Purple Hibiscus

Written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this is an emotional tragic story about how a Nigerian Catholic Igbo family revolted against the tyrannical head of the family, ending in his demise. Eugene is a rags-to-riches, British-educated man with a colonial mentality of the highest degree. He would rather his children spoke English in public as this was more “civilized” than his father’s language. He cut ties with his own father because the man refused to be converted to the Catholic faith, even to the extent of barring his children from visiting the man. He would give out money to people and fight against shortcomings of the government, but there was no happiness in his house because his wife and two children feared him. He played God in committing atrocities against his wife and kids, to the extent of physically assaulting them severely. The wife would often bleed and lose her pregnancies, while the children would spend days in hospital recuperating from the injuries he caused. All in the name of punishing them for their perceived sins. The kids lived a sheltered life, with carefully made out time tables which they must strictly follow, with virtually no social life outside the family.

When the two kids get to spend a few days in the home of their aunt Ifeoma, it’s like they were released from a dark prison into fresh air for the first time. They learn what happiness means in a family and how to live like normal people. Ifeoma talks to Jaja about how good revolution could be, if done for the right purpose. So on getting back home, Jaja revolts against their father, and their carefully controlled lives came tumbling down. The usually acquiescent mother takes the cue from her son, and after the man assaulted her and she lost another pregnancy she decides to put poison in his tea. Nobody cries except the house help. It is Jaja that protects her and takes the responsibility, going to live the hard life of Nigerian jails, until the military government was changed and release became imminent.

The story is also a commentary on the military governments of Nigeria, of bribery and corruption in high places. A journalist was murdered by a letter bomb from government sources because of his criticisms, reminiscent of how Newswatch magazine publisher Dele Giwa was killed. And the military dictator reportedly died atop a prostitute, again reminiscent of how ex-dictator Abacha supposedly met his end.

Set in Enugu and Nnsuka, it is a tale of the new Igbo society and the religious and cultural divisions within. It reflects cultural values, with Igbo expressions generously sprinkled in. The narrator is Kambili, Jaja’s sister, a teenage girl who while at her aunt’s falls in love with a handsome Catholic priest. She has to come to terms with the fact the man will never marry.

January 12, 2015. Novel first published in 2004 and was read the following year. Image source: Yahoo (Images)