Myth Meets Fantasy
While reading Ukamaka Olisakwe’s “Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name,” I was reminded of the title of Jennifer Makumbi’s masterful short story, “Let Us Tell This Story Properly” and for a stray moment, my mind was engaged in thinking about how whoever deems to tell the story of how they fought a war must endeavor to survive the war. There is that popular knowledge among storytellers that it is the one who wins the war who tells the story. And often the one who lost is cast in the light of the villain of a battle fought by two different parties, each with their flaws. In the light of which the character in Olisakwe’s novel, “Mother” was cast, I began to think about the infamous character of the devil in the Bible, and how storytellers view the story between him and God as one-sided. And I thought, assuming that myth is true, could there have been more to the story? But this review is not a religious affair by any means. My little ramble is only aimed at bringing two myths together, and placing them side by side, and reflecting on the role bias can play in how much we know, and how wrong we can be by acting only on what we know.
Myths have been one of the most powerful means of storytelling, especially because of their metaphorical nature and in how they are open to interpretation. When we interpret myths we analyze human nature, and when we all bring our different side views into our analysis and interpretation, we understand human nature more. The myth as a form of storytelling remains very prominent because of what it teaches us. Infusing myths in the novel form, hence has its way of elevating the story that is told. This is part of what Ukamaka Olisakwe’s novel reminded me of.
At the center of Ukamaka Olisakwe’s “Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name” is the story of an ambitious woman who wanted to conquer her own part of the world. She pursued her ambitions from her father’s house to her husband’s house and somehow these dreams seemed to elude her because she was denied first by her father who did not want her to become too powerful in his house and then her husband who deceived her into giving him four sons in exchange for what she wanted. She is the ill-fated protagonist in the prologue and the misunderstood antagonist in the main story. She looms over like an oppressive shadow in the life of the people in Ani mmadu, banished into the “Forest of Iniquity” where she has since time immemorial sought revenge. The story which the book tells eventually is how the people in the land of the living, “Mother’s” offspring live, bearing the consequences of mother’s rebellion, and the emergence of a child with supernatural powers who eventually saves the day.
Without the Igbo myth, the story could well pass for and adventure story with its protagonist going into the “Forest of Iniquity” with her dog, and facing various fearful dangers in the course of the journey. But the Igbo myth interwoven into the story lends it a literary quality and relevance to not just stir the imagination, but to cause some reflection on the human condition.
Thematically, this story prods over the trinity of anger as a self-defeating virtue, vengeance, and through the character of its protagonist asserts the place of the story as the peacemaker (supreme) between the warrior and the battle.
Olisakwe’s novels from Ogadimma to this present novel, seeks to highlight the suffering of women and the often extreme actions they take to escape their sufferings and tries to cast them in a humane light, to lighten the burden of judgment women face from these actions. Ogadimma leaves her husband’s house abandoning her baby. Perhaps to the public, she is an irresponsible woman who abandons her child, but Ogadimma tells us the role domestic violence plays in issues like this and how leaving could be a sacrifice to stay alive. In “Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name,” mother is seen as the villain. But the story represents her own side of the story to show that the offended party itself is not without flaws. Does it absorb her female protagonists? Not altogether. But a writer like Ukamaka at her best, doesn’t seem to be concerned about perfection in her heroines, but she seeks to present us with deeper insights into the conditions women face in the relationships which try to clip their wings.
Read my review of Ogadimma here
There seems to be a bit of disconnect in the plot of the book. I wondered a bit how a sacrifice was demanded by the male deity but the child sent on the errand arrives at the mother’s abode instead and meets many other children who had crossed over before her. And afterwards, the mother proceeds to take advantage of her powers as an object of revenge? Was it the mother who was asking for the sacrifices and the people were under the illusion that it was the father? It is unclear whether this is a flaw or not properly portrayed?
The novel has a very good line editing and the psychological placement of the characters was okay, its main flaws come from the technical aspects of the language. Molara Woods is a fantastic editor and has done a very good job here. That she isn’t Igbo and does not understand certain aspects of the language limits especially pertaining dialogues limits her editing powers. This is one reason why writers when writing stories are steeped in the local tradition or myths of a particular language should seek secondary editors to look at the technicalities of language. I think it is not too much to ask for the art of editing to be taken further seriously in these matters. We have almost won the war of italicizing local words or over-explaining them (Olisakwe’s novel does great here). Now, we must follow the trail of language shaped by the tradition from which our imagination stems from.
“Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name” is a beautiful book and most especially, Olisakwe deserves her flowers for successfully bringing traditional myth into a meaningful marriage with fantasy to create a story which instructs and entertains.
In my review of her earlier book, “Ogadimma,” I mention that Ukamaka’s writing has a cinematic quality. Any filmmaker with half a vision could make good movies from them. “Do Not Answer When They Call Your Name” is no exception. Except that if I was the filmmaker, I would be aiming for an animation, as this book reminded me of some of the most beautiful animation films of my childhood.
