaos perpetrated by the foxes in the St Clare dormitory, the abrupt and harsh instructions and nightmarish tails from Ngala Geraldine (Dorm-cap), harassment from Atabong Atem and crew, Senior Nahbila Laura’s compelling lessons on using cutlery adequately in the manner of established women or ladies, insults (Grandmami-face) from three unknown girls, among others lead to the conclusion: “… boarding school was a direct contrast to the reverend sisters’ campaign promises at her old school” (Ch. Five, p. 26).

The struggle, which continues with routine activities such as getting up at 5am and bathing under strict supervision with cold water in order to get ready for morning mass, tidying up individual bunks and spaces, sweating, stumbling and falling on the hill leading to church, adhering to Senior Limnyuy and Bessem’s assigned portions for regular maintenance, learning new vocabulary such as ‘clad’ and ‘mop’, holding one’s own cup, tea spoon and cutlery when going to the refectory, eating stale bread, unpleasant combination of cooked garri and okro soup, weevil infested corn-chaff and beans, and compulsory siesta all combine to form part of the heavy cross Fabiola must shoulder on her way to experience.

Fabiola observes that some students have complementary snacks (chocolate, tins of sardine, Ovaltine), which they either supplement with or take as alternative for what the ‘refecto’ provides.  She further learns that GVHS is a religiously inclined school because it engages in the endless battle between God and the devil, consequently the girls are urged to inculcate constant prayer as a modus vivendi. It amazes Fabiola that most tribes are stigmatised for either their abnormal behaviour or phonological renditions. She finds it absurd and a taboo when girls like Agatha talk back to the captain.

A tip of the iceberg of what awaits her in the months ahead comes when the foxes are made to pay a visit to the Up-campus. Fabiola comes to understand that GVHS has two campuses and that there are many students and levels in the school than she earlier thought. The St Francis Children and Adult Home (SAFRACAH) Street unravels another hidden connection between school and the outer world. Her keen observation makes her figure out that she could easily fight starvation by sneaking out early enough to buy accra and other snacks.

The arrival of the rest of the school on 9 September begins the real ordeal and set the pace for the rising action of the novel. All the ten dormitories are inhabited and typical boarding experiences become manifest. For example, Fabiola records that there is a desperate search for ‘Smalls’ by the supposed ‘Bigs’, there is outright confrontation that almost result in flexing of muscles between Yvonne and Atem, but for her timely intervention which is followed by a ‘Mami cry-cry’ insult at her from the dreaded Atem. Fabiola’s courageous interference which evokes “I cannot believe this” from Atem portrays the survival of the fittest attribute Fabiola has quickly imbibed as the way out. She even goes further to warn Atem: “We are not afraid of you. Touch any of us and we will report you.” This offensive temperament not only brings out the hidden rebel in Fabiola, but also speaks of the courage and mature personality that is already being built in the hither to docile girl. As a matter of fact, the scary Atem is left with no option than to shake her head and turn away.

Stresses of self-identity continue to develop. Unlike other girls who are being cajoled and won over by Bigs, Fabiola waits until when she desires one. Though Joan, her acquired Big, is recommended to her by Yvonne, this is only after Fabiola’s wish to have one. She timidly but courageously moves up to Joan and requests her to be her Big – a demand Joan willingly grants.

The ritual of cutting of the foxes’ tails ushers Fabiola into the stark reality of the intimidation junior students must endure in the hands of seniors. The foxes are slapped and obliged to dance without music, as real foxes do. Coming on the hills of the cutting of foxes’ tails is the introduction night. This event gives Fabiola and her mates the opportunity to discover the extracurricular potentials of their school in domains such as choir, drama and dance. The courageous and imaginative skills of Hiris, a fox, who sings a sarcastic song to ridicule the senior students astonish everyone and provokes Sister Jude to laugh out her lungs, to the amazement and delight of Fabiola and the other foxes. This night draws the curtains on the empirical learning for a week and sets the green light for real academic business in GVHS:

“When she was certain that Fabiola was ready to go, she gave her a pat on the back, wished her good luck, and left” (Ch. Sixteen, p. 92) – these are the narrator’s description of the setting the ball to roll in Fabiola’s academic life by Joan, her Big. Ngam Fabiola from now on is left alone to climb the academic ladder. With Joan’s pat on her back, Fabiola hurries to be first Up-campus and scrambles for a well located seat in their classroom. Once safely seated the fight between the tallest girl in their class and a smaller girl animates Fabiola and her mate until Senior Laura’s timely arrival. The rush to be first Up-campus and the racing for seats in the classroom consciously or unconsciously drives home the fact that the attainment of education is also another battle that must be fought with all energy. In this battle, the inexperienced, like Fabiola, soil themselves and tend to wonder how the old-students maintain their immaculate look.

The typical first day experience of learning in a secondary school thrills Fabiola. The entrance of Mr Mokum Clement, the mathematics teacher, the confusion of which book to get out when instructed to take out mathematics books, the biting morning hunger that the baskets of bread presented for breakfast are unable to assuage, the mocking laughter of the foxes’ overflowing pleated black skirts and oversized pullovers that barely fit, the repeated introduction of each other as teacher after teacher enters the class with punctuated thirty minutes pauses, mark Fabiola. Nevertheless, Fabiola’s overall impression of being over-taught and the grip of hunger draw the difference between her former school and the secondary. This is the route to transformation. The routine of waking at 5.30am, taking a bath, going for morning mass, climbing the to the Up-campus, learning Mathematics, breakfast, more classes, trekking back Down-campus, lunch, siesta, another bath, evening prayer, night preparations (prep), and back to bed, characterize Fabiola’s stay in GVHS for the next two months, with expectations of seeing mama again on Visiting Day.

With classes now in full gear, Fabiola is obliged to come to terms with other activities and behaviours during and after school as well as on weekends. Tiredness and drowsiness during morning masses and night preps, the lurking of Mr Cane (the discipline master) around, ready to lash defaulters, cold nights, especially in the refectory, regrets of not having brought other items not mentioned in the school prospectus, coercing from Antoinette (Yvonne’s Big) to move her snacks to her trunk, little enmities between space-mates and bunkmates (ndang’a and mbong’o), indiscriminate punishment in order to fish out a culprit who commits an indecent act such as defecating in another girl’s bathing buckets (Hiris as a victim) (Ch. Seventeen, pp. 99-104), involvement in one activity after another on Saturdays, receiving special help and favours from a responsible Big such as Joan gives Fabiola, classroom mockery, nicknaming and stigmatisation of tribes, among many others are routine experiences and occurrences in GVHS.

The Fabiola becomes disillusioned (disappointed) as the new world does not match her shining hopes and dreams, but finally accepts, after painful soul-searching, the sort of world she lives in

The climax of the novel begins with the ‘warmsun’ or the period of extreme hunger in boarding schools. At this moment Fabiola realises that no girl, including herself, rejects or brags about not eating certain school meals such as cooked garri or crank-crank, meals they rejected when pockets were still full and supplementary snacks aplenty. Some of the foxes exchange toiletries such as toothpastes for bread, others begin to produce candy out of melted sugar by means of their spoons and candle light, Fabiola and Yvonne even go as far as deceiving Bapete, who brags of her riches because the prime minister is her uncle, and eat up her cookies in return for friendship that they later fail to give. Fabiola learns a lot about lies telling in the dormitory when Fusi, whom they constantly mock for wetting the bed, lies in their favour though truly she is aware that they duped Bapete: “‘Thank you,’ Fabiola said to Fusi once they were out of earshot, too relieved to ask why Fusi lied for them. Fusi acknowledges Fabiola’s gratitude with a nod and walked away.” (Ch. Nineteen, pp. 114-18).

Fabiola also observes that stealing is a common practice in their school. Personal belongings such as socks, pullovers, headscarves, white gowns, Bibles and hymnals, sandals, cutlery and even underwear are pilfered. Many cases of theft are reported to the dorm-cap who only threatens in vain. The effect of snatching away the pullovers is rampant influenza and related diseases, which Fabiola also has to cope with. Some of the robbers are caught and dismissed while others are never identified.

Warmsun also leads to the breakup of cordial relationship between Fabiola and Yvonne. Yvonne is no longer ready to share her trunk with Fabiola because their snacks have been completely done away with. Yvonne’s decision is taken by Fabiola with equanimity.

Despite Senior Laura’s reprimand and punishment of Asongwe Camela, Mbaku Veronica, Atabong Atem, Vegah Madeleine, Suh Antonia, Wiysahnyuy Hilda, Achu Tina and five others for visiting shops and secretly buying items from vendors at SAFRACAH Street, Fabiola still indulges in the same illicit dealing. She seems to have accepted that it is a context where survival depends on one’s smartness and not on the strict obedience of rules and regulations.

Fabiola resolves to use up the 2000 CFA franc note her mother gave her on the day they arrived GVHS. She leaves the dormitory alone early Tuesday morning and buys balls of accra for herself. This becomes an obsession until her money is completely used up (see a vivid description of her manoeuvre: Ch. Twenty-One, pp. 126 -7). It is interesting to note that her skilfulness in sneaking and buying whatever she wanted along the SAFRACAH Street is monitored and admired by Fusi, who opts to bring her own money so that they can be partners in crime.

Preparations to welcome parents on Visiting Day intensify. The generosity of the girls know no bounds a few days to Visiting Day. Those who still have some reserves empty their trunks in preparation for the new and fresh snacks their parents, especially mothers, would bring. Fabiola spends all she had jealously hoarded in the hope that her mother would replenish her purse and trunk upon her arrival.

It is Visiting Day. This marks the climax of Fabiola’s disillusionment and at the same the acceptance of her circumstance and the world secondary school introduces her to. The school mobilises in every aspect as the parents are awaited. Everywhere is kept clean and the students too look clean. Those who had scored good marks in the tests look forward to sharing the news with their parents. Parents come with goodies, sit with their daughters in small groups chattering and showing love and concern.  Fabiola is highly disappointed when at 5.30pm every parent who came visiting has left and the road ahead stares at her. Fabiola’s hysteria is only calmed by Sister Jude, who takes her to the office and a plastic bag containing a medium sized baked cake with frosting and a bag of candy – these become the girl’s own Visiting Day package (See Ch. Twenty-two, pp. 132-7). Mama’s failure to pay Fabiola a visit on a day when all other children enjoy the warmth of their mothers kills the child in her. The child is mother of the woman is a suitable responsibility she assumes. Though Fabiola overcomes this disheartening circumstance, resilience teaching her the trick, and returns to school even more determined to compete with Tang Asahmbom for the first position in class, she however “… she retreated into herself … and no amount of coaxing got her out of her shell.” (Ch. Twenty-three, p.138).

The rest of the term becomes child’s play. The young heroine ignores Ngum’s complaint that her own mother did not also come, she shows pride towards Dorm-cap’s plea that those whose parents came should donate food to the needy, she stands tall to see that she is not in the group of those who mess up the latrines because of overfeeding from their visitors, she continues to go to the refectory without any complex, the trekking for miles in search of water at Nkiwah stream owing to adverse drought does not bother her, with Ngum’s help she treats herself to a handful of palm kernels from a nearby bush, she even questions why an Anglophone Cameroonian as herself should study French, and above all she now boldly accompanies Ngum to sneak out of the way to school to get whatever they desired. With these resilient and questioning spirit, Fabiola writes her second and third tests and is ready to go home for the Christmas break.

The starvation that sets in before Rascal week is trifle to Fabiola. All she is interested in is to experience the unruly atmosphere that now characterises GVHS. During this week the girls get involved either in plotting, fighting, gossiping, quarrelling or loitering the school campus, looking for possibilities of getting palm nuts, avocado, guavas from nearby bushes in Bafut and even mocking at the gateman who dare to consider himself part of the staff of the school by constantly using the expression “We the staff.” Fabiola also observes that the threat of withholding one’s report card deterred many of the girls from certain exaggerated acts. Fabiola becomes involved in the activities marking preparations for Christmas, which entail drama, carol, reconciliation and general socials. She wonders if the reconciliations are actually genuine for, it seems to mean little to Atabong Atem.

The sledge harmer of dismissal, a dreaded punishment, befalls those who resort to excesses during the rascal week. For instance the exorcism manifested by Jesus-freak or Chukwunenye Nnednma earns her outright dismissal from Sister Jude. Khaki-night or the night of result declaration marks the end of Fabiola’s first three months in the secondary school. The entire school assembles in the refectory and results are read out. The last three and first three in each class come up to the stage for everyone to see them. Sihngum Monica 16/20, Ngam Fabiola 17.4/20 and Tang Ansahmbom 18.2/20 are the first three in ascending order in her class. The Bigs, whose Smalls make it in flying colours, are proud and shout out to let everyone identify them with their brilliant Small. Fabiola receives congratulations from Joan. It is with these results that Fabiola goes to bed ready to collect her report card the next day and depart for the village.

Closing day breaks with all students ready to depart from campus to various destinations. Fabiola receives her report card and as a big girl, whom she has become, does not bother about her mother’s coming to pick her up. With the help of Ngum, she boards a taxi to her uncle’s house at Foncha Street where she passes the night and leaves for Njinikom the next day to meet her parents.

Fabiola returns to school for the second term on January 4 a completely courageous heroine. She is indifferent happenings around her and only excited to begin classes. Total metamorphosis has had an effect on her:

It took a lot of self-loathing to admit it, but home wasn’t home anymore now that she knew she had somewhere else to be. The disconnection with her childhood friends had only grown, inasmuch as she tried reconnecting with her former self. Her friends did not understand why she felt the need to constantly conduct herself like a lady. They saw her conduct as pride, and frankly, she did not care that much about their opinion of her. (Ch. Twenty-seven, p.165)

Since ‘education’ is always crucial to the protagonist of a bildungsroman, in that it is part of the child’s maturation and preparation for impending adulthood, or in other words considering that the inner development and maturity of the protagonist takes place after his/her “education” in the new place, it is this newfound self-knowledge that signals the ultimate maturity of Fabiola. Fabiola’s drastic transformation has everything to do with both education and suffering. Her ability to withstand traumatic experiences catapults her into a class and psyche of her own. Little wonder therefore that the noise she hears on the reopening day of the second term means nothing to her, she simply waves “her way expertly through the horde”; her determination to uphold her parents’ pride suppressing any weak thought of escaping back home and the firm resolve to topple Ansah, urging her forward. Fabiola is no longer little Fa.

Major heroine feats displayed by the heroine include her journey all the way from Njinikom to GVHS Bafut unaccompanied, her not minding the extra work they carry out in preparation for Youth Day and school feasts, the ignoring of Yvonne’s fuss about her friendship with Ngum Winfrey, her courageous accompanying of Winfrey to frighten old-students chattering beside a fire behind the dormitory in the night and later reprimand of Winfrey for causing her to inflict pain on the students, her fierce refusal of Winfrey’s proposal that they should go into a video club on Youth Day, her not bothering much about her mother’s absence at the PTA meeting, her polite decline to leave her money with the school bursar, her ability to understand most terms like ‘curtsy’, changes brought in by the newly elected prefects do not affect her in any way, her contemplation on Women’s Day and what possibly happens on Men’s Day, her confiding in Yvonne that she has contracted sugar-sugar and being taught how to ‘pee like a boy’ by Yvonne and Winfrey, her interest in Sister Carine’s teachings about the ‘Self-esteem concept’, her unregretful spitting in Dorm-cap’s drinking water for calling her ‘red-face’, her being chased by a man with a gun when she accompanies Winfrey and other girls into a dark wild bush, her and Hannah’s peeping at “Mr Moses (the French teacher) and his—and Senior Jennifer, the labour prefect” and being warned by the teacher never to mention it anywhere, peeing in Antoinette’s buckets to punish her for highhandedness and insulting habit, and trying to mislead Ansahmbom on purpose in order to take the first position in class.

From this avalanche of courageous acts, it becomes clear that for only nine months, Fabiola experiences the good, the bad and the ugly. Not only is she aware of sneaking habits of young girls, she comes to understand the reasons why a woman must stand up for her rights, experiences the commonest female infection, observes a man caressing a young girl, devises strategies to revenge/avenge wrong deeds to her and struggles to manipulate her classmate in order to take the first position in class.

Separation from family and Home (usually from a small, provincial place, venturing into a much more complex place) because of desire to gain Self-identity

Fabiola can be said to have made a name for herself by the time we sing the Cameroon National Anthem on page 226 of this novel. She attains this partly because she courageously severs from her parents in search of education and also partly because she becomes engrossed within a complex setting. Though GVHS is a confined environment, it is however much more sophisticated than her primary school and quarter in Njinikom. This is so because it is a forum for budding intellectuals and the occupants come from different homes with varied childhood experiences. Fabiola needs just this kind of context in order to experience a dramatic transformation.

The protagonist returns home, reaches out and helps others after having achieved maturity

Armed with moral, academic and social experiences from GVHS, Fabiola arrives home again, but this time a transformed girl. Not only is she bold enough to ask her mother why she failed her on Visiting Day, she now helps the mother at home as well. Her anger against her mother is abated by the simple reason that she understands her mother had gone back to school. In fact Fabiola is now conscious of the demands of school. 6am the next morning meets Fabiola assisting her mother to bathe her siblings, assigning her siblings to different portions to clean and taking part in the tidying up of the house, ensuring table mannered eating and then imposing a compulsory forty-minute siesta for all. How quick the heroine puts theory into practice. Fabiola’s mother’s satisfaction is revealed in the pride with which she introduces her secondary school child to her colleagues. The rest of the holiday follows this routine and Christmas celebration is void of any exaggeration. But for the unfounded fear that nobody was to see New Year’s Day 2000, Fabiola shows no anxiety and so does the New Year’s Day pass and Christmas break comes to an end.

Fabiola’s reaching out and helping others is seen in her subsequent relationship with Winfrey. When Antoinette hurts Winfrey by spreading false rumour about her being dirty, her being infected with ‘cam-no-go’ and mumps, Fabiola gets very disturbed to see her friend in misery:

The last of Fabiola’s reserve crumbled when she saw Winfrey crying behind the classroom one afternoon. “Why are you crying?” Fabiola asked sitting beside Winfrey on the grass. Winfrey’s bravery was something Fabiola had come to rely on and seeing her reduced to tears by cruelty angered Fabiola.…

Fabiola chuckled. “Shut up! You don’t have mumps or cam-no-go” …

Winfrey regarded Fabiola carefully before abandoning the scepticism. She wiped at the remainder of the tears in her eyes and turned to gaze into space. (Ch. Thirty-four, p. 217).

As a true bildungsroman heroine, Fabiola must necessary reach out to help Ngum Winfrey to be or remain strong.

Is Fabiola an autobiography?

As to whether this novel is an autobiography, the answer is negative. An autobiography is the life story/history of an individual told by him/herself. Even if aspects of Xavière’s own life are embedded in the story, this comes indirectly. That Xavière adopts the third person omniscient point of view distances her novel from being autobiographical. The author’s preference is “an all-knowing narrator who is able not only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably but also to enter the mind of any character at any time in order to reveal [and even conceal too] his or her thoughts, feeling, and beliefs directly to the reader” (Murfin and Ray, 2003). The choice of this vantage point is also convincing because Xavière’s protagonist, fresh from a primary school in Njinikom might have only spoken Kom but would not have rendered the Banso accent, pronounce words in Bafut or relate the dormitory jargon and clichés adequately.

Xavière’s style is simple but very erudite. Instances of suspense, allusion, vivid description, flashbacks, irony, contrast, humour, to cite these, are numerous in the novel. Her delving into boarding school lifestyle and mannerisms helps the reader better understand the psyche of ex-boarders, especially the female sex within the global society.

Conclusion

The choice of the title of this review: “Bildungsroman in Progress” is justifiable. A bildungsroman ends with the hero attaining maturity by accomplishing what he or she set out to acquire – thus coming full circle. However, despite the fact that he/she has come full circle, the memories of the boy/girl that was at the beginning are perfectly suited to emphasize the man or woman that he/she has become. There is no doubt that Fabiola has changed drastically from the little girl who was led into the gates of GVHS by her mother to an independent traveller and introspective girl. For a period of just nine months remarkable transformation is noticeable as earlier indicate. However, that Fabiola is yet to rich full maturity by becoming one of the seniors or prefect in GVHS, perhaps also actually get involved in some of the other deeds she only hears or observes, and also the fact she is yet to return home as a full blown woman to bring total dynamism in her family in particular and Njinikom at large, qualifies the novel as an advancing bildungsroman. Xavière is therefore challenged to come up with a sequel to Fabiola in order to portray a full circle transformed Fabiola.

References

Abrams, M. H. and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, eds., A Glossary of Literary Terms, Ninth Edition, Boston, Wardsworth Cengage Learning, 2009.

Cuddon, J. A., The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, London, Penguin Group, 1998.

Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 2nd ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.

Xaviere, Musih Tedji Fabiola. Maryland Printers: Bamenda, 2017.

About the Author

Eric Ngea Ntam holds a PhD in British Literature from the University of Yaoundé I. He undertook training as a secondary and high School teacher in the then Higher Teacher Training College (ENS) Annex Bambili (1998-2001) and the Higher Teacher Training College (ENS) Yaoundé (2007-2009) from where he obtained the Secondary and High School Teacher Diploma Grade I and Grade II, respectively. He is thus a teacher of English Language and Literature in English for sixteen years now. Eric Ngea Ntam is a former German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Scholarship holder. He is also the co-author of two books:  Learn English: Understand Climate Change and Majors in English. Dr Ngea Ntam is currently the Head of Service of Relations with the Business World at The University of Bamenda, where he also lectures literature in English as part time lecturer.

The post Musih Tedji Xavière’s Fabiola as a Bildungsroman in Progress: A Review By Eric Ngea Ntam (PhD) appeared first on Creative Writing News.

A Review of Some of the Best Short Stories by Africans available online.

The one thing that makes a short story good is what it makes you feel after you have read that last sentence. But there are other things—the freshness of the story (nobody wants the same old stories), the finesse of the prose (who doesn’t love beautiful sentences?!), and how the story leaves you after each read.

When I read I search for something new, something fresh, and that means, I also read to learn—to see what these writers are doing right, and how they’re doing them. But often I encounter stories that force me to read and enjoy them. On such occasions, I forget about learning. I’m drawn into their world as if by a massive hand, but then—the journey is tender. The following stories fall into the category of amazing short stories that sucked me into their world of wonder.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

“After the Birds” by Ope Adedeji. (Published in McSweeney’s 56, available on the site)

“The smell of air and taste of water make my skin crawl this morning. I know what’s happened: I swallowed my key last night.” –from “After the Birds”.

If you haven’t read this, you’re missing out on one of the most beautiful pieces of writing to come out of Africa this year; it’s literally what you’re looking for. A story packed with imageries of birds and lizards and flowers, threaded with poetry and myths/ superstition. It is a story I finished reading in one sitting. This story literally made me scream at the end.

The story follows three main characters: Arin, the narrator and protagonist (yes, protagonist); Hakeem, the man she gets married to and the man I want to punch in the face; and Isaac, the man her heart and body wants but who the birds say she won’t have as husband.

There’s a beautiful and an interesting storyline, and the story itself is well-sewn. Ope does well at making no room for doubts; everything is where it should be. An interesting thing she also does is how she makes us see what is coming (by foreshadowing) and how she makes us, just as she makes the narrator, believe that our expectations may be wrong.

How she drops little info here and there, and how all of these little info adds up in the big parts of the story is interesting, too. For example, we are not too surprised when Hakeem takes the news of what Arin did to him when it comes later in the story with gentle hands, because we know him to be the coolheaded guy from the start of things. She does this well, too, when Isaac, who is a ghost, visits Arin and is in a position that would have drowned his senses. Surprisingly, that position made Arin lost, but it didn’t make Isaac who knew to change position immediately he heard Mama come in with the kids. This sensitivity in the Isaac-of-a-long-time-after-the-naming-ceremony prepares us, though without us knowing it as such, for the news of his death. And did he not say he was attending a funeral?

The way she writes her backstory is something I admire as well, something only a few writers can do well—especially short story writers. See:

“I’d known Gloria for a few years before I met him. I’d first seen her face in a sultry Twitter display picture under the “Who to follow” list: lips black and slightly parted, face ashen, red ’fro, and eyes in a squint. Next, we swapped orange boots at National Youth Service Corps camp and took chilly 4 a.m. baths out in the open. We eventually became best friends over African and European fiction classics discussed in quiet conference rooms before staff meetings.”

What more do we need to know about the relationship that exists between those two?

However, it’s the characters in “After the Birds” that make it what it is, a piece that shuts our world in minutes and gifts us a different one—that, even after we’ve closed the tab, we still can’t bring ourselves to leave that world; we carry it in our hearts and heads. We carry them, the characters. We try to believe their story can’t be ours; that it’s not possible to desire a thing and still be unable to have it, even when it’s there in our hand; that it’s a sick man that is betrayed and still trusts.

But, somewhere, in the dark, we wish we could be like Hakeem, that we don’t end like Isaac, that we (don’t) get a lady like Arin, that we have a mother-in-law as kind as hers.

“Solutions” by Howard B. Maximus. (In The Vanguard Book of Love Stories, published by Brittle Paper)

“He liked to romanticize Mathematics. He once asked his students if they’d ever seen anything as elegant as the integration sign. Its svelte gracefulness, its elongated torso and regal uprightness, like a special species in the family of S’s that had been groomed to always stand up straight. To always walk tall.” –from “Solutions”.

…I want to ask, Who describes an integration sign as if it were a princess? The same guy who writes about something he never had as if he did.

The thing that tears my mouth open every time I read this story is that I was there when he wrote it, in one night—not two—and it’s good.

A piece about romanticizing Mathematics, it follows a teacher, Papa V., who loses his wife and decides not to remarry, who then falls in love with one of the students he taught in evening school (also adults school). But then there is a problem: Grief has deadened Papa V.’s doing power.

The piece succeeds in not just its storyline, but in the way the story is told in Mathematical language, and in the way Howard sees the world, through the eyes of Papa V. After reading “Solutions”, it would surprise you how mathematical everything—from adding salt to a pot of soup, to describing a woman, to the thing we call love and our significance on earth—is.

And, have you read Howard? Does he write beautiful sentences? Come and see.

“Math had come to them suddenly years ago, implementing himself in the equation of their marriage: Method of Elimination, and poof, his wife was gone like a pun snatched from a chessboard.”

 “If you asked him, Papa V. would tell you this about his marriage: it had been an interesting equation cut short, before all the parameters could align—a beautiful equation, even in its incompleteness.”

Moreover, Howard does know how to be funny—even when writing about some of the most painful things in the world, humor never eludes him. He brings humor to this story, sprinkles it everywhere in the story.

Here, Love + maths language + humor + a beautiful voice – boring sentences – boring characters = Solutions.

“Some Days” by Tochukwu Emmanuel. (Published in No Tokens Issue 5, but published on the journal’s site this year)

“THERE ARE FIVE OF us in the car: Chima, Musa, Boye, Mary, and me. Boye is our driver. His stubby fingers circle the steering wheel, and he goes, “Vrooom. Vrooom.” His eyes tear through the windshield, into the meat-coloured yard with an avocado tree standing in the middle, like they are about to jump out of their sockets anytime soon. Like he truly believes he is driving. “Vrooom. Vrooom,” he goes again like a mad dog—his teeth clenched, his back straightened.” –from “Some Days”.

I bet no one picks a story from where Tochukwu picks his. He takes the ordinary and makes it fresh, in a way that we begin to desire the ordinary. And the way he takes these stories that we know so well, these stories that are ours, that are so familiar we believe we don’t need anyone telling them to us—is what makes him that one short story writer I’d read anything he publishes.

This story begins in a spoilt bus, where some children are playing driver and passenger, and it moves on till we get to a boy’s house and learn that “some days… are… like this.”

The piece’s narrator is a small boy of twelve, but his maturity and keen eyes is something—which is not surprising. Why? We know the boy lives, and probably grew up, somewhere close to Bariga, since there’s a reference to Abule market and an abattoir in that market. Or, it could be anywhere else in mainland Lagos.

His voice, the narrator’s, is so moving, it’d keep you in the piece, and when you reach the end of the story, you’d see that, just like the small agbero boys in Lagos who we feel do not have hearts or are way too hard and smart for their age, a child would always be a child, would always be soft somewhere on the inside—and that a child would always need to be safe.

More than that, “Some Days” is a story about what it means to be a child in the other side of Lagos that does not have the tall buildings and fine houses, about the class structure in the ghetto, about shame, about the things a woman does to make not just ends, but also beginnings, meet. And of the places we run to to be safe when home is “kram kram breaking of bottles on the wall” and “the dull thump of heavy objects falling.”

I hope you enjoy reading these stories. I’ll be reviewing and recommending more interesting short stories in the coming weeks.

Did you enjoy these stories as much as I did? Please leave your comments below.

Ernest O. Ogunyemi enjoys playing with words to express what he feels within, or wants to feel. His stories have appeared in magazines and blogs such as Tuck Magazine, Naija Stories, Poetry Soup and his poetry is forthcoming in Acumen91 (out in May) and African Writing. Currently, he is working on a short story collection: Weaving Fine Rhythms from Broken Tunes.

The post Recommended Short Stories You Can Read Online. This Edition Features Stories by Howard B. Maximus, Ope Adedeji and Tochukwu Okafor. appeared first on Creative Writing News.

TITLE: AFTER ONE

AUTHOR: Ololade Akinlabi Ige

GENRE: Fiction

1. OF PAGES: 30

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2019

ISBN: NIL

PUBLISHER:  The Poetician Inc.

REVIEWER: John Chizoba Vincent

In this expressive book: After One, Ololade Akinlabi Ige tells a story of lust and pleasure, the consequences of illegitimate pregnancies, relationships and pretense. And he achieves this through a narrative that is uniquely his. The book offers us astounding but emotional scenes. It portrays the cleverness of people who dare to circumvent the societal norms and principles and traditional and cultural beliefs. After One is a tale of pain and brevity, metaphorical and tones affective, and imagery of what women archive in their heart. It shows what women try to harbor in their subconscious mind as they attempt to look for a lover who would definitely love them for who they are without holding the language of their past against them or holding them ransom of their mistakes.

Sometimes, the mistakes we made when we were much younger later come back to haunt us when we have forgotten about them. However, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the tasteful part of these mistakes remain colourful and beautiful. And like the wings of the butterfly, they become part of our past and present creating an ablution, illusion and empty gratification that stands to demonstrate its shades in our lives. We can try to wrap and throw these memories into a sudden wind or try to throw them away like packs of cards, but our efforts will be in vain. The past simply stands patiently, thriving and striving in mixed tranquilities, waiting for us on the other good phase of life where living is of two forms and folds; where living is a misery and dying is not far-fetched between the thighs and the legs of a woman.

He deploys an idiom of despair to center the links between lust and love, past and present,  pretense and reality, for what one is definitely to get him/herself into as he or she tries to feel among in a vast society like ours,  trying to document love in a heart where it does not really exist. He made us to understand that the past of our lives controls the present and there is no way we can rule out our pasts if they are ugly and the viciousness of these pasts would still carve themselves out from where they are hidden whenever we look at the mirror to see who we’ve become. Some of these horrible pasts of our lives are our replicates; our shadows, we stare at them, watch them ruin us, we get entangled with them; we watch them belittle us and we watch them praise us also when they are of greatness and joyfulness.  Sometimes, these past mistakes are the photocopies of who we are going to be in future. Those things we see each second are part of our present and going to be part of us for eternity.  This was the case with Grace who was hunted by her past pleasure with Wilson, her earliest love.

After One shows that anyone who dares to love casting his or her past in the darkness, is treading on dangerous grounds. The book also shows that the norms of a forced relationship are hazy, and that both parties are simply inviting to themselves a cudgel of misery, especially when hidden secrets are revealed.

Akinlabi recalls the effect of out of wedlock pregnancy. He recollects the disadvantages and miseries that revolve around a damaged pleasure and the cravenness seen in trying to fix the past with the present. We see a Grace trying not to prevent the past from denying her the pleasures of the present. We see a lost Grace holding onto her sanity because society couldn’t abide or create a balance between the love she tries to plant in the heart of her existing lovers. Even when Wilson jilted her and got her pregnant then travelled to the US, she made up her mind to keep the pregnancy, to hide her pains and later touch it with her bare hands when the baby would arrive. After the birth of the baby, she hated her passionately that she had to hide her in the toilet one day when one of her numerous lovers came around to see her. She didn’t mind the tears of little Favour in the toilet. No, she was heartless because of her greediness and selfishness searching for love in places where love did not really exist.

“A man who truly loves you will love you for who you are,“ Granny usually advised

“Granny , I’m just nervous. I don’t want to lose him” She would reply. (Chapter 5. Pg. 22)

From the very beginning, children born outside of marriage have life stacked against them; they reek of brokenness and pains because they are left in a single hand of a mother or in a single hand of a father to be raised. In many ways, Grace tried to hide Favour, her ten year old lost pleasure from her many lovers. However, the lies cost her a lot. The men fled and she was always left with a broken heart. She was ashamed of projecting her past to her future friends, she was not going to allow them to know that she was an ‘After One’ (a person who gives birth out of wedlock). She didn’t want to be known as a second hand commodity but the more she tried to avoid or hide these things from her present, the more things fell apart. None of the men could really love her: from David to Amos, from Amos to John. The fear of revealing her true self to them always tormented her.

Grace succeeded in keeping Favour with her Mother whenever she had a date or whenever any of her lovers was visiting, but the old woman had her own responsibilities and engagements. Sometimes, she would not engage small Favour into her businesses or she might not be able to take her along whenever she was leaving or travelling to a far land to buy her wares. This was an obstacle to Grace. She found it very irritating the way people looked at her in the street, as one who has committed the grievous of all transgressions. In her immediate community, it was a shameful act, an abomination for one to be laid and later have a child. She tried training Favour to call her Auntie and her granny, Mother. But as time went on, she was surprised when her mother called Favour and her in a sitting to carefully and tenderly tell Favour that she wasn’t her mother rather Grace was. Although this didn’t go down well with Grace but she had to swallow hard.She planned to be more careful in her future dealings with Favour.  While many single mothers work wonders and raise their children well, despite the obstacles they encounter, for many others the challenge is too great and their children suffer the consequences just like Favour. The absence of married parents is related to delayed development in early childhood. Different risks associated with out-of-wedlock birth arise as the child grows older as we can see in the life of Favour trying to seek for the face of someone who she takes as a mother.

Grace has to accept her past (Favour) after David found out who she really was and left her. She had to let Favour into her life and accept her the way she is. But the most interesting part of this was David coming back to her after many months of trying to reach out to him which failed. He came back to her life and accepted Grace as a loveable being. He also accepted favor and agreed to adopt her as his daughter.

Ige carefully explores the themes of early pregnancy, consequences of unprotected sex, relationships, sex out of wedlock, failed relationship and sacrifices. He left no stone unturned as he adeptly carry us from one page of the book to the other to the very end of it. We will only find a true love in the beautiful colours of pleasure in wedlock not out of wedlock.

The post The Beautiful Colours Of Pleasure Out Of Wedlock: A Review Of Ololade Akinlabi Ige’s Book, After One. appeared first on Creative Writing News.