This deeply-felt, debut, story collection from Nigerian poet and writer Arinze Ifeakandu explores queer love and everyday, domestic life in modern-day Nigeria. Ifeakandu’s work reflects his personal experiences - his work originated in the need for a safe space to say what couldn’t easily be voiced out loud. Contemporary Nigeria’s an intensely-homophobic country: same-sex relationships between men or women are completely outlawed, while casual, widespread discrimination can suddenly and totally derail an individual’s life. In some areas - especially in the north where Ifeakandu was born - Sharia law has led to gay men being sentenced to death-by- stoning.
Ifeakandu’s characters are hemmed in by an array of repressive forces - laws that mean the briefest display of affection might lead to years in prison, near-fanatical forms of religion and superstition. It’s a world where even the sound of Christmas carols floating in through a window can create an atmosphere of fear. The characters in these stories have a very particular set of life skills, learning to dodge dating scams that might result in robbery or rape, working out what lies to tell their families and closest friends. They become expert at performing the narrow version of masculinity expected of them. Ifeakandu’s people are fragile, easily fractured, split between states of being: the young boy subjected to brutal rituals intended to rid him of the demons that’ve made him gay; the college professor faces ruin when his relationships with men are brought to light; the aging man who loses his lover and faces losing their home too.
Yet these are not unrelentingly-bleak narratives, Ifeakandu’s characters are vivid and sympathetic united by an unwavering belief in the transformative possibilities of love and requited desires. Despite their harsh environments, they willingly make themselves vulnerable, opening themselves up to moments of intense connection, intimacy and tenderness. They are rendered in carefully-crafted prose, Ifeakandu’s imagery’s sparse but frequently strangely beautiful, his landscapes and settings are impressively vivid and evocative. Like any collection, there are pieces that stand out like “Where the Heart Sleeps” with its poignant portrayal of grief, generational discord, and complicated family ties; others are slightly weaker, “Happy is a Doing Word” feels overly compressed, almost breathless, trying to cover too much ground in the limited space it occupies. Also, the ways in which certain themes or scenarios repeat or resurface to play out in different ways, I think, make this a collection best consumed slowly and in stages.
Top reviews from other countries
Rob Henry
Beautifully Written and Insightful
Reviewed in the United States on 22 July 2023Bradley D Johnson
Powerful, thoughtful, moving.
Reviewed in the United States on 1 July 2023