Efemena

The narrative weaves into existence the eponymous heroine Efemena Aruegodore who is beautiful, friendly, enterprising and industrious, but also bold, tough, strong and sometimes self-opinionated revealing a somewhat feminist trajectory in her character portraiture. The sexual encounter between Efemena and Jamuike, a court clerk, disruptive of the future as it might be, gestures towards possibilities of self-knowing which can sometimes secrete disparate emotional states, initiate psychological tensions and wreck dreams. It celebrates the reverence of totems like pythons and superstitious/ritual practices compete with Christian piety. It portrays an integral world where traditional religious worship exists side by side with Christian ethos, sometimes compromised by ecclesiastical hypocrisy as seen in the case of Boyoboyo, the psychically challenged who Pastor Henry neglects and he dies in straitened circumstances. On the converse, homosexual young men like Dennis nourish and imbibe alternative sexual habits and orientations, which pervert the normative practice of heterosexuality. The story constructs a universe redolent with contradictions that throw into relief the realities of modernity and its accompanying paradoxes. The narrative pendulate between the coming-of-age of Efemena and the entangled circumstances, which like a sticky web, construct the concrete outlines of the self-identity of the heroine as she enters full womanhood. It also represents an intricate transition from a moment of relative inexperience about the things that are and ought to be and the coming to terms with the realities that confront Efemena. It is the eagle's vision, which sees clearly, where others do not; a vision, which liberates, ennobles and empowers in an uncommon and generative manner. It is a vision that propels or galvanizes on the path of new beginnings for the transformation of social and cultural patterns. Efemenais not just a narrative whose motions reflect society and its yearnings. It is also an intensely personal yearning that propels and galvanizes Efemena towards the materiality of life and that of self-knowing. What is outstanding about this narrative is the quality of its vision, which is penetrating, and searing and which privileges the cause of womanhood in Nigeria and Africa. It is a vision, which grows and conquers space with its contagion that unlocks the visceral powers and potentials that are constitutive of women's agenda for liberation and empowerment. Efemena reads well like a masterfully crafted story that it is. The author combines a graceful style with a sometimes measured and, at another, a fast-paced narrative kinesis that shifts seamlessly from page to page, chapter to chapter. The language is racy and compelling and the vision urgent and insistent. This is a story, which waits to be told any other day because of its impressive credentials and persuasive appeal.