Legend has it that spirit children‚ gathered above udala trees in Nigeria‚ grant exceptional fertility to women who linger under the trees‚ even for the briefest moments.
While the legend has traditional fertility in mind‚ Chinelo Okparanta’s debut novel, Under the Udala Trees, also speaks of the emotional and spiritual fertility that comes only when you are true to yourself.
It speaks of this‚ just as it speaks of the destruction caused by civil war – in this case the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s – and of the internal emotional war that comes from not embracing the fullness of oneself.
“I thought once more about the way that life so often takes us the long way around‚” writes Okparanta.
“But perhaps it didn’t matter‚ long or short‚ as long as we eventually found our way to where we needed to be.”
That is‚ the peace that is to be found in accepting and expressing your true self.
Okparanta’s debut short story collection‚ Happiness‚ Like Water‚ met with critical acclaim after its 2013 release‚ winning the 2014 Lambda Literary award for lesbian fiction. Okparanta‚ who lives in the US where she was educated‚ was born and raised in Port Harcourt‚ Nigeria. She left when she was 10.
Ijeoma’s long walk to full emotional and spiritual fertility follows a well-trodden path. In Nigeria it is a dangerous road. The country‚ like 33 of its continental peers‚ has made same-sex relationships illegal.
In Nigeria the punishment for embracing this lifestyle is 14 years of jail. In others, death by stoning.
In evocative prose Okparanta sets out her argument – unnatural love slowly dismembers the lover and the relationship.
To the eyes of much of Nigeria‚ same-sex love is unnatural.
To Okparanta unnatural love is the one that doesn’t set you free to be fully yourself. It is only when Ijeoma lets go of all the pressures against her true identity – lesbianism – that she can eventually receive the blessing from the udala trees under which she sat as a young girl.
Starting in 1968 when her father is killed in the middle of the Nigerian civil war‚ Under the Udala Trees tracks Ijeoma’s life from the age of 10 into full adulthood – not a certain age‚ but the mastery of personal destiny.
The book opens with war. Ijemoa’s family belong to the Igbo tribe and live in Biafra‚ the secessionist republic over which the civil war was fought.
Biafra was an attempt by the Igbo to gain self-rule.
Ijeoma’s first lesson on the physical and emotional danger of giving up the cause of self-expression – in this case Igbo self-governance through Biafra – comes at the age of 10. Twice over.
First‚ her father‚ speaking of the conflict‚ tells her: “There is not much any one person can do. And to worry over it would be like pouring water over stone. The stone gets wet. Eventually it dries. But nothing changes.” He has given up.
Later‚ their home town under attack‚ his giving up becomes fatal. Ijeoma and her mother are forced to leave him to die in order to save themselves by hiding in a bunker.
Not long after that Ijeoma is abandoned by her grief-stricken mother – given to a school teacher and his wife as a skivvy.
There she meets Amina‚ a Hausa girl who has been orphaned by the war.
The Hausa are the Igbo’s enemies in the war‚ but the girls are matched in their loneliness‚ abandonment and servitude.
Soon these bonds are firmed by the bond of love. Everything‚ however‚ is against the lovers – tradition‚ patriarchy‚ tribalism‚ religion and violence.
Their new love is found out. Horrified, Ijeoma’s mother sets out to educate her daughter on the extent of her sin.
Months of this go by‚ until eventually the mother asks Ijeoma if she still thinks of Amina “in that way”. Knowing better than to tell the truth‚ Ijeoma shakes her head. Her mother buys it‚ and Ijeoma learns a valuable lesson in subterfuge.
A new lesbian relationship‚ under cover‚ emerges along with entrance into Nigeria’s undercover alternative community. But Okparanta’s point is that LGBTQ (lesbian‚ gay‚ bisexual‚ trans and queer) people are not free until they can live as openly as do heterosexuals.
A gay bar goes up in flames‚ a lesbian is murdered.
This pushes Ijeoma deeper under cover. She goes on to a heterosexual marriage that stumbles‚ doomed as from the start as behind it lies her real truth. How she emerges from it is the last part of this often crushing story.
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta is published by Granta. — © BDlive 2016
Fertility from being true to self
While the legend has traditional fertility in mind‚ Chinelo Okparanta’s debut novel, Under the Udala Trees, also speaks of the emotional and spiritual fertility that comes only when you are true to yourself.
It speaks of this‚ just as it speaks of the destruction caused by civil war – in this case the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s – and of the internal emotional war that comes from not embracing the fullness of oneself.
“I thought once more about the way that life so often takes us the long way around‚” writes Okparanta.
“But perhaps it didn’t matter‚ long or short‚ as long as we eventually found our way to where we needed to be.”
That is‚ the peace that is to be found in accepting and expressing your true self.
Okparanta’s debut short story collection‚ Happiness‚ Like Water‚ met with critical acclaim after its 2013 release‚ winning the 2014 Lambda Literary award for lesbian fiction. Okparanta‚ who lives in the US where she was educated‚ was born and raised in Port Harcourt‚ Nigeria. She left when she was 10.
Ijeoma’s long walk to full emotional and spiritual fertility follows a well-trodden path. In Nigeria it is a dangerous road. The country‚ like 33 of its continental peers‚ has made same-sex relationships illegal.
In Nigeria the punishment for embracing this lifestyle is 14 years of jail. In others, death by stoning.
In evocative prose Okparanta sets out her argument – unnatural love slowly dismembers the lover and the relationship.
To the eyes of much of Nigeria‚ same-sex love is unnatural.
To Okparanta unnatural love is the one that doesn’t set you free to be fully yourself. It is only when Ijeoma lets go of all the pressures against her true identity – lesbianism – that she can eventually receive the blessing from the udala trees under which she sat as a young girl.
Starting in 1968 when her father is killed in the middle of the Nigerian civil war‚ Under the Udala Trees tracks Ijeoma’s life from the age of 10 into full adulthood – not a certain age‚ but the mastery of personal destiny.
The book opens with war. Ijemoa’s family belong to the Igbo tribe and live in Biafra‚ the secessionist republic over which the civil war was fought.
Biafra was an attempt by the Igbo to gain self-rule.
Ijeoma’s first lesson on the physical and emotional danger of giving up the cause of self-expression – in this case Igbo self-governance through Biafra – comes at the age of 10. Twice over.
First‚ her father‚ speaking of the conflict‚ tells her: “There is not much any one person can do. And to worry over it would be like pouring water over stone. The stone gets wet. Eventually it dries. But nothing changes.” He has given up.
Later‚ their home town under attack‚ his giving up becomes fatal. Ijeoma and her mother are forced to leave him to die in order to save themselves by hiding in a bunker.
Not long after that Ijeoma is abandoned by her grief-stricken mother – given to a school teacher and his wife as a skivvy.
There she meets Amina‚ a Hausa girl who has been orphaned by the war.
The Hausa are the Igbo’s enemies in the war‚ but the girls are matched in their loneliness‚ abandonment and servitude.
Soon these bonds are firmed by the bond of love. Everything‚ however‚ is against the lovers – tradition‚ patriarchy‚ tribalism‚ religion and violence.
Their new love is found out. Horrified, Ijeoma’s mother sets out to educate her daughter on the extent of her sin.
Months of this go by‚ until eventually the mother asks Ijeoma if she still thinks of Amina “in that way”. Knowing better than to tell the truth‚ Ijeoma shakes her head. Her mother buys it‚ and Ijeoma learns a valuable lesson in subterfuge.
A new lesbian relationship‚ under cover‚ emerges along with entrance into Nigeria’s undercover alternative community. But Okparanta’s point is that LGBTQ (lesbian‚ gay‚ bisexual‚ trans and queer) people are not free until they can live as openly as do heterosexuals.
A gay bar goes up in flames‚ a lesbian is murdered.
This pushes Ijeoma deeper under cover. She goes on to a heterosexual marriage that stumbles‚ doomed as from the start as behind it lies her real truth. How she emerges from it is the last part of this often crushing story.
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta is published by Granta. — © BDlive 2016
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