Once under a Kuka tree
Elnathan John is a Nigerian writer, lawyer gender equality advocate. He lives in Abuja, Nigeria and is an avid blogger.
His shortlisted story Bayan Layi, is about survival on the hard streets of life known as Nigeria. It is told through the point of view of a teenager, Dantala, a street boy who used to be an Almanjiri.
He is rescued from a fight by a young man of indeterminate age named Banda (the Fagin of the story), and turned into a ‘Kuka tree boy’, boys who made their kingdom under a Kuka tree in the village (or is it a small town?) of Bayan Layi. The boys survive by petty larceny, and acting as thugs for politicians.
They also had a regular supply of weed (which is emphasized throughout the story, so I thought I should mention it too, since it seems so important).
The story was told in a simple, straightforward language, which made reading it easy. But did I enjoy reading it?
Frankly, I don’t know what to make of this story, maybe because I am familiar with the author’s writing style and expected something ... more?
The story comes across as stilted and rather unimaginative. It has been told, over and again, in a thousand different forms, with different characters, in different settings, but it is still the same old story, of young boys living rough on the streets, of brutality and poverty.
The most unbelievable part of the story is when Dantala and Gobedanisa stole sweet potatoes from somebody’s farm, the farmer had caught them at it and in the process of chasing the boys, he had fallen into an antelope trap (laid conveniently in the middle of a potato farm). The boys had watched with disinterest as the man struggled till he died. It wasn’t that they abandoned him, they watched. After the farmer stopped struggling, Dantala had reiterated his usual saying ‘It is Allah’s will everything that happens’ also known as ‘c’est la vie’ or if you’ll pardon my French ‘shit happens’.
You can see the end right from the beginning, and one has the impression that the author was telling himself all the while writing the story ‘please, not a hair out of place’.
Like I said last year about one of the stories shortlisted for the prize, it is as if the author has a tome titled ‘How to write for the Caine Prize’ open beside him while he was writing the story.
It has every quality the Caine Prize judges appear to seek for in stories written about Africa, young children who are hungry and homeless, politics, violence and death.
I also noticed that every word that is not English is italicised, another literary tool employed to emphasize the ‘otherness’ of the story, in case you missed it. There was also the ever present fruit tree and the stealing of food by characters to appease the god of hunger.
If it wasn’t on the Caine Prize shortlist, would I have bothered to read this story to the end? I seriously doubt it, but as they say ‘he who pays the piper, dictates the tune’. As long as the West provides the affirmation that African writers need to boost their careers, that is how long it will take us to be brave enough to write our own stories.
Maybe I would have liked the story better if the characters weren’t such caricatures and so predictable, maybe I would have liked it better if it was an honest story about Almanjiri’s, maybe I should simply go and find that tome and write my own Caine Prize story.
His shortlisted story Bayan Layi, is about survival on the hard streets of life known as Nigeria. It is told through the point of view of a teenager, Dantala, a street boy who used to be an Almanjiri.
He is rescued from a fight by a young man of indeterminate age named Banda (the Fagin of the story), and turned into a ‘Kuka tree boy’, boys who made their kingdom under a Kuka tree in the village (or is it a small town?) of Bayan Layi. The boys survive by petty larceny, and acting as thugs for politicians.
They also had a regular supply of weed (which is emphasized throughout the story, so I thought I should mention it too, since it seems so important).
The story was told in a simple, straightforward language, which made reading it easy. But did I enjoy reading it?
Frankly, I don’t know what to make of this story, maybe because I am familiar with the author’s writing style and expected something ... more?
The story comes across as stilted and rather unimaginative. It has been told, over and again, in a thousand different forms, with different characters, in different settings, but it is still the same old story, of young boys living rough on the streets, of brutality and poverty.
The most unbelievable part of the story is when Dantala and Gobedanisa stole sweet potatoes from somebody’s farm, the farmer had caught them at it and in the process of chasing the boys, he had fallen into an antelope trap (laid conveniently in the middle of a potato farm). The boys had watched with disinterest as the man struggled till he died. It wasn’t that they abandoned him, they watched. After the farmer stopped struggling, Dantala had reiterated his usual saying ‘It is Allah’s will everything that happens’ also known as ‘c’est la vie’ or if you’ll pardon my French ‘shit happens’.
You can see the end right from the beginning, and one has the impression that the author was telling himself all the while writing the story ‘please, not a hair out of place’.
Like I said last year about one of the stories shortlisted for the prize, it is as if the author has a tome titled ‘How to write for the Caine Prize’ open beside him while he was writing the story.
It has every quality the Caine Prize judges appear to seek for in stories written about Africa, young children who are hungry and homeless, politics, violence and death.
I also noticed that every word that is not English is italicised, another literary tool employed to emphasize the ‘otherness’ of the story, in case you missed it. There was also the ever present fruit tree and the stealing of food by characters to appease the god of hunger.
If it wasn’t on the Caine Prize shortlist, would I have bothered to read this story to the end? I seriously doubt it, but as they say ‘he who pays the piper, dictates the tune’. As long as the West provides the affirmation that African writers need to boost their careers, that is how long it will take us to be brave enough to write our own stories.
Maybe I would have liked the story better if the characters weren’t such caricatures and so predictable, maybe I would have liked it better if it was an honest story about Almanjiri’s, maybe I should simply go and find that tome and write my own Caine Prize story.
Well Ayo, I'm happy that in the end u agreed that the author was writing for caine prize and as such knew what would appeal. And can u blame him? Personally, I have said b4 that it seems in nigeria, before you write u ask urself if u r writing to entertain your audience ir if u r writing for judges of prizes. Oh well
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the story. I read it many months ago and told Elnathan I didn't like it. And I didn't finish it. But I understand that he did what needed to be done and got shortlisted, no? So I can't fault that. I have seen plenty of his other work to know this is not him!!
It might be a loopsided judgment to say that the story is Unimaginative (for U also contradicted such premise by saying it has already been told in many forms- an expended story is not unimaginative)and they boys attitude towards death(depicted by the entrapped and fallen Farmer) is unbeleivable. By these ascertions, It is shown, that ur views are informed by a belongingness- in the middle station of life (as qualified by Daniel Defoe in Crusoe), where cruel happenstance is rare and live is just semi-utopian. But in ghetto Africa; the inhumanities of Life Visited in the Form of Hunger, Tribalism and Penury forces much a disheartening Coldness on the Populace; evenso- of kids younger than Elnathans'. I have seen witchcraft-stigmatized Outcast-kids Sharing accomodations with a rotting an oozing corpse under a pedestrian bridge; I have seen them Rob a mob-hacked man of his personal belongings-comprising of trivailities such as a belt, Handkerchieves and socks. The African Ghetto is more Gory, elNathan just painted a colour Diluted-Picture. Yet I agree that the rudiments of Caine prize-ship is withering true African story-telling forms..we might have a differnet genre soon- that of Caine prize modelled Writing.
ReplyDeleteI llve in the kind of setting Elnathan describes and I don't see anything unbelievable in what he has written. Worst things have happened. This 'weed' thing he so much imphasize in the work is causing wreck to the country's youth. I have seen what this does to them. But perhaps one could see the end of the story midway while reading it. I like the simplicity of the narrative and on whether the author doctored the piece just for the Caine Prize is another matter entirely. But for me, "The Whispering Tress" by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim reads more entertaining out of the whole lot. Ahamed
ReplyDelete