“Her eyes came open. Fully open. But she could no longer see the Abyssinian mountain that the Sabbath sun had turned like fire…
She could no longer see anything. She was blind.
For a long and disconcerting moment, she did not know who she was or where she was.  Only five to eight seconds later did she begin to realize that she had been dreaming.”

Book Review:

Review by Friederike Knabe  (SEP 10, 2011)

Makeda is the title character of Randall Robinson’s astounding, thought provoking, and highly engaging novel. A blind retired “laundress,” Makeda’s life is anchored in her tiny, often sun-filled, parlour in Richmond, Virginia. Her modest circumstances, after a life of hardship, stand in stark contrast to her appearance and demeanor: at home, at church and in the market, she is usually clad in richly embroidered beautiful African gowns and she radiates wisdom and emotional strength, instilling respect wherever she goes. Some unknown visitors leave gifts for her, or speak to her as if she were somebody else…

Often, when she lifts her unseeing eyes toward the sun, her posture and diction change: she appears to have moved from one instant to the next – like a time traveller – into a far away place. She dreams “in pictures – color pictures, pictures of people, pictures of odd places – though she had never in her life seen a human soul…” she tells Gray, her youngest grandson, later. Recalling her dreams in great detail, she will only allow Gray, her “spirit child,” to share her secrets. “I remember at that point she said to me: Things are almost never what you, with your two eyes, can see them being. Sometimes they are less, but most of the time they are more. Worlds and worlds more, son.”

Makeda’s dreams, the “special ones,” take her to different places in Africa, regions that all have a special spiritual connection to African-American history. The dream stories are so vividly told, and, with each recurrence, grow in such intricate detail, that they pull the reader into those past lives just as much as Gray, letting us forget that it may be “just a dream.” Or is it? Is there more to it? Makeda knows where she has been and who she is in her dreams; did these places really exist at some time in the past? Is there surviving evidence of them today? Why those places and not others? What are the connections of those people to her own life and time? Many questions occupy her mind. Her curiosity grows to the point that she, after warning her grandson not to share his knowledge with anybody, instructs him to investigate any factual bases of what she tells him. Especially the amazing story of the Dogon people in Mali, West Africa, fascinates both: Dogon cosmology claims to have known about Sirius and his three stars hundreds or, maybe, thousands of years before science could prove their claim. Gray, by then a college student, will have to find a way to make this journey for his grandmother, and as it turns out, also for himself.

Robinson, recognized for his extensive non-fiction writing on topics that range from African-American socio-politics to international human rights, ventures with Makeda beyond any confines of a more traditional novel. The very moving account of Gray’s coming-of-age journey, the depiction of his close ties to his grandmother, set against the backdrop of the family’s difficult circumstances in nineteen fifties and sixties, represent by themselves a richly rewarding story. Yet, Makeda’s dream travels are more than a key for Gray’s own journey in search for identity and, eventual, love. They are like virtual spiritual doors that Robinson opens that lead us into his multi-layered vision of a broad-based African-American identity that, while recognizing its contemporary challenges, is intimately connecting it back to its African roots and its African historical and spiritual heritage.

To expand on his theme, the author introduces fictional and existing expert voices that speak to the young people in Gray’s college environment. For many students and readers, these are provocative and challenging propositions. For Gray, through the many talks with his grandmother, they are, more than anything, confirmation of his learning and evolving vision of his own role in life.

Robinson is an exquisite writer and stylist who brings the different narrative strands and themes harmoniously together and into one fascinating and enriching reading experience. I want to add on a personal level, that I found Robinson’s choices for Makeda’s “dream places and times” highly relevant for the themes of the novel. For me, they have been meaningful also as they reminded me of my own journeys of discovery into Africa and, especially of my very own very similar experience in Mali’s Dogon region.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 5 readers
PUBLISHER:	OpenLens; 1 edition (August 30, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Friederike Knabe
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Randall Robinson
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker

Bibliography:

• Makeda (August 2011)

Nonfiction:

• Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America (1998)
• The Debt: What America Owes the Blacks (2000)
• The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other (DATE)
• Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land (2004)
• An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President (2007)

“…We who go with the landscape – we who should be asking ourselves, Why do we need white men and Arab men and China men and mulattoes to legislate and dictate and govern Mother Africa when it’s only the Africans who can save Africa? ”

Book Review:

Review by Friederike Knabe (JUL 24, 2011)

Eternity is an unusual young woman and an effervescent storyteller. She shares her life story in short, action-packed episodes that are embedded in evocations of colourful West-African ambience, and, underlying these, insights into societal and political upheaval in the fictional West Cassavaland, realistically set in that part of Africa. Adopted at birth and raised by two white scientists, Stevedore and Juliet Frankenheimer, she symbolizes a self-confident, stunning beauty – “pitch black and shimmering like the purple outer space of the universe.” However, she carries a secret that, once she is aware of it, will fundamentally influence the course of her life.

The novel opens with Stevedore dying in Eternity’s arms, apparently poisoned… From these first pages Kola Boof spins a rich, at times hilariously funny, at others seriously engaged, yet always provocative tale that owed as much to surrealism with a touch of sci-fi as it does to African folklore and traditional customs. Set against this backdrop, the novel brings out, in a sardonic tone, challenging socio-political positions that can be seen as confrontational and may offend some readers’ sensitivities.

Eternity’s secret not only sets her apart from her tribe, the Ajowa, but also makes her a fighter for what she believes troubles hers and other Cassavan tribes. In their society, the pure black people, like herself, while in the majority, are treated nonetheless as second class citizens. The ruling class, who call themselves now “Pogo Metis Signare” (and formerly were called by another ironic name, the “Bastars Elite”) are of European-African mixed heritage. Given societal pressures, any ambitious black African man’s aim is to have lighter-skinned children by mating with a white woman. Furthermore, a growing industry has been selling skin lightening treatments, such as creams and pills, without regard to serious side effects. One can recognize these “swallowers” everywhere by the discolouring of their gums.

Eternity’s upbringing makes her rebel against such obsessions and other strictures imposed traditionally on black African women. “The African woman is treasured for her obedience […, she] is but a flower in a garden – her husband the fence around it.” Yet, only when she comprehends why she carries the memory of another black woman, Orisha, “a real-life blue-black Ajowan woman,” who had fought against skin lightening and paid with her life for her outspokenness, does Boof’s heroine fully comprehend her role in society… As an internationally famous model, Eternity can use her sexual attraction to her advantage, and she does, yet a chance encounter with Sea Horse Twee, a true-black famous local rap star with strong political ambitions, threatens her physical and emotional independence. She is kidnapped, joins a harem of sorts and yes, maybe, even falls in love too.

Kola Boof’s novel is a fluidly-written, fast and easy read, her characters, some more fully developed than others, represent a wide range of experiences that serve the author’s narrative. In addition to Sea Horse Twee, together with Eternity, clearly at the centre, Tasso, Twee’s first wife stands out as does Eternity’s half-brother, Tiberius. The author does not shy away from clichés or stereotypes to raise her themes of colonialism, all kinds of racism (black/not black enough, black/white, white/black), and, very well illustrated, the corrupt and ineffective power struggles in African countries. Her passionate reaction against the treatment of young girls and of African women in general is palpable. While the author’s positions can come across as rather radical and uncompromising, within her story she couches them with a great sense of humour and even parody. Most characters are fictional, still, they may carry traits of real-life individuals. A couple of actual names stood out for me, Oumou Sangaré and Rokia Traoré, both well-known Mali musicians, both representing strong independent African women.

The novel’s title, The Sexy Part of the Bible, is deliberately provocative. As the novel’s epigram Boof cites a 17th century missionary, “The white woman is the virtuous part of the Bible; her hand is fair.” Eternity, in the novel, completes the quote (allegedly from a proselytizing pamphlet): “But the black woman is the sex in the Bible; everything about her his wicked.” Kola Boof (not her birth name) is the author of several novels and other writings. Her own life story may read at least as dramatic as that of her heroine, Eternity, in this novel.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 20 readers
PUBLISHER:	Akashic Books (June 21, 2011)
REVIEWER:	Friederike Knabe
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Kola Boof
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of: The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Bibliography:

• Nile River Women: The First Poems of Kola Boof (097120196X)
• Flesh and Devil (2004)
• Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories about African Women (2004)
• The Sexy Part of the Bible (June 2011)

Nonfiction:

• Diary of a Lost Girl (2007)

“There goes Mandela looking bemused in his trademark paisley-print outfit. Twenty years of incarceration and look, look where I find myself, his look seems to say, what I’ve been missing all those years cooped up in Robben Island.”

Book Review:

Review by Doug Bruns (OCT 11, 2009)

We meet the protagonist of The Boy Next Door, Lindiwe Bishop, when she is just fourteen. The white woman next door, Mrs. McKenzie, mother of Ian, has just burned to death. Set afire. It is Africa in the 1980s and Robert–Bob–Mugabe has just taken his oath, “… his hand firmly on the Bible…and so help me God…Zimbabwe was born.” This is the stage set, at the intersection of culture and identity (personal and national), in the opening pages of this delicate and beautiful debut novel.

That night Lindiwe lies in bed. “I wanted to find out low long you would have to burn to become just bone. I wanted to know if Mrs. McKenzie had burnt all night while I had been sleeping. I tried to think what I had been dreaming of. I wanted to know if something had happened in my dreams that should have made me wake up, draw back the curtain and see…what? Would I have seen her? Heard her? Smelt her? I tried to remember when was the last time I had seen her live, but I couldn’t see it, that exact moment.”

Within days the son, Ian, is carted off to prison. It is reported that he confessed to the murder. A year later he is released on lack of evidence. He returns home and Lindiwe quietly observes him from across her fence. “He came home today. We all saw him. He stood just looking up at the house. Mummy said he looked like a criminal. I didn’t think she was right about that.” Sabatini builds from this premise a striking relationship between the young Zimbabwean Lindiwe and the young white neighbor.

Lindiwe grows accustom to his presence and soon he is giving her an occasional lift to school, though out of her parent’s view. A friendship blossoms. Through the course of this novel we follow the interweaving path of Lindiwe and Ian for almost twenty years. Along the way we monitor the birth of Zimbabwe and watch it collapse and creep to the edge of civil war. We observe the destruction of families, specifically Lindiwe’s, torn apart by infidelity and political intrigue. Was her father a Rhodesian army officer and did he partake in atrocities? We watch as white racism is reversed and then surpassed in a nascent reign of terror that includes fleeing whites and politically opposing blacks. Mugabe, a distant, though fascinating character throughout the novel, strengthens his grip on the country and eventually includes Ian in his grasp. AIDs is evidenced and begins its horrific march across the continent. Yet, through it all, we trust the voice of Lindiwe, so masterfully does Sabatini draw her. We trust her observations. Her voice rings true. The reader is carried along in this narration in a deceptively fluid and deft manner. It is hard to believe this is Sabatini’s first novel, she is so adept.

Coming of age tales, novels of Africa, stories of AIDS and political malfeasance, all themes here, are well worn paths. Yet cliches are avoided in the novel. There is so much hope and beauty seen through the eyes of Lindiwe that we are never burdened by the complexities and horror of her life in a country spinning out of control. Though families and lives are destroyed, we are never set adrift in despair. Her voice is unburdened, her story one of control and aspiration.

Lindiwe and Ian survive the years. He becomes a photojournalist and gains international repute with his images from South Africa. She works for NGOs, and goes to University. While all about them crumbles they carry on. When they meet again after years of separation, they pick up effortlessly where they left off, like the two kids they once where. Ian spots her from a car and pulls over.

“If you want, I can drive,” she offers.
“You can drive?” Ian asks.
“Yes, don’t look so shocked.”
“I have to get used to you like this.”
“Like what?”
“Grown.”

Lindiwe has a secret and when Ian discovers it, their lives become inextricably fused. Their mixed-race relationship is subject to forces that are designed to drive them apart, even make them enemies. Yet, through trial and challenge, one after the other, they return, one to the other. Eventually they escape and set upon a new world and a new life, perhaps to be free and unburdened.

There is so much that is horrible about the world in which these two exist. Too often, modern fiction of this type bludgeons us with scenes of aching despair. But not here. Yes, their horrible world is portrayed. And yes there are scenes that we fear will creep up on us and pounce, yet the narration stops short of that. We are allowed to breath in the grace of these lives laced with hope and commitment. I look forward to Sabatini’s long career. She has much to say, and she says it so wonderfully.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 16 readers
PUBLISHER:	Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
REVIEWER:	Doug Bruns
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Irene Sabatini
EXTRAS:	Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More African novels: A Blade of Grass by Lewis Desoto Links by Naruddin Farah Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton More coming-of-age in difficult times: The Assassin’s Song by M.G. Vassanji Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji

Bibliography:

• The Boy Next Door (September 2009)