- By Paul Liam
Damilola Olaniyi’s collection of short stories We Have Come Home, x-rays the dilemmatic life of young Nigerians struggling with reconciling their freshly minted dualities acquired by living or schooling abroad with their African socio-cultural values that expect them to act in certain ways or aspire to certain moral ideals. They are often fronted with traditional value systems after returning from foreign lands which often creates a conflict of interest that puts them against their families or the larger society in one way or another. Part of the struggle of these young Africans and in the context of this review, Nigerians is finding love and fulfillment. At least this is the impression that one deduces from the title story of the collection, We Have Come Home.
Lynda is a young lady in her mid-thirties that has just returned from abroad and is caught up in a sexual relationship with a younger man whom she is four years older than and way out of his league, but driven by sexual cravings she has sex with him in his humble home which she describes as demeaning of her social class as a foreign educated lady who is also pursuing her masters as a lecturer abroad. What is striking about her relationship with Ikenna is not so much the sexual intercourse she has with him but the social realities surrounding her life as an unmarried Nigerian lady. Her mother is desperate for her to get married like her other siblings and relations and this puts pressure on her both psychologically and emotionally thereby leaving her in a state of dilemma. However, as it is typical of many Nigerian families, religious bigotry or inter -religious dichotomy is highlighted as a social problem militating against the prospects of a happy life for many young people.
Perhaps the question Olaniyi raises with this portrayal is to raise awareness of the disservice of inter-religious conflict and how it is inimical to the actualisation of the happiness of young people in a supposedly religious society like Nigeria. One would think that inter-religious differences should not matter in choosing a life partner but the happiness of the couple, unfortunately, that is not the case in Lynda’s situation. But the inter-religious division is not the only challenge that Lynda or other young Africans face when it comes to marriage or picking a life partner.
Another story that illustrates the challenges of young women living in an overtly judgmental society is the story entitled, A Sneak Peak, which chronicles the lives of four young women who have equally travelled abroad before. The narrator encounters three of them in a mall and eavesdrops on their conversation which she recounts in quite comprehensible details. While they look posh and successful, they are actually living with their own demons like everyone else. Although, the ladies are central to the story, it is the social issues that they navigate that the story highlights for deeper reflection by the society. For example, Tolani had lived with her aunt in London where she obtained a degree in journalism, while staying at her aunt’s house, her aunt’s husband wanted to sleep with her and not wanting to succumb or destroy her aunt’s marriage so she cleverly returns to Nigeria without putting a strain on their marriage. But what is significant in Tolani’s story is that circumstances beyond her control forced to relinquish a good life and return home which consequently implied that in order to save her aunt’s marriage she gave up on the prospects of attaining a more fulfilling life in London.
This is the reality of many young girls in Nigeria who have had to sacrifice their dreams because of the predatory lust of the men in their lives who protect them such unhealthy situations. This predatory lifestyle by men has damaged many homes and lives of innocent young girls who perhaps did not have the kind of empowerment that Tolani had and the will to resist and protect her dignity by returning to Nigeria.
Tife’s story like Tolani’s shows the various degree of challenges that young girls are made to face by society usually in certain where they are supposedly protected from harm. These ungodly circumstances often leave them vulnerable and susceptible to all manner of dehumanisation that sometimes even threatens their existence. Tife’s story is akin to that of Ochanya, a Benue girl in Nigeria that was serially raped by a father and his son. Like Tife, instead of protection she was dehumanised and killed by those who should have saved her. Olaniyi does a beautiful job by painting the plight of the girl-child in such a subtle way that it does not even appear like an advocacy for better treatment of the female child.
Funke’s story equally shows vulnerability especially as they struggle to navigate the dark waters of life in a bid to secure economic independence for themselves. Funke’s a tragic case of self-loathing as a result of bad decisions, she finds herself pregnant with a married whom she was convinced was not going to marry her and without a choice, she aborted the pregnancy and now lives with the guilt for the rest of her life. Had she a choice she would be happily married and given birth to the child. The moral of the story is that women who find themselves in patriarchal societies are conditioned to pander to the whims and caprices of the men sometimes for economic liberation or validation. Even though Funke is a working-class lady, somehow society has conditioned her to believe that she needs a man to be complete, and not having her own man or husband, she makes do with what comes her way in form of a married man who will not marry her.
The portrayal of women as victims of social and cultural injustices in the text is telling of the gender issues still being faced by women and young girls regardless of their education or social class, they are confronted with new subversive realities that undermine their happiness and quest for a fulfilled existence. For example, the female characters in the collection are sophisticated, educated, and modern women but that does not make them immune to the realities of the world they live in. Olaniyi creatively deconstructs gender problematics using subtle but telling language and metaphors that prick the mind of the reader. A conscious reader would have no choice but to ask the salient questions inscribed in the stories, which Olaniyi actually wants her readers to ask themselves. In each of the stories, we encounter different layers of the challenges women struggle with in their daily lives in a world preconditioned by patriarchal indoctrinations that foreshadow the attainment of the feminine essence.
The eighteen short stories in this collection are written in fine and accessible language even though a critical reader would demand sturdier suspense and plot dynamics.
Paul Liam is a poet, critic, and author of two poetry collections: Indefinite Cravings (2012) and Saint Sha’ade and Other Poems (2014). Liam is the former National Coordinator of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) in Nigeria.