Occasionally Armah gets carried away with an elaborate metaphor or description, but generally, it works. I could only absorb about one chapter a day, both content and language. Such is the power of ethnocentric socialization. I was startled to realize, through these books, that I had never imagined everyday life for people in Ghana, had only thought of Africa through adverse news reports and famine relief appeals, and had never considered the possibility that Africans might live in cities go to work in intelligent clothes and drive cars. So let us keep quiet and watch”.įatoumatta: This book changed my perception of Africa as much as Things Fall Apart. People will make you sad that you do not have a house to make onlookers stumble with looking or a car to drive every walker knows that a big man and his concubine have just passed. Where is your house? Where have you left your car? What do you bring in your hands for your loved ones? Nothing? Then let us keep quiet and not get close to people. Stick with ‘the man,’ however, and you should be fine, for he (as well as his book-addict “teacher”) will tell you the blatant truth: “If you come near people here, they will ask you, what about you? “You may be tempted to stray because this character-driven narrative has a couple of perspective switches and some brief philosophical meanderings that will, at first, seem daunting. This novel is about the dung of life, and so it is not surprising that no words are minced: “Left-hand fingers in their careless journey from a hasty anus sliding up the banister as their owners returned from the lavatory downstairs to the offices above. In addition, it is an attempt to broadcast the voice of Ghana that was usually unheard: that of the poor–in most cases uneducated–village workers. The novel is seriocomic, a satirical attempt at showcasing the irony of Nkrumah’s leadership (and if you are familiar with Ghana during the Nkrumah years, you see why this is ironic indeed).

This is Armah’s first novel added to Heinemann’s African Writers Series, and I am so glad that I have read and reread it. “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” is a hard-to-avert prophecy from a lamenting patriotic seer and ink bender who sits on the tallest African tree. Fatoumatta: Ghanian author Ayi Kwei Armah is not only a legend but one of the best ink molders of all time.

Ayi kwei armah the beautyful ones