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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chimamanda Adichie's "Yellow Hibiscus" By Chidi Anthony Opara
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ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Chimamanda Adichie's "Yellow Hibiscus" By Chidi Anthony Opara
I have to issue a caveat at this point that this piece is not a critique in the traditional sense, of the work of the well known young Nigerian novelist. It is rather an observation of what I consider a serious faux pas in social relationships in Igboland in Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus", which should have been titled "Yellow Hibiscus".
Let me hasten to say that I have not read any of the novelist's well publicized works before now. I have however read some of the reviews, mostly by Western reviewers, on her and her works, many of which I consider very patronizing. Such reviews make me suspicious, the Adichie reviews do.
When Chinagorom, my twelve-year-old daughter who has just entered senior secondary school came back from school last week and greeted me as she is wont to whenever she has a new book with "daddy do you know this writer?" waving "Purple Hibiscus" which she said is part of her Literature in English syllabus, I saw that as an opportunity to see what the novelist has to say. I borrowed the book and settled down to read.
I must confess that that I fell in love with the writer's narrative style. The book is what Western reviewers like to label "unputdownable".
The story is set in South-Eastern Nigeria, which is the homeland of the Igbos, a majority ethnic nationality in Nigeria. The period is in the 1980s through the 1990s. Please note that I am an Igbo, born and bred in a predominately Roman Catholic part of Igboland some forty-eight years ago.
Even though I got worried early in the reading with the characterization of Igbo Roman catholic priests as spiritually and intellectually inferior to their white colleagues, I nevertheless let that be.
What got my full attention is the seriously strained relationship between the main character's father and her grandfather on ground of differences in religious belief. Kambili's(main character) father is a literate wealthy Christian with a tradition title. He is a community man. His father on the other hand is an illiterate poor pagan. He is also a community man. Kambili's father is his only son and first child.
The relationship between father and son, which placed the son in a stronger position, is not such that can be tolerated anywhere in Igboland at anytime, even in this so called modern. You cannot, for instance decree that your father should not enter your house in any Igbo village for whatever reasons. If that becomes necessary, it will be the prerogative of Umunna. If you do that, fines will be imposed and you will be ordered to rescind that decision and to apologies to your father or face ostracization, your wealth and position notwithstanding, but Kambili's father did that and got away with it, there is even an "Omere Ora"(benefactor of the community)title to the bargain. That is not Igboland.
There are many other situations in the portions I read before dropping the book like a hot iron, that portray the Igbos as either uncultured or easily influenced by wealth and position to abandon their customs and traditions.
One would not have bothered writing this piece if one had not read distinguished Professors in World class Universities proudly saying "I teach Adichie" or words to that effect, meaning that they also teach "Purple Hibiscus". Chances are that future mindsets about the Igbos will mirror these negative, albeit false impressions in the novel. I cringe whenever I remember that my young daughter is reading this book as part of her school curriculum.
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