Surprised by Joy – C. S. Lewis
“Nothing, I suspect, is more astonishing in any man’s life than the discovery that there do exist people very, very like himself.” P.152
I think it is pertinent to mention that I bought a box set of some C. S. Lewis books. I must also add that something in me, like in him, is drawn to the Classics. But ‘Classics’ is somewhat relative. What is Classic to me would sometimes be contemporary or modern to the late Lewis. The point is that I discovered that older writers were more grounded and wrote with clarity that is somewhat lacking these days. That being said, Surprised by Joy was a good read. Of course, in his fashion, C. S. Lewis wrote with wit and humour. I chuckled a lot and may have seemed insane to my colleagues at the office. There were parts of his story that I understood precisely because other books I have read, or films I have watched, provided the much-needed historical context.
For example, I could understand his elder brother’s fascination with India. India was, after all, the crown jewel of the British Empire. Reading Lewis’ story somewhat humanised my knowledge of the British obsession with India. But this book is not about colonial history. It is about how Lewis went from disbelief in God to a surefooted belief in God. I also liked that Lewis was a reader. He read a lot. I find his conversion story to be similar to mine. Not that I needed to be converted in the strict sense, but it was my love for literature and history that led (and still leads) me to a more grounded faith. I had several “you too?” moments that felt like Lewis, and I would probably have been great friends if we were peers. There were other parts of the book that I could not easily follow, partly because the writing seemed dense, and partly because I lacked the context to understand what he meant. However, it is safe to say that on the whole, I understood the gist of C. S. Lewis’ life story and the remarkable patience God has in leading us back to himself. I think that anyone who picks up Surprised by Joy would find it a pleasant read, provided the book is not read in a rush.
The Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association – Ola Awonubi
“My friends have been there for me, and an amazing family friend, Aunty Remi, as well. They helped by being there, by praying for me, making cups of tea, and listening to me rant on about being single and childless, and they didn’t tell me this was God’s plan and I had to like it or lump it. They hugged me, cried along with me, and helped me realise that my life counted and that the best was still ahead for me.” P. 193
If you are a Nigerian woman who loves books, I double dare you not to buy this book because of the title. We all know who the Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association are. Some of the members may not be in your immediate family, but are everywhere around you, from church to the office to your neighbourhood corner shop. I read this book in a breeze because the writing was accessible, and it was one of those long public holidays that allowed one to put one’s feet up. It chronicles the travails of Sade, an unmarried fifty-year-old British-Nigerian – a sacrilege by many Nigerian societal standards. What I like about the book is how it centres Sade’s Christian faith. Her Christian faith is what kept her from doing what everyone else wanted her to do but didn’t feel right to her relationship with God. The book reminded me a lot about Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s Yinka Where is your Huzband? Because the storylines are similar, although the protagonist in this book is much older, the gravity of being unmarried at her age is graver. As a single Christian, The Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association encourages me to live unapologetically, remembering that God’s will is more important than what society thinks. Romantics would love this book. I had several moments of beaming from ear to ear at the almost sickly-sweet romance between Sade and Jimi Taylor (his name is so cool). The Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association was such a foot down, grown romance. Mature. The type I am hoping to have. Not at fifty, though.
This Motherless Land – Nikki May
“Funke refused to go down for supper and made it clear to Liv she wanted to be alone. She lay in bed crying bitter tears, aching for Mum, longing for Femi, wanting Dad – old Dad – to come and rescue her. She wanted to be at Tarwa Bay with Oyinkan. To lie under soft cotton sheets, not a prickly blanket. To be hot and sweaty, not cold and damp. She longed for her people, brown skin, loud voices, wide smiles. She couldn’t imagine her mother here. Mum didn’t belong with these cold grey people. No wonder she’d escape to Nigeria.” P. 59
The sixteen-year-old me who could not read Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park during A Levels has been comforted by this book. I not only read it, but finished it in two days (being less busy at work contributed to that speed). The cover design of This Motherless Land caught my attention the first time I saw it at a neighbourhood supermarket, although I couldn’t afford it. It was worth the wait when I could eventually afford it. I liked its Nigerianess, something that was missing in my several attempts to read Mansfield Park because I felt too disconnected from Victorian England. It was such a heartwarming story of identity with love, loss, longing and friendship woven together to get one emotional. I legit cried at a point. It is not simply a story of racism or tribalism or ethinicism, it goes beyond to address what it feels like to be in the middle of these issues. If black and white people are pointing fingers at one another, well, here are mixed-race children who are black and white. It divides between England and Nigeria. I had never thought to ask what belonging would be like for mixed-race Nigerians. This Motherless Land was a searing eye-opener. Not saying all mixed-race Nigerians go through what Funke, one of the protagonists, went through, but it was still something to consider. That is, the possibility of being neither here nor there in a way I would never experience. This Motherless Land is such a rich and worthy addition to Nigeria’s National Story. I almost couldn’t put the book down, and when I did, I wanted so badly to pick it up because This Motherless Land is also splendid prose. Nikki May can write! I’d love to write like that if I were a published writer.
Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation – Fola Fagbule and Feyi Fawehinmi
“The still evolving country had come a long way from the opening shots of Dan Fodio’s revolution, which had heralded the first of many series of forced combinations, snowballing into the eventual formal emergence of a single political entity called Nigeria on January 1, 1914. Along the way, several consistent themes had shone through: the outsized influence of outside forces on domestic affairs, the inability except for a few notable exceptions of the local elite (both traditional and westernized) to form sustainable political compromises, the unfortunate and remarkable sacrifice of life, treasure and expertise by many heroes foreign and domestic during the century it took to assemble the country.” P.323
When the authors said they wrote this book partly because “we share a belief that history is too important to be left to historians alone…” I felt inner peace and an endearment of sorts. In it, one is sure to see Nigeria in a different light. There was an in-depth consideration of many of the push and pull factors that led to the creation of Nigeria. In most accounts of the formation of Nigeria, would-be Nigerians are depicted as being devoid of agency, but that is not entirely true. This book opened me to new stories of people and places. It’s the sort of book that makes you want to dive into the footnotes and read all the other books and materials referenced. I must commend the authors because, apart from being amateur historians, they are perfect storytellers. History nerds would be delighted about this book.
Furthermore, Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation is a backstory to some of the contemporary issues facing Nigeria. I believe that anyone interested in proffering lasting solutions to the struggles Nigeria faces has to be a student of history. And how does one become a student of history without access to historical records? This is where Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation comes in. The book is a work of popular history. It narrates the copious details of sometimes inaccessible Nigerian history into readable and enjoyable stories for the average Nigerian. Fola Fagbule and Feyi Fawehinmi deserve appreciation.
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