Walking With Shadows

The story of Ebele Njoko who thought he was leaving his unhappy past on being baptized Adrian Njoko. From being attracted to boys in his youth he grew up to live a gay lifestyle, changing partners regularly until he really fell in love with a European man named Antonio. His heart was broken when Antonio started seeing a friend of his, so when Nkechi, his female colleague at the office introduced her cousin Ada to him he decides to put an end to the gay life and turn a new leaf. He courted Ada and they married, and had a beautiful daughter. Everything was fine, or so it seemed. He was successful at work and he’d been successful in denying himself the sexual need of men. Until some fraud was uncovered at work and one of the affected people decided to bring him down as well, by revealing his secret past to everyone, his wife and family, people at work. This is the point at which the story takes off.

For the next two weeks, Adrian and Ada and others concerned do some serious soul searching, trying to fight and deal with the situation. Ada’s first fears was of HIV infection, taking their daughter first thing the next morning for a check up. Ada and cousin Nkechi try to see why they had not suspected despite all the “signs.” At home Nkechi hits her son because he liked playing with dolls, something girly that if unchecked might mean he’d turn out gay. Adrian’s brothers are also at a loss as to how he could have been gay, forgetting that when they were kids Adrian had been the quiet one that nobody wanted around or showed any love to. His older brother lures Adrian to the opulent home of a Pentecostal pastor who used the unorthodox method of flogging and bruising naked skin in his mad fervor to get the presumed devil out of Adrian. Ada’s friend Iheoma on the other hand lets her realize that she would not be the first to have a gay husband, making her find out that the husbands of some rich society ladies were actively gay, with one of the ladies being lesbian to boot. On the other side, some gay friends of Adrian from the past were also featured, including the couple Abdul and Femi still together. At work there were conflicting rumors and Adrian’s popularity plummeted overnight, with only his protege Rotimi still sticking by him, even to the extent of telling him he too had fucked a man before and then wanting to kiss him, like it was expected of him. His boss asked him to take paid leave until matters cooled down. Eventually, Adrian makes peace with Ada, but their marriage could not be saved. Ada wanted a divorce, which went through easily. Adrian decides Nigeria was not tolerant enough for gay people like him, and after their divorce heads out to London.

Written by Jude Dibia, this is the first novel I would read that gay people in Nigeria would feature along with the problems they face.

January 15, 2015. Review initially written in 2007. Novel first published in 2005, ISBN 978-1-4116-1934-0.