Review Of The Book, In Dependence.

ABOUT THE BOOK IN DEPENDENCE- BY
SARAH LADIPO MANYIKA
“In Dependence” was published in the UK in
2008, in Nigeria in 2009 and in the US in
2011. It is Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s first
novel. The novel begins in the early 1960s
when Tayo Ajayi meets Vanessa Richardson,
the beautiful daughter of an ex-colonial
officer. Their story, which spans three
continents and four turbulent decades, is
that of a brave but bittersweet love affair. It
is the story of individuals struggling to find
their place within uncertain political times –
a story of passion and idealism, courage and
betrayal.
In Dependence can be described as a love
story. But it is more than that. It traces the
trajectory of Nigeria’s political history; the
military coups, the bad and treacherous
leadership, and its renewed tentative steps
towards democracy. It speaks to the
demise – in the 1980s – of Nigeria’s
international reputation and the country’s
rapidly destabilizing reality. It looks at the
poor whose situation never improved but
actually worsened. Using events in Tayo’s
life, it describes the effects of misrule on
the country’s universities and the ensuing
massive brain drain that Africa experienced.
Sarah Manyika achieves all this with a voice
and an outlook that is truly authentic and
objective. The author captures the mood
and feel of different decades and the three
continents – Africa, Europe and America –
that serve as settings for the story. Its
scope is vast and sweeping.
REVIEW ON THE NOVEL IN DEPENDENCE-
BY SARAH LADIPO MANYIKA
Tayo Ajayi, a Nigerian, and Vanessa
Richardson, an English woman, had their
affair boiling when it started, but as
circumstances were meant to intervene, the
relationship went sore and it seemed nothing
could ever bring them together.
The book has characters that behaved in
like-patterns, like in the case of Tayo’s
friend, Yusuf, who had dated lots of white
English ladies. He (Yusuf) ended up marrying
a Nigerian Woman as predicted (Yusuf knew
what he wanted and seemed to get it). Tayo
also ended up the same way in as much as
his affair with Vanessa Richardson had been
gleaming, although his had been out of the
mistake of getting a young woman (Miriam)
pregnant. And talking of pattern, the novel’s
beginning had opened up introducing Tayo’s
affair with Christine, a Nigerian Igbo lady.
One would think that Manyika had to end
Tayo’s relationship with Christine for the
sake of bringing in Vanessa into Tayo’s life,
but still, Tayo had to end up marrying
Miriam. And still the marriage failed, giving
in to the familiar pattern.
Miriam in Manyika’s novel represented the
breeds of the Nigerians that would always
run away to live abroad due to the
collapsing image of their home country.
Miriam went away with her daughter leaving
Tayo behind. In as much as she persuaded
Tayo, he wouldn’t go. She didn’t like an
inconveniencing life. She wanted the best
life for her daughter. Tayo, on the other side
represented the crude breeds of Nigerians
that felt home was home even though the
country was boiling in corruption. In as much
as the failure of the country stared firmly at
his face with daggers, he chose to stay.
Towards the late pages of the novel he had
to leave the country under threatening
circumstances against his life from the
ruling military regime.
The entire novel is told from the good days
of Nigeria’s independence down into the
nineties. I applaud Manyika’s ink, here. In as
much as the setting of this novel floated
through England, Senegal, USA, and France,
she was able to use her third eye to draw
out Nigeria’s journey into the worse lanes of
corruption, and hopelessness.
Faith is another issue that Manyika dealt
with. It didn’t matter to her if one was a
Moslem or Christian. Reading through this
novel, one couldn’t tell if Tayo came from a
Moslem or Christian family but we did know
he embraced more of the Christian faith.
She failed to point out the difficulties of
inter-religious marriages in the novel, but
centred more on the difficulties of interracial
marriage.
During Tayo’s life as a part time lecturer in
Sans Francisco, Manyika used a scene to
unbolt some deeper issues of racism. She
pointed out the racist ties between the
African American and the pure African.
These issues she raised apply everywhere
even within Nigerians. A Yoruba would refer
to an Igbo as a greedy money monger and
dubious monster, and in turn the Igbo would
refer to the Yoruba as a dirty, loquacious
and foolish personality who spend all he
earns on parties and alcohol. It had to be
understood that racism was one those
existences that would live for a long time as
far as misunderstanding between people
existed.
I captured lines that are coated with humour
in this novel, but could be called racial
remarks. Young black Yusuf came clean in
his conversation with Tayo. He said white
women were for sex treats while black
women were for decent relationships that
could lead to marriage. He added that a
white woman looked so old when she turned
thirty.
The worst racist in this book is Vanessa’s
father who was a one time colonial master in
Nigeria before 1960. He was against Tayo
marrying his daughter, and had refused to
accept Vanessa’s adopted half-cast son. He
seemed more racial against half-casts
earlier in the novel confronting Tayo about
his fears for a half-cast grandchild. It was
later understood that his hatred for the
blacks was as a result of an affair his wife
had with a black man during the colonial era.
Manyika, whose picture shows she is
perhaps half-cast, was able to make a point
here. She drew a difference between being
black and being a half-cast (brown). This
would have been quite a storm for her to
write about because of the racial wind
against the brown people living in whitely
dominated regions. In contrast to a pure
black country, half-casts are seen beautiful
which Manyika failed to point out. In fact in
the black continent, the typical black man
may feel inferior to a half-cast.
Manyika was also able to portray the
polemic attack Nigerians receive from
around the world these days. She didn’t
bring this to print but the image was
represented, and I had to figure it out. I can
say it clouds around the pain felt each time
an IELTS or TOEFL exam is required before
a Nigerian could study abroad. This doesn’t
exclude a masters’ degree. Does the world
think Nigerians speak Latin or Greek or
some kind of language called ‘Nigerian’?
‘I said I haven’t heard you speak Nigerian,’
Joyce says.
Joyce is one of Manyika’s English
characters. And I like the way Yusuf replies
this. ‘Nobody speaks Nigerian, you daft thing,’
A coincidence in this novel which I refuse to
accept was the scene in which Vanessa had
just come across one of her best music,
Hugh Maskela, a song that reminded her of
Nelson Mandela… And on the same day, not
even up to two hours if I could rightly
predict, her white husband is presenting her
with ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, Nelson
Mandela’s biography.
What a coincidence! I also do not embrace
the fact that Manyika saw hope for Nigeria
through the eyes of Tayo only when Abacha
died. There are still Abacha loyalists in
Nigeria today who will find this offending.
She should have kept the line in a riddle.
Vanessa did meet with Tayo at the end of
the novel, but it was hard to predict if at all
a love relationship was ignited between
them. Vanessa was still married, but Tayo
wasn’t. Manyika maintained a non-adulterous
plight between the two here. The happy-
ending-formula which most romance writers
adapt was blurring in the novel.