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TimesLIVE
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Taking a bite out of Chimamanda's buttered toast
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 4th Estate When reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's latest offering Dream Count I was reminded of a favourite scene of mine in one of the Narnia books I read as a child. In the scene, the four siblings who must navigate a talking lion, a witch and a precarious wardrobe are so starved that they start craving buttered toast. One of the blandest foods to crave but at that moment of having no other option, even toast would suffice. I also found myself salivating at the thought of sinking my teeth into warm, crunchy bread that crackled at every bite. That hearty scent of rich butter all washed down with orange juice, hot chocolate or tea. I was also with very few options and immediately became enamoured with the hungry siblings and their plight. To this day, buttered toast is a comfort food I always return to. Not as a breakfast or 'girl dinner' but rather as a bite packed with memories that make me feel warm. In Dream Count, Adichie tells the story of four women interlinked by the same desires. Men. The book was inspired by the passing of Adichie's mother and her curiosity about how she would relate to one of the characters, Kadiotou. While this might be an ensemble, Kadiotou's harrowing story is only a common thread that pops up between the other characters. Specifically Chiamaka, who dominates the tale. She and her best friend Zikora have first-person narration, while Kadiotou and Chiamaka's acerbic cousin, Omelogor, have their experiences narrated to us. Through their journeys, we learn a lot about their lives in the way that Adichie has done in books like Half of a Yellow Sun. Chiamaka is a frustrating mess to whom many reading the pages might relate. You either know of a Chiamaka or you have a friend like her. Something of a Nigerian-born Carrie Bradshaw meets Emma Woodhouse, Chiamaka is a funny mess to follow. Particularly when it comes to her ill-fated relationship with her hotep (term typically used for black men who are Afrocentric to a regressive degree) boyfriend, Darnell. Through dinners and dates, we see how Darnell posits himself as a revolutionary intellectual but continues to disappoint Chiamaka, who places a lot of her self-worth on the men she dates. Even in the relationship's end, where Darnell overreacts about Chiamaka ordering a mimosa in a swanky French restaurant in Paris. She dodges his hysteria and starts a relationship with a married man that dissolves as quickly as it started. However, it does give her insight into interracial dating, but does not remedy the assimilation she has to perform when dating men from different backgrounds. Her confidants, Zikora and Omelogor, act as powerful gal pals who are resolute in their disagreements yet cautious enough not to hurt Chiamaka's feelings. Zikora is a golden child who eventually falls for the good guy type in Kwame, before their relationship fizzles out when both parties fail to effectively communicate their thoughts on her pregnancy. This is where the book shines the most as we get left with Zikora's isolation, her perseverance through a pregnancy she was quietly excited about and concludes with endless attempts to keep in touch with Kwame. In what Adichie describes as an 'unfinished dying', the labour of falling out of love and in connection with her soul mate is heartbreaking and nearly makes the book a literary realism masterpiece were it not for the cracks that start to show. Kadiotou's story is told in third-person narrative because of Adichie's respect for the real-life events it was inspired by. However, Omelogor, who runs a microblog, is also not given the honour of telling her own tale. As one of the more exciting women in terms of her world views, this makes Omelogor an anticlimactic character to read about. With Adichie employing the same linguistics when writing in Zikora and Chiamaka's voices, it often feels like they play big brother over Kadiotou and Omelogor's lives as there are no distinct differences in how she retells each woman's tale. Their passivity also makes them feel like one woman in four different versions of a Marvel multiverse, à la their very own What If series. This is where Adichie becomes a buttered toast author. There are no surprises with butter toast, and neither are there any with Adichie's book. You know what you are going to get: page after page of women pining over men, their mothers pining over grandkids and their female relatives pining over their dowager lives. It is a void obsessed with women who are stereotypes; the flighty columnist, the pregnant, shrewd lawyer, the middle-aged woman obsessed with pornography and the poverty-stricken outlier who is fodder for the haves and the have-nots. Perhaps fuelled by being a member of the queer community, there is nothing new to Dream Count. Nothing profound in its obsession with the mundane and its characters who are not daring enough to try something new. In a failure to explore the feelings an desires of women in their forties to fifties, Dream Count is a perfect read for chick-lit lovers who wish to be affirmed in their beliefs with the promise of excellent prose.
News24
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News24
The storytellers of Africa: Voices that move the continent
Stories make the world spin, and this Africa Month, we're reminded just how deeply our stories shape who we are as Africans. Think back to those childhood days: sitting under a big tree, eyes wide, listening to your grandmother's voice carry a tale through the air. Or sneaking into grown-up conversations, catching unbelievable stories from the elders. Remember the ones that gave you chills? The ones you loved so much you told them over and over? Think of Black Panther. Think of every story that's ever made your heart race, made you proud, made you feel. Africa Month isn't just about flags and heritage days – it's about souls. It can also be about honoring the storytellers and the creatives who keep our past alive and shape our future. 1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) Chimamanda is known for her exploration of identity, feminism and post-colonial Nigeria in novels like Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chimamanda Adichie (@chimamanda_adichie) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chimamanda Adichie (@chimamanda_adichie) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chimamanda Adichie (@chimamanda_adichie) 2. Ngugi wa Thlong'o (Kenya) A leading voice in decolonising African Literature. He writes in Gikuya and focuses on language, liberation, and memory, with books like A Grain of Wheat and Decolonising the Mind. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Africa Center (@theafricacenter) 3. Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) Her novel Nervous Conditions is a feminist coming-of-age novel set against Zimbabwe's colonial legacy. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tsitsi Dangarembga (@tsitsidangarembga) 4. NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) Merges personal and political narratives in works like We Need New Names and the satirical Glory, inspired by Zimbabwean politics. View this post on Instagram A post shared by A F R E A D A (@afreada) 5. Bessie Head (South Africa) Although born in South Africa, Bessie Head spent much of her writing life in Botswana due to political exile. Her work When Rain Clouds Gather explores themes of identity, belonging, mental health, and rural transformation. Even after she passed on, she remained one of Southern Africa's most celebrated literary voices. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LoetolwaBotswana (@loetolwabotswana) 6. Zakes Mda A prolific playwright, novelist, and poet, Zakes Mda blends history, folklore, and post-apartheid realities in novels like Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness. His work explores healing, memory, and the human cost of political change. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (@zakesmda) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda (@zakesmda)
TimesLIVE
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's ‘Dream Count' is powerful but awkward
Dream Count Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 4th Estate I have been a fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing since the days of Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, so a new novel after a 10-year gap from this Nigerian/American author is something to celebrate. Here she focuses on four women: three living in America and one in Nigeria. The novel opens with Chiamaka, a travel writer who lives in America, contemplating her life at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. We learn about her background — she is the Nigerian equivalent of a trust-fund kid, the child of very wealthy parents, who likes her travelling to be luxurious and glamorous — and her past romantic entanglements. She is kind, funny and always seems to be searching for something that is just out of reach. Next we meet Zikora, Chiamaka's best friend, who also lives in America and is a lawyer, searching for love, only to be disappointed. She is also wealthy and successful, as is Omelogor, Chiamaka's cousin, who is still based in Nigeria and has risen up the ranks of Nigerian finance — a not-always-honest sector. But having got to the top through fair means and foul, she decides to attend an American university to study, of all things, pornography, and to set up a website to 'educate' men on the subject. The fourth woman, Kadiatou, is somewhat different. She is also based in America, but grew up in rural Guinea, poor and less educated than the three Nigerians. She works as a domestic and as a hotel chambermaid to earn money to give her young daughter a better chance in life than she has had. And here Adichie shifts away from exploring the lives and choices of wealthy, successful women on the cusp of middle age and still uncertain of what they really want, to something rather different. Drawing on the real-life case that concerned the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused of rape by an immigrant hotel worker, Adichie, having given Kadiatou a backstory, has her at the mercy of the American judicial system, having been raped by an influential man, a guest in the hotel where she is working. And, while the telling of Kadiatou's story is powerful and poignant, to some extent it throws the rest of the book out of balance. There are times when Dream Count feels like two different novels that have been strung together. The one deals with women who on the surface are successfully competing in a world where they could have been seen as alien, but who are still searching for more than they seem able to reach — a search for the kind of success in their private lives that they have managed in their public ones. And on the other hand, we see a woman who has all the odds stacked against her and while — without wanting to give spoilers — she can be counted as having been treated horribly in her public life, she will ultimately achieve a personal catharsis. Adichie's writing is compelling, and Dream Count always holds one's attention. There is humour, outrage and wit, but Kadiatou's life experience is so removed from that of the other characters, however much they interact with her, that it makes for a slightly uneasy blend.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC Board of Education at odds during latest book ban discussion
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSAV) — The South Carolina Department of Education (SCBOE) will not take another 10 books off school library shelves, at least for now. The state board postponed a vote Tuesday on 10 books that were considered for a statewide ban. Earlier this month a review committee unanimously recommended the titles be banned statewide. The books the recommended for bans are: 'Collateral' by Ellen Hopkins 'Empire of Storms' by Sarah J. Maas 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'Hopeless' by Colleen Hoover 'Identical' by Ellen Hopkins 'Kingdom of Ash' by Sarah J. Mass 'Last Night at the Telegraph Club' by Malinda Lo 'Living Dead Girl' by Elizabeth Scott 'Lucky' by Alice Sebold 'Tricks' by Ellen Hopkins A final vote on the recommendations was scheduled for Tuesday but some board members expressed concerns about the wording of Regulation 43-170. That regulation was promoted by S.C. Department of Education staff that defines any book containing a 'description' of sexual conduct as age-inappropriate for grade K-12. 'I am concerned about potential abuses of a process that we intended to be fair and equitable,' said board member Maya Slaughter. According to the regulation, board members do not have to read the whole book but can make a decision based on passages only. 'Looking at these texts outside of the arc of their full stories is a mistake in my view,' said Board member Antony Vincent. It only takes one person to make a challenge to a book. So far, the majority of the 27 challenges are coming from one Beaufort County woman, Elizabeth Szalai. Szalai also spearheaded the previous review of 97 books by panels connected to Beaufort County Schools. 'I don't think somebody from Beaufort should make me drive here from Myrtle Beach every meeting to talk about more books,' said board member Ken Richardson. 'My question is, when does this thing stop?' After the debate concluded, board member Jackie Lynn eventually made the motion to table a vote on the 10 books. 'It is reassuring that the State Board of Education is prioritizing the rights of families, students, and educators rather than the handful of South Carolinians who feel scarily comfortable taking the rights of others. I hope that the board will take the time to craft a democratic policy that considers the full context of a written work,' said Josh Malkin, Advocacy Director for the ACLU of South Carolina. So far, 12 books have been removed from South Carolina school libraries since the regulations went into effect last year. According to the regulation, if the Board of Education rules in favor of a challenge, the books will be pulled from all school libraries statewide. Most schoolbook bans are limited to the school district in which they are imposed. South Carolina is one of three states, in addition to Utah and Tennessee, with a mechanism for statewide schoolbook bans established by state law. Utah has mandated 17 books banned for all schools in the state. So far, Tennessee has not had any state-mandated book bans. If all 10 of these titles are banned, as the committee recommends, South Carolina would surpass Utah with the most state-mandated bans impacting all public schools. There is no word on if the board will ask to change the regulation, or if these books will be up for debate again. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State board delays vote on removing more books from South Carolina public schools
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCBD) – A decision that could have made South Carolina the nation's leader in state-mandated school book bans has been put on hold. The State Board of Education voted Tuesday to postpone consideration of whether to remove 10 books from public school libraries and classrooms after several board members raised concerns about the review process. The following books were recommended for removal by the Instructional Materials Review Committee during their March 13 meeting: Tricks by Ellen Hopkins Lucky by Alice Sebold Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas Identical by Ellen Hopkins Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas Hopeless by Colleen Hoover Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie Collateral by Ellen Hopkins At issue is a regulation adopted last year that governs what is considered 'age and developmentally appropriate' material for K-12 schools, prohibiting books that contain descriptions or visual depictions of 'sexual conduct.' To determine what is 'sexual conduct,' the regulation uses the definition as outlined in a portion of the state's obscenity law. Some educators argued that the definition is too broad, creating the possibility for inconsistency in what is and is not allowed. Mary Foster, a Beaufort County parent and teacher, attempted to demonstrate that Tuesday while speaking in defense of 'Half of a Yellow Sun,' a historical fiction novel based on the Nigerian Civil War in the 1960s. 'These excerpts are not from Half of a Yellow Sun but are from a book your board voted to retain: 1984 by George Orwell,' Foster said, after reading several explicit passages. To keep one and not the other would create a 'problematic' interpretation of the regulation, she said. Robert Cathcart, a staff attorney tasked with presenting each book, said that the board has already established precedent as to what is considered a 'description' of sexual conduct. In the case of '1984,' he said, sexual references were 'too brief, too generic, and too nonspecific' to rise to the level required for removal, but that wasn't true for at least one of the books currently under review. 'In this material specifically – 'Collateral' – these passages are long enough, contain enough explanatory detail, enough adjectives and adverbs to put the reader in that place and therefore paint that mental image,' he said. South Carolina's flat tax proposal would initially raise rates for most Further, Dr. David O'Shields, the superintendent of Laurens County School District 56, pointed to a section of the code in the obscenity law that says material should be considered 'as a whole' and suggested unintended legal consequences could arise if the board moved forward with removing the books. He noted Tuesday that only five of the 10 titles were available at one of the district's high schools and that some had only been checked out a handful of times. 'I can't in good conscience after having done my own autopsy of what we have, I cannot and will if necessary be the only dissenting vote because I think we're misreading the law,' he said. Then, there was another issue: the process by which books can be challenged. The regulation established a system by which parents can challenge materials in their child's school that they believe fail to meet the standard. Parents must make a 'good faith effort' to address their concerns at the district level first but can appeal local decisions to the State Board of Education. In this case, the challenge to the 10 titles originated from one parent in Beaufort County. That same parent has sought to have more than 90 titles pulled from public school shelves statewide. Critics argued that ceding that power to one person is a problem, especially when the outcome would impact hundreds of thousands of students. 'This is an example of one individual determining what rights every parent in South Carolina has,' said Josh Malkin, advocacy director for the ACLU of South Carolina. 'Regardless of how you might feel about these books, regardless of your political leaning, the fact that it's so easy for one individual to take away your rights should be alarming and a call to action for everyone.' Several board members seemed to agree. 'When does this thing stop?' asked Ken Richardson. 'I'm gonna be honest with you, I love Columbia…but I do not like to come up here every single meeting and have to vote on books that nobody in my area is even talking about.' 27 books have been challenged in South Carolina since the regulation was implemented last June, with 12 being removed or restricted from schools. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
