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The
Book Review
by Kole Ade-Odutola
The shining ones come together: Government College Umuahia takes center stage
When a book published by the University of Ibadan came in the mail for us I did not know what to think. Then a few weeks later an invitation followed informing us of the public presentation of the same book, I knew I had to make time to be at the event. As I walked into the Auxiliary services building of the Essex County College in New Jersey on this sunny Saturday what came to my mind was the book “Ada goes to school.” I searched to recall the author of the book but could not. “Why worry if the good old writer cannot spring to life” I muttered to my self. At least I know that Ada’s father has written a book about his school. Yes, Chief Chike Momah, the author of “The shining ones: The Umuahia school days of obinna Okoye” is the father of Ada Momah a former all-round reporter at This Week magazine of blessed memory. Ada is now married and lives happily with her husband and children somewhere in America. So what has the living memory of the daughter got to do with this launching and book signing? My self-posed question can only be answered if I bring the not too distant past into the present and allow the sounds and images from the event speak to me. I’ll have to replay the opening prayers, rendered by Rev.Ngozi Obi who came all the way from Boston for the event, to tickle my memory. In a nut shell the event captured for us the politics of memory in life and the role of good memories in telling stories. There is something spiritual about remembering and something political about things we choose to forget. Our lives as citizens (some may say consumers) revolve around what we recall and what we forget. Just before we were taken on a smooth memory lane to the good old days when we all were students in various colleges across Nigeria, one of the masters of ceremony asked that the highlife music be silenced so that the day’s business could commence. As he picked up the microphone his first words were to the effect that he would not apologize for starting the event late because it was no fault of the organizers. The fault, he said, is with us Nigerians who prefer dances and parties to mind enriching events such as this. That done, the tone for a semi-serious day was set.
There was no need to observe any protocols and no one complained. The invited guests were no politicians or “owanbe” kind of folks; they are what can be called men and women of letters.
In any case, those of us who turned out in our Sunday best knew why we were there. If given the opportunity some of us may have wanted to contest the epithet of the best school in Nigeria that Old boys of this 'cricket playing' Government College Umuahia awarded themselves without competition. As an old boy of Igbobi College, Lagos, I really do not know by what yardstick the students of Government College Umuahia applied before coming (or is it jumping) to the conclusion that theirs is one of the best in Nigeria if not the best. One acceptable fact is that the school has writers of note on the African continent as old boys. People like Professor Vincent Ike, Ken Saro-wiwa, Elechi Amadi, Chinua Acbebe, to mention just a few, all passed through the portals of the college. I still maintain that the school cannot be that super to earn all the accolades being showered by the old boys. You won’t believe it that one of the masters of ceremony who attended the great Christ the Kings College Onitsha could not dare mention the name of his college on the podium, he left that to others to do. Mr Oseloka Obaze felt it might be politically incorrect to ‘spoil the fun’ of old boys of Government College in the audience. If truth must be told he was just been modest. Who does not know of the soccer exploits of CKC onitsha?
The ceremony proper was a very simple one; no cultural dancers or hired praise singers, not even the usual stand up comedians who tell silly (read lewd) jokes had a place in this hallowed space. The jokes and fun were supplied by the reminiscences of the various old boys who went to “a school in the bush where the boys had little to do than read.” No wonder the school turned out writers of repute, added this daring master of ceremony. It would be apposite to title the evening as GC Umuahia and the rest of us. The Umuahia old boys made sure their best were in attendance.
So Professor Chinua Achebe, an (ancient) old boy of Umuahia was the chairperson of the occasion, accompanied by his wife Dr Christine Achebe. They were a pair to behold. Sebastian Ibezim the city Attorney in New Jersey had to be paired with Mr. Obaze as co-MC for the day. Just as everything comes in pairs Rev. Tabiri Chukunta and Mr. Obaze shouldered the task of reviewing the 343-page book.
In the review both reviewers interpreted the text using the context of their stations in life as backdrops. They brought to life the observation by Norman Fairclough when he posits “any reading is a product of an interface between the properties of the text and the interpretative resources and practices which the interpreter brings to bear upon the text.” The Reverend gentleman derived so much spiritual essence from it that he stopped short of 'commanding' his counselors “who have to deal with those in grief” to have personal copies.
According to him modesty, aside from spirituality, is the other theme that runs through the novel. Mr Obaze, in his own review was more intrigued with the simplicity of the prose and coherent narrative. To him a good prose should not be tedious.
In his words “Momah through his lively writing and great dexterity in the use of straightforward prose thrills the reader with his story telling.
The all too familiar old school tales are interwoven in a mesmerizing and succulent fugue worthy of Bach.”
A synthesis of these two generous views of the book gives one the liberty to point attention to gaps left by the two reviewers. It appeared none of them wanted to be drawn into authorial lapses and narrative style of the book apart from its simplicity of plot and prose. The reviewers must be aware that in 19944 no Nigerian state existed but in this autobiographical account history is remade and geography pre-constructed. There is a character who comes from an Eastern Nigeria even before its existence. Setting geography aside, the (mis)representation of other ethnic groups in the book deserves critical attention.
On an occasion such as a book presentation most invited guests quickly forget not to talk for too long, but by the time Professor Achebe read his opening remarks the audience tasted another dimension in public speaking. His was straight as an arrow to the point. The master storyteller had the words and the voice to keep the hall in rapt attention. He was full of praises for his dear friend for doing their school a befitting honor.
Professor Achebe like others before him talked about the lost glory of their Alma Mata and nature of discipline in their time. The Government
College that is celebrated in Momah’s book has virtually disappeared he said. The school like the country has fallen on hard times. The book written by Chike now serves as a memory bank for posterity to draw from. He also hoped the book would inspire others to write about their growing up experiences as teenagers.
In closing he said “our children will have a chance not only to read Tom Brown school days as we did, now they have the chance to read also The Shining ones.”
At some point during the event two old boys of the college afforded us samples of what life was for young teenagers leaving home for the first time. The President of the Old Boys Association in NJ, Charles Chikezie, talked of how he had to resort to the use of skills he acquired on the streets of Aba to survive even as an advanced level student who came from another school to the great Umuahia. There is no doubt the school taught and promoted discipline among the students The other account from Lawyer Ibezim though was brief, it was long enough to set the hall laughing for a while. In his account his was a case of a fag being fagged. He thought he was safe having a form three student as fag until a form five student proved to him that both his form three "angel" and himself could be subjected to instant discipline.
The author did not go home as he came; those with fat bank accounts did offer some green bills, Jude Okolo, the chief launcher set the ball rolling with a few hundreds of Dollars. Unlike the other donors Chief, Ajulu Uzodike, (the Ozi Uzo Nnewi), who is the chief executive officer of Cutix limited, Nnewi heard about the event and made his presence felt not only physically but financially too. He made his own donation in good old Naira while residents called up the green bills in aid of a good cause.
As a parting shot I asked the author of the book an obvious question of whom the Obinna Okoye character best represents in real life.
In his usual half-in-jest-wholly-serious mood he looked at me said “as far as I know I have done a fictionalized autobiographical work.” What is now left I guess is for every reader to begin the game of speculation and identification? Which of the characters best fits Chinua Achebe, could he be the Anthony Achara mentioned in the story who had a distaste for games? Let the guessing game commence. Who is Godfrey Clarke the bully? As the cliché goes the answer is not in the wind but somewhere between fiction and reality.
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BOOK
REVIEW EXCERPT by Oseloka Obaze: As has been observed elsewhere, The Shining Ones “is a perfectly crafted prose that reminds every adult mind of the innocence, adventure, losses and regrets of childhood days.” I concur. There are also other morals that straddle and lace the entire story lines. While high premium is placed on academics in Umuahia, students are firmly reminded that, turning out as a well-rounded citizens required familiarity, involvement and practice, if not dexterity in such mundane things like sports, manual labor and indeed farming. Obinna Okoye drew, perhaps, the singular most important lesson about the ills of indolence not from the classroom, but from the poor yield of his school farm – a yield vastly proportional and commensurate to the miserly labor and skittish efforts he had put in. In academics, those who shined were promoted ahead of their classmates, whilst those with less than stellar performance suffered the humiliation of demotion.
The ever-shifting plots of The Shining Ones apart, it is the cast of characters in this book that keeps the wheels spinning. Mr. Walter Graves, the school Principal, was always politically correct, officious, and efficacious without being personally mean. In the words of Obinna Okoye, he “loved to keep a little in reserve, rather than unwrap the whole package.” This was true of his conduct, emotion, and administrative style. His personal thinking, assuming there was a separating line between that and official thinking, was subsumed in his taciturnity. A cast of his compatriots like Thomas Hunter, Mr. Eagleton, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Theodore aided him, not just in educating Nigerian boys in proper etiquette, but also injuriously in consigning their native Igbo language -- the so-called vernacular to the dustbin -- a linguistic retrogression that still haunts the Igbo. The Nigerian teachers at the school – more of a lackluster political counterbalance - were left no choice but to kowtow. The British masters also used their untrammeled authority to great effect in ensuring that the political thinking of those under their tutelage was in tandem with those of Crown. Ditto their World War II sympathies. Witness the observation, “This war against Hitler means so much to our British masters, they’ll do anything to win it, including making our people believe it is our war”.
Read
Complete review at www.Kwenu.com
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Mr.
Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer,
is a member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated
to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes. He is
also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE).
Since 1999 he has been on the editorial board of INYEAKA,
the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based
charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York tri-state area in
the United States. He is also on the editorial board of The
Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College,
Onitsha Alumni Association in the Americas. He reviews books strictly as
a hobby.
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