Do you remember those kind of movies or books parents and elderly ones keep away from you as a child? I’m not talking about the Kama Sutra please. I grew up in Nigeria, most of us girls never knew such books exists until we were of ‘marriageable age’ but that’s not the topic of the day.
I’m talking about those ones that are uniquely against everything you’ve been raised with; stereotypes, conventions, norms and it is imperative that your conservative African innocence be preserved at all cost (everything else can burn).
This reminded me of when my elder brother found me reading “48 laws of power” by Robert Greene at age 12. “Dami! Drop that book”, he said, “you cannot understand what’s in it, it's too big for your age”. What a shock he must have had when I devoured “the act of seduction” by the same author just a year later. Take that brodaly!
But today, “Girls, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize is a gold mine, an honorary feminist bible if you’ll ask me.
Cutting across several female characters whose lives one way or the other are intertwined, untying the knot is such an intrigue. I guess with these characters negating what the societal conception of a girl and woman is, or should be, this book might come as a shock and so if you’re used to the rom-coms and “Cinderellean happily ever after”, don’t bother picking this book, you’ll just unnecessarily hate yourself after.
Of course with a strong LGBTQ theme and the text being dedicated to the “sisters, sistahs, men and mandem” I said “yasssss!” in mind anyways (I’m not interested in a 14 years prison term created by the Nigerian government for involving in anything gay plus those extra lectures in my criminal law class did taught me something).
I loved every character, from Amma to Bunmi, those women literally broke every rule in the game. They were fierce, pioneers and revolutionaries in their own ways with flaws that kept reminding me that these are everyday people I’ll probably come across in the street and not recognize them, after all, identities are not engraved on the forehead.
Personally, I saw myself in one of the characters, her name is Yazz (I know right! Like Yazz, sister!). Maybe because we are of the same age group, I resonated with her views especially on seemingly forbidden topics such as feminism, gender identity and sexual orientation.
The win for me here is that the book opened me to a global perspective of some issues and began to weigh my views of the world, judging some stereotypes I unconsciously have cultivated over the years.
Even the wonderful lady who gifted me the book said that she had to think twice doing so. Well, I’m glad she did, bless your heart sister and I will most definitely recommend it for girls who are hoping to find themselves in this big world and for others who are open minded enough.
Some things in the book will shock you but don’t worry, you’ll survive. I did.
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