Let me make one thing clear from the beginning: we Africans
must never forget, or undermine the "old" books published by our
early outstanding writers, and not only Achebe or Soyinka or Amadi. We should
learn, investigate, do research on the so-called old classics and seek guidance
from those older and more knowledgeable than we are in the process. This book
is a good example, and I am very privileged I got to read a copy. The author,
Obi Egbuna belonged to the top drawer of early African writers. From an early
age he was based in England, Europe, but he never forgot his roots; he kept on
paying tribute to his ancestry, race and continent. In this novel, Madness of
Didi his depiction of African life in the villages or rural areas is superb.
Like Achebe, Nwapa, Munonye, Amadi, Chukwuemeka Ike and others did. I concede
that perhaps one should not be too carried away with old African life in
villages etc; after all, when we read writers like Thomas Hardy or Meredith, we
realise that life even among the whites, pre- industrial, pre-electricity etc
in their own rural areas at the time was not so different from life in old
African villages, with morality stricter and relative serenity in the mix. In
this book, Egbuna however presents elements of mystery which make the
protagonist very much a man of mystery; a man who had also spent many years
overseas. Looking at the whole thing objectively though, we can see the point
of the author - Africa suffered horrendously under the colonialists, with Congo
just a small example. Countless Africans were butchered, tortured, killed,
over-worked by the Belgians even in the 19th century; and during colonialism,
so many Africans' lives were apparently worth nothing. Hence when Didi declares
that when he was overseas, he had "only killed a few whites" to make
a point, against the background of harsh colonialist history, his act becomes
just a token, a miniature gesture of vendetta...
- Henry Ozogula
Interesting.
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