BOOK REVIEWS

 

|ÉFURU|

FLORA NWAPA

In this story, Flora Nwapa depicts Éfuru as a beautiful, independent woman, who is unable to marry or successfully bear children. Her neighbours acknowledge her distinctions and are grateful for her generosity. However, they cannot intervene in or comprehend her tragedy. When a sage diagnoses that a river goddess has in fact chosen Éfuru as her honoured worshiper, she learns that as far as earthly companions are concerned, she must remain alone.

The characters in Nwapa’s story have an objective complexity and sophistication dependent neither on the chiaroscuro analogies of Europeans nor the nostalgia generated by the deracinated graduate revisiting their people.