A few weeks ago I went looking for a new book to read. This year I have been deliberate about reading books by African writers so I was looking for something in those lines. This time I was looking for one with humour because I had been feeling quite down for a while. I’ll tell you one thing, it is extremely hard to find a humorous African book. It’s like all the authors had a meeting and agreed to only write about war, poverty, culture and serious stuff like that. I looked and looked but I couldn’t find any so I settled for the most colorful book I saw. Lucky for me,it turned out to be quite funny.
The story is about a 10 year old girl called Darling and it is told from her point of view and it is written in first person. It is based in Zimbabwe in 2008. So Darling lives in a shanty compound called Paradise and has a bunch of friends; Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Stina. Their houses are made of tin, plastics, cardboards or whatever can be found. They live in extreme poverty and are always hungry so they regularly go to a close high class residential neighbourhood to steal guavas. Chipo, who is 11, is pregnant and has never disclosed who defiled her (It turns out to have been her grandfather). Darling notices the difference between them and the wealthy people. She tells of Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro, whom the reader can see that is just taking advantage of his followers.
She tells of the NGO that comes to drop off some toys and food every few months and gets photos of their faces. Once she and her friends accidentally witness huge group of men grab houses and property from the white people. All this time she dreams of going to America for a better life. Halfway through the book, she finally gets to go to America to live with her aunt. But what she discovers is that America is not all she thought would be. The snow does not interest her and her life is not glamourous at all. Her aunt works 2 jobs and is always on some sort of diet. And school is not exactly the best experience for her. There she grows into a teenager, experimenting with boys and discovering pornography. And she grows into the reality that she has to work for living and she can’t go back home because her visitor’s visa expired years ago.
This book was different. It was written in the English that is spoken in our homes equipped with all the direct translations. It was funny. I laughed a number of times. It had a crazy way of describing things like when she explained that defecating after eating guavas was “like you are trying to give birth to a country”. It was also heart-breaking. An 11 year old being pregnant is not something that should happen. The children witnessed government cadres kill a man who opposed them. They went through so much that is never talked about. You see, the news only reports from a bird’s eye view. The ordinary citizen’s plight is rarely revealed. This book showed me Zimbabwe in a way I had never thought of. Of course I understand that this is not the story of everyone, but one more dimension has been revealed to me and that’s why I love novels. They explain situations to you in ways that the news cannot.
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I highly recommend this book to you guys. Read it if you get the chance. You can request for it at your local book store. You will laugh, frown, and get a bit teary eyed. You will love the language, I promise you.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book or Nah? Do you have any that you think I should read next? Let me know. Thanks for reading.
I actually have a copy of this book and bought it following the recommendation of a friend. Its short story version won a Cain Prize. I agree with you that it is funny and the use of “Kitchen” English is really a good thing from NoViolet Bulawayo. The only thing I can criticise the book on is that it has the “looking at Africa from the BBC or CNNs perspective” thing about it. It has its fair bit of cliche such as the shenanigans of the Man of God Bitchington Mborro and Darling’s father dying of AIDS. At the same time, it seems to me that at the core of the book is a certain sadness firstly from those who cannot escape their dire circumstances in Paradise, to the lack of contentment of those who thought they had escaped poverty (like Darling herself), to the contradictions offered by American life and the curious oscillation between joy and sadness of Darling’s Aunt and Uncle in the States.
It is a good read though and great post.
I didn’t know it originated from a short story. So I guess it is in the same league with Chimamanda’s “Half a yellow sun”.
Interesting