Reading the World discussion

From https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/we...

“Mizzes, want houseboy?” is the first line in Abdulai Sila’s The Ultimate Tragedy. It is an imploration delivered desperately in a flawed Portuguese by Ndani, a poor, illiterate teenage girl, who leaves her village in Guinea-Bissau to find work as a servant in the capital after a magic man declares that she is cursed. Living among the Portuguese colonists, and later, as the spurned wife of a village chief who wants to “expel the whites”, she eventually finds love with a local schoolteacher. The plot centres on Ndani’s coming-of-age in multiple environs of subjugation. Mindful of the oral traditions that shape his prose, Sila evokes the creole language and its strained relationship with Portuguese, which is facilitated by the translator Jethro Soutar’s dedication to maintaining context and sentiment. This bittersweet novel offers a snapshot of a country whose history is little known outside its own borders.

I am so sorry that I never posted this.

This is what I posted in Litsy when I read the book:
An interesting although somewhat uneven collage of a young woman ostracized from her village, a chief attempting to break the power of the white colonial administrators and a teacher. Their stories are told with separate focus but they do overlap. The book illuminates the individual struggles under colonial powers when existing cultures are fragmented. Rather a modern telling.

Gail wrote: "This is what I posted in Litsy when I read the book:
An interesting although somewhat uneven collage of a young woman ostracized from her village, a chief attempting to break the power of the white..."

😍

I'll be reading this on Wednesday when I'm on the train again.

So I did read this on the train, and I agree with Gail that it is good, but a bit uneven. I would give the writing quality 3 stars, and my interest in the plot closer to 4. It's still a 3 on goodreads, but it's closer to a 3.5.

I think one thing that the book did really successfully is the portrayal of the condescension and the neo-colonialism of the affluent whites n the area and their "Christian charity" towards the native black population.

The way the chief's claim for sovereignty is seen as legitimate in the face of the Portuguese colonizers, but still portrayed as a repressive force in some ways that has also subjected Ndani was very well done. It paints a complex picture of one patriarchy versus another, and how colonization is still reprehensible without the colonized needing to be perfect victims with a Utopian society.

The ultimate tragedy the title speaks of reflects the inevitable carnage to the real victims of this culture clash, and does strike an emotional note at the end (just when we think Ndani's happiness has been largely achieved).

Great review Amanda.

Thanks Gail!

I agree. You both are great.