A little while ago, I had a moment of self-realization. I was thinking about the books I read and what I like and don't like and why. I realized that what influenced how I felt about a book was more about who the main characters are and less about what happens to them. For example, I had just finished The Stanford Lasses which had a lot of hard things happen, in fact I almost didn't finish it, but I liked it anyway because the people and their relationships were so great. Then there was The Kite Runner where I felt like the main kid was just annoying at every stage of his life.
So, armed with this new-found knowledge, I went to the library. I felt like a whole new world had opened up to me. Gone were the days of shrinking from a book because it looked like there would be hard things in it. I was almost giddy with the possibilities. Which would explain my choice. Half of a Yellow Sun is about the Nigerian civil war in the late sixties. Talk about jumping in the deep end. With my Nigerian brother-in-law I have a new found interest in the country and I told myself it was time to read something with some substance, not just all the fluff books I'm used to.
I think I liked it. It's the type of book that takes some processing time. At the same time, though, you almost don't want to process it because it's hard stuff. While reading it, though, it occurred to me that the author could have made it much worse. She chose to follow the middle class so they didn't personally starve to death even if people around them were. Plus, it was broken up into parts and half way through the rough war part, we skip back in time to before the war and have a bit of a break before reading about the end. It really helped.
While reading it, I couldn't help but think about all of the problems in Africa that we, the colonizers, have caused (I'm guessing that was the point). Jason and I have talked about this before along with problems in the Middle East. The way we just drew lines on the map and assigned countries to people who have no interest in being together or even hate each other. Then we wonder why they have these problems. Well, knowing why things are this way doesn't solve the problem and I'm a problem solver type so next comes the inevitable question, what can we do? Jason, in his sage wisdom, points out the only thing we can do is to preach the gospel and through that, peace will come to Africa.
1 comment:
I had a coworker who was from Nigeria when I lived in Utah. He was a great guy to work with. When I originally asked where he was from, he told me "Africa." I laughed a little and told him that was like asking me where I am from and saying "North America." He then told me and was impressed I had even the slightest notion where in Africa his homeland was located. He also informed me that he stopped telling people he was from Nigeria when someone thought that was right by Queens :o)
That sounds like a fascinating book, I will have to keep it in mind, when I get the chance. I also appreciated your thoughts and insights on Imperialism and Colonization. Then again, they would have been neighboring countries that hated each other, so there is no guarantee that they wouldn't have had the same results. There probably would have been more international intervention since the world seems to like to stay out of "civil wars." (Talk about oxymorons, that is up there with military intelligence!)
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