Thursday, April 13, 2006

Springtime, Place of Reeds, a clutch of new Nigerian writing & Nigerwives

Watching the trees in the square opposite blossom into frothy whiteness, combined with the warmth I feel in my winter coat(time to consign it to the wardrobe soon), together with my sneezing in the morning,all confirm that spring is here....Now I know why the English worship the sun so much- you have to live through a dank dreary winter with darkness falling at 4 to understand the exhilaration.....

Off to Spain tomorrow for a well-deserved (even if I say so) Easter break....I'm reading Caitlin Davies' Place of Reeds- she's the daughter of English novelists Margaret Foster and Hunter Davies- and the book is her account of her marriage living with her Botswanan ex-husband in rural Botswana. It's a good but not great read so far, slightly dry and somehow it seems lacking in colour and seems to skirt round issues. It's also fairly critical of her husband and his family, and I slightly wonder- what did you expect- for instance not understanding why her husband who she met in the US as an Afro-haired hippy cuts his hair the day before he goes home to Botswana because "people will talk". I suppose for someone like me living between two cultures, it isn't so surprising, but am slightly irritated by what appears to be her naivete. She refers often to racism in Botswana but does not explore these deeply enough, especially considering that her husband is the son of an Afrikaner South African and a poor rural farmer Botswana woman....anyway I'll see if it gets better as I go on...

Going back to Nigerian writing, I notice that Nigerian novelist Chris Abani, he of Graceland fame has a new novella Becoming Abigail
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nigeria/abanic1.htm out, as does Segun Afolabi, Nigerian winner of the Caine Prize last year. Afolabi's A Life Elsewhere, a collection of short stories makes its debut this month http://snipurl.com/p4ps. Wole Soyinka treats us to another volume of his delectable memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn follows the acclaimed Ake, Isara and Ibadan this month http://snipurl.com/p4pv. And Chimamanda Adichie is set to follow the success of Purple Hibiscus with Half of a Yellow Sun http://snipurl.com/p4q4 later this summer. Early next year we can expect Helon Habila's Measuring Time http://snipurl.com/p4qd.... It's good to see new Nigerian authors moving beyond the one book stage, and wait with bated breath to see if they live up to their earlier promise....

Stumbled across this website for Nigerwives, http://www.nigerwivesnigeria.com/ an organization of foreign women married to Nigerians....growing up they always appeared slightly elitist- in that odd pathetic way in which in Nigeria, anything "white" or Western had a slight cachet attached to it...Nevertheless they did lots of great charity work especially with the blind and provided an extended family network for their members in Nigeria. Good to see they're still going strong....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

some of those nigerian writers were taught and encouraged by nigerwives - and as for still going strong - the battles in the niger delta and elsewhere in the country is making it more and more difficult to continue in our husband's country