I read Things Fall Apart a second time / J'ai lu Le monde s'effondre une seconde fois.

Version française en bas :)

I was in High School when I read the French translation of Things Fall Apart for the first time. I recently read it in English and it is much better. I don’t meant it just because it is the original version. But also because I believe I read at the right time. I think the way we perceive a book depends a lot on the period of our life at which we read it. When I firstly discovered Things Fall Apart, I wasn’t much impressed. I preferred stories about things I could easily identify myself. I didn’t realized how important it was to know the story of my people.

When he saw me reading Things Fall Apart, a Nigerian student at my university told me he did not think that he could learn anything from fiction books. He prefers academic books about business, history, politics, etc. I tried to explain that novels like Things Fall Apart need to be differentiated from fantasy. They are stories based on reality. For me it is much easier to learn certain things – especially in history – when they are put in a novel. But obviously, tastes are not supposed to be debated on…

If you haven’t read it yet, please buy Things Fall Apart before even finishing this article. One of my classmates, also from Nigeria, said she didn’t understand all the attention the book caught. I too didn’t understand first. But I had the opportunity through some of the speeches of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and by reading some texts of Chinua Achebe himself, to understand the importance of Things Fall Apart. The novel came out at a time when few books were written by Africans about their life before the White men. As a university student, Chinua Acheve studies several novels written by Westerners that depicted Africans as savages who have been saved by the arrival of the Colonizers. With Things Fall Apart, we enter the daily lives of Igbo. We discover their traditions, customs, both good and bad and the upheavals caused by colonization.

Okonkwo is a brave warrior of the village of Umuofia. His greatest fear is fear itself. He has no tolerance for weakness and keep a bad memory of his own father. Okonkwo’s life is dedicated to work and the acquisition of titles. He severely runs his household and desperate to see his son Nwoye follow his footsteps. Okonkwo wishes that his daughter Ezinma, who has more in common with him, was born a boy. After an accident that led to the death of a member of the village, Okonkwo goes in exile with his wives and children in his mother’s village. During that period, the English settle in the country and his son Nwoye becomes a Christian. Okonkwo returns to his village 7 years later and discovers that the white man has installed his government and religion. He finds that the brave men of Umuofia have softened. The pain of seeing his son joining the foreigners is nothing compared to the humiliation that he and his peers suffer. The others may have decided to submit to the English but Okonkwo does not intend to let it go...

There are so many things to say about Things Fall Apart. Achebe wrote without subterfuge to show that indeed there were things to change but Africans did not live in the state of nature. The African society was shaken not only by white men but also by the house Negroes who were even more zealous that the colonizer. Some settlers as Father Brown respected the natives. But there were others like Reverend Smith who did not believe in compromising with Black people.

While reading Things Fall Apart, you laugh, but you mostly feel anger, sadness and frustration while closing the book. Someone comes to you, turn your children against you, insult you, beat you and then feel offended when you react. The story is in a context well before the birth of my grandparents. But you just have to open your eyes to see that colonization continues, just under a different form…

Do I need to add that you should read Things Fall Apart?

By the way I blog in French for the literature category of Rythmes d’Afrique. It’s an Ivorian blog about African arts and culture. Rythmes d’Afrique is currently in competition for The Bobs Awards, an international competition for blogs. I would love if you could vote for us every 24 hours.

https://thebobs.com/english/category/2016/user-award-french-2016/

J'ai lu Le monde s'effondre une seconde fois

En me voyant lire Le monde s’effondre, un étudiant Nigérian de mon université m’a dit qu’il ne pensait pas qu’une fiction pouvait lui apporter de l’instruction. Il préfère les livres plus académiques. J’ai tenté de lui expliquer que les romans comme Le monde s’effondre sont à différencier du fantastique car ils sont basés sur la réalité. Je trouve moi qu’il est beaucoup plus facile d’apprendre certaines choses, (histoire, culture générale…) quand elles sont mises dans le contexte du roman. Mais bien évidemment les gouts ne sont pas censés être discutés…

Découvrez mon compte-rendu sur Rythmes d’Afrique :) 

Par la même occasion, je vous informe que je blogue pour la rubrique littérature de Rythmes d’Afrique, un blog ivoirien sur l’art et la culture Africaine. Le blog est actuellement en compétition pour le concours international de blogs « The Bobs Award ». Vous pouvez voter toutes les 24h pour nous aider à le remporter. 

 https://thebobs.com/english/category/2016/user-award-french-2016/ 

Empowering the African Youth !

Last Thursday, I woke up at 7:30 am and my phone displayed -10°C. There is no need to tell you that I automatically heard this smooth voice saying “It is okay if you cancel everything and go back to sleep.” My bed was so comfortable and deliciously warm that I didn’t want to leave it and go out. Fortunately I thought about everything I planned for the day, the people who were counting on my presence and I finally said “Goodbye bed, see you soon.” THANKS GOD I had victory over my laziness. My day was so great that I would definitely do it again if I was asked to.

I had the immense pleasure to volunteer with Books for Africa and discover what people are doing there. So here is the short story. “Books for Africa was founded in 1988 as a non-profit organization by Tom Warth, whose dream was to ship donated books to the children of Africa. Tom’s visit to a Ugandan library, where books were almost nonexistent, inspired him to create a system for collecting discarded books from American schools, libraries, and publishers to send to Africa.”

I was very excited to be in this cold warehouse full of wonders… We sorted out books according to the subject (math, leisure, art, science…) and to the audience (elementary, middle, high schools, university). I don’t know how to explain what I was exactly feeling. I wanted to read most of the books I had on hands but despite the fact that I couldn't, I felt happy to know that someone else would be able to do so. Many people including myself, take for granted this chance that they have to learn, to travel by turning a page. According to the United States Agency for International Development, forty-six million African children have never set foot in a classroom. Moreover, 10 to 20 of those kids having the chance to go to school may have to share one textbook.

Books for Africa is the world’s largest shipper of donated books to Africa. In 2013 alone, they shipped 1.5 million books, 775 computers and 3 law libraries valued at over $22 million to 21 countries. They also shipped French-language books from Paris to Cameroon in July and to Guinea in October 2014. The books are collected at the Books For Africa warehouses in St. Paul, Minnesota and Atlanta, Georgia from individuals, book companies, publishers, schools and libraries. As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. This is the reason why BFA is working to end the book famine in Africa and give the chance to millions of children to improve their lives and help realize a better future for Mama Africa.

As you can see on the next picture, there are many ways to get involved in this wonderful journey of empowering the African youth. 

I talked about the organization with one of my friends and he asked “Why are we the ones always receiving?” Of course he was wrong because other parts of the world also receive some helps in many domains. But still, it is true and sad to see that African countries depend so much of the others’ charities. Although I am grateful for this opportunity given to millions of kids, I wish that one day we won’t have to rely on exterior aid to solve our own issues. It is great to discover other places, cultures through the books but as Chimamanda NgoziAdichie said, we should not have a single story of what books are. I hope that in addition of books from other parts of the world, there will also be more African books (both leisure and academic ones) written by and about Africans that will be spread around the continent. Books are powerful so let’s use them to tell and learn our own story.

After two hours in this wonder-room, I left to bridge the gap between surplus and need of medical supplies with Medshare. I told you…I had a great day J

 

  

Lessons from Aleph

As I recently said to one of my friend, depending on the moment of your life you are reading a book, you can be led to different appreciations. In facts, what you have experienced and/or are currently experiencing can affect the way you read, like and understand a book. This is what I discovered when I read for the second time Aleph by Paulo Coelho. The first time I read this novel, I was quickly annoyed by the story and could not end it. Although I would not classify it as one of my favorite books, after reading it twice, I have learned great lessons that I would like to share with you.

1-     We are what we wish to be

For me, the best illustration for this context is the example of the relationship between children and parents. Some kids are willing to foregone or even abandon their dreams to choose the career their parents want them to pursue.  As a result, a lot of people end up doing a job they hate and make them feel sad. Finally they will always complain about the choice their parents “forced” them to make. Paulo Coelho said “we are not the person other people wish we were. We are who we decide to be. It’s always easy to blame others. You can spend your entire life blaming the world but your successes or failures are entirely your own responsibility“.

2-     Take risk and do what you desire

People are always going to carp whatever you do. Even the greatest messengers, Muhammad, Jesus, and Moises (Peace be upon them) did not make unanimity so it’s clear that you won’t please to everyone. You are a human and it’s obvious that you may fail in your experiences but you need to learn this advice of Coelho. “Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do. Seek out people who aren’t afraid of making mistakes and who, therefore, do make mistakes. Because of that, their work often isn’t recognized, but they are precisely the kind of people who change the world and, after many mistakes do something that will transform their own community completely.”

3-     Visit your soul instead of visiting your past

For many people it is difficult to go beyond the errors of the past. We tend to be stuck in what we should or could have done to change our present. We need to know that we can’t go in the past to change what happened. This is actually what I always say when a friend of mine is moping because of bad grades. The most important is what you can do now to improve your situation. The writer said “it takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. Visit your soul, don’t visit your past.”

4-     To live is to experience things

In Aleph which by the way is defined by the point where everything, the whole universe in contained, the narrator has spent years learning his environment, theories about life, spirituality. At a specific point of his life, he felt like he was engaged in a routine and started having doubt about the path he was following. His master J. convinced him to experience something new. Aleph is therefore a trip for Paulo Coelho to discover himself. This journey led him to travel with the Trans-Siberian from the first station to the end of the railway. Like the first time I read it, many people will find this book annoying or difficult to understand especially in the beginning. But if there is only one thing that must be grabbed from this reading, it is that “to live is to experience things, not sit around pondering the meaning of life.”

French Version

I just read Purple Hibiscus !

While reading an excellent book, I always wish I didn’t read it just to be able to do it again. I am not crazy, I just wish I could rediscover the same feelings, feel the same first time sensation... This is exactly what recently happened while I was reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Miles away from my continent, I was very pleased to discover similarities between different countries of Africa. With a big smile on my face, I was remembering some scenes at the village, the church, in family… Nigeria was suddenly not so much different from Ivory Coast.

Purple Hibiscus is a story told by Kambili a fifteen-year old teenager oppressed by her fanatically religious father. In Kambili’s home, there is no place for laughs. Although her father is a well-respected and generous man in his community, he is also violent and absurdly severe with his own family. As Chimamanda said about him, “there are lot of people who are kind and generous and thoughtful, but in the name of religion, do all sorts of awful things.”

Purple Hibiscus evokes religion, love, family but also the politics in Africa. My favorite characters are Amaka and her younger brother Obiora. On one side, there is a girl so tied to her African culture that she refused to get confirmed because she was supposed to choose an English name. On the other side, there is a boy who seems more mature than his age and who dreams about United States because of the bad political climate in his country.

I particularly loved the typically African names, the common African expressions and the traditions you can guess it…typically African. I just wanted to go back in my village and learn more about my story from the elders.

I hardly tried not to give you an extended summary of the novel nor did I wanted to show you how much I actually loved it. I believe that when a book received too much appreciation, the reader tries to discover it as he has been told about instead of having his own feelings.

Therefore please guys, discover Purple Hibiscus by yourself, or through Kambili’s eyes.

Picture: The Guardian 

NB: For Beyonce’s fans, Chimamanda is the voice you hear in the song flawless. I hope this will triggers your desire to read her book. 

French Review