The Plight of Modern Nigeria

As we go through life, we start to realize that inequities exist, inequalities exist. “Life is unfair,” is a phrase that has become ubiquitous. We hear it from our friends. We hear it from strangers. We hear it from our parents. We even hear it resonating within us. Life is indeed unfair. Some people have all the luck while some have all the misfortunes. Some are born with silver spoons while some are born into destitution. Some will spend years working hard to elevate their status but they always hit rock bottom. Some will start from the top of the ladder but will eventually plummet. Life is unpredictable. One day we are on top, the next day we hit rock bottom. Horror has become a reality for some of us.

Eventually, we learn how to deal with these cards. Some will succeed. Some will get sucked deeper into the quagmire. Some are left with no options but to pray for better days to come. Some fervently hope for “a spell of good things”, a spring of hope amidst the arid desert of misfortunes. This spell of good things provided the backdrop for Nigerian writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s sophomore novel, A Spell of Good Things. Published in 2023, A Spell of Good Things marked Adébáyọ̀’s highly anticipated literary comeback. She took the world by storm back in 2017 with her debut novel, Stay With Me, an intimate examination of the interiors of motherhood and identity backdropped by Nigeria’s tumultuous changing political landscape.

To modern-day Nigeria, particularly to Ilesha in Osun State, Adébáyọ̀ once again transported her readers in A Spell of Good Things. Her latest novel charted the story of two characters, with the one being Ẹniọlá Oni. Already sixteen when he was first introduced, Ẹniọlá represented one spectrum of modern Nigerian society. He was the eldest child born into an impoverished family. What was once a promising life was hampered when his father, who was a schoolteacher by profession, was removed from his post. This marked the start of a slow descent into poverty. Ẹniọlá’s father, who was supposed to spearhead the family, spent his days staring at the wall. The emotional toll caused by the loss of his job was too much to take.

“He held himself still, careful to look in her direction, knowing that if he glanced away, she would suspect he was lying. But he also made sure to look towards her without exactly meeting her eyes. Staring into her eyes would only be taken as evidence of his lack of respect for her, proof that he had grown wings and was now a wild bird prepared to fl into her face unless she stopped him with a well-placed slap.”

~ Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things

It was no time to buckle down. With the patriarch emotionally and mentally debilitated by the circumstances, Ẹniọlá’s mother immediately took action. Dignity be damned, she did everything to keep the family afloat, even if meant scavenging dunghills for plastic bottles and tin. She sold whatever she could find. However, it was never enough beyond providing her family with one meal a day. As times are getting tougher, Ẹniọlá and his mother and sister Bùsọ́lá had to beg on the streets. They also needed money to pay for their school fees. With their inability to pay their school fees as they came due, the siblings were subjected to flogging by their teachers. They were shamed in front of everyone. In one scene, Bùsọ́lá confronted their parents about the realities that they had to go through.

When their mother sought her usually reliable brother’s counsel, there was only one solution they could come up with. Ẹniọlá should start working. Despite his age, Ẹniọlá looked more mature and bigger. Ẹniọlá’s uncle echoed what his mother recognized but denied; they deemed it better to have one child continue studying than to have both of them stop. Left with no other recourse, Ẹniọlá became a tailoring apprentice. Ẹniọlá exhibited wisdom beyond his age. He had aspirations of rising above the adversities and living a comfortable life. He was cognizant of the fact that, in order for him to achieve his dreams, he must obtain a university education. His best hope, however, was to attend a second-rate private school.

On the other side of the spectrum was Wúràọlá Makinwa. She was already in her late twenties and was born into and raised in a well-off middle-class household, under circumstances completely opposite of Ẹniọlá’s. Wúràọlá was an overworked hospital resident. Her mother, Yèyé, had designs of having her eldest daughter marry her friend’s son, Kúnlé. Kúnlé was a TV broadcaster and was Wúràọlá’s childhood friend. He was the son of Professor Babajide Coker, a well-to-do surgeon. Despite the freedom afforded to her, Wúràọlá felt the pressures on her shoulders. She accepted her childhood’s proposal even though her heart was not in the relationship. This came as a relief to her parents who were happy she was getting married before she turned thirty.

Interestingly, the novel’s two main characters’ individual threads barely overlapped with each other. The destinies of the two families, however, were interwoven, slowly converging with the looming election for governor. Kúnlé’s father had political aspirations and was raring to challenge the unscrupulous incumbent. The election was an integral part of the novel as Nigeria recently held its National Elections last February 25, 2023. An election was supposed to usher in hope, a small ignition that would spark a revolution for change. However, that is rarely the case, as captured by Adébáyọ̀. Seasoned politicians have long turned a deaf ear to the electorate’s concerns. The most manipulative political classes even take advantage of their constituents’ vulnerabilities, even profiting from them.

“The longer Wúràọlá had remained single, flitting from one unserious boyfriend to another, the more Yèyé had worried that, when she did decide to commit to one of them, closer to thirty than twenty, she would be left with a pool of expiring men who were unmarried because no one wanted them. On her worst days, she had imagined Wúràọlá ending up with some barely educated drunkard whose parents lived in a house with no indoor plumbing. And how would that have improved on her daughter’s fortunes in this life?”

~ Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things

The failure of the political and social establishments breeds corruption. With inept politicians at the helm, these realities are inevitable. These are realities that, unfortunately, keep hounding the world over. These have also manifested in the decline of essential services, as depicted in the novel. Government schools are underfunded. Teachers rarely appear. There is a general belief that the most cunning politicians don’t want an educated electorate, lest they be replaced by better leaders. The characters are cognizant of the importance of having a decent education in achieving their dreams. This was repeatedly underlined in the story.

The conditions of health services were no better. Hospitals and clinics were underfunded, with the pressure falling on the shoulders of health workers. They were also underpaid but they were expected to attend to the demands of a growing population. Patients die because simple antivirals are unavailable. It is as if the people we voted for don’t want us to progress. The biggest manifestation of this failure was the growing dichotomies between the social classes. With the rich groveling towards power and the influential, the poor are further pushed deeper into poverty. Forced to a corner, they can only wait for a spell of good things to come.

Contributing to the characters’ growing concerns were their conformance to traditions. They were raised to adhere to elders and people with authority. They rarely exhibited any resistance. A case in point was how it didn’t cross Ẹniọlá’s parents’ minds to go to the school to ask the teachers to stop beating their kids. Meanwhile, Wuraọlá was subservient to the designs of her mother, even if it inconvenienced her if only to keep her mother happy and maintain peace at home. Family units are important, as underlined in how the characters repeatedly sought counsel from their parents or siblings. It was also palpable that while homes are highly patriarchal, matriarchal influences are intricately woven into every critical family event or discourse.

Adébáyọ̀’s writing was astute in capturing this condition but if there was an aspect in which it shone, it was her examination of the intricacies of families, from the inane to the complex. As she has exhibited in her debut novel, her writing has an incisive quality that provides the readers intimate glimpses into the subjects she was writing about. We read about the choices that poor families must make daily. How should their measly income be divided? What should come first: food, rent, or school fees? These are just among the challenges that families confront daily. There is a heavy feeling that comes with the mere thought of giving up. There is a guilt ushered by the admission of defeat.

“I didn’t want to talk because I am not your mother. But the truth is that I am also your mother, so open your ears wide and listen. In this world we now live in, you must study both the wisdom they give you in school and the one God has put inside you. As the world turns, we must track the direction it has turned towards and follow it. And from what I can see today, this world has turned towards the wisdom they teach in schools.”

~ Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things

There was a suffocating feeling that came with having no choice. This translated into a deep feeling of escapism. Ẹniọlá wanted to run away from the circumstances that had him spat on in the street. It was his desire to escape from the feeling of shame that enveloped him. Wúràọlá also wanted an escape. She wanted to escape the increasingly abusive relationship she found herself stuck in. Everyone was stuck in an impasse and running away seemed like the most obvious solution to their plights. Again, Adébáyọ̀ was resplendent in capturing the interiors of her main characters. With an unflinching gaze, Adébáyọ̀ laid out their sensibilities, their frailties, and also their small breakthroughs.

Ironically, the integration of political rivalry into the story hampered the development of a promising story. At this juncture, the story became predictable and started losing some of its luster. It also became more preachy and the story abruptly ended. For its flaws, A Spell of Good Things showed the growth of Adébáyọ̀’s writing. Compared to her debut novel, her writing was more assured. Gone were the rough edges that gave Stay With Me its unique personality. Nevertheless, the more refined writing present in A Spell of Good Things showed a different dimension of Adébáyọ̀’s writing. She also peppered her sophomore novel with Nigerian pidgins which added a layer of authenticity to the dialogues.

Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, Adébáyọ̀’s sophomore novel is a timely examination of the plights that continue to hound modern Nigeria. Through the stories and the differing fortunes of Ẹniọlá and Wúràọlá, A Spell of Good Things vividly captured the abject poverty and the stark dichotomies between the social classes prevalent in Adébáyọ̀’s home country. Adherence to traditions and families can also be oppressive. Nevertheless, there were rays of hope. The characters were cognizant of the importance of education but this was hampered by a corrupt system that persists because of its systematic dismantling of essential services. A Spell of Good Things reinforced Adébáyọ̀’s status as one of Nigeria’s rising literary stars.

“He stared back at her, unconcerned. She had always marvelled at his calm assurance that everything good in his life would either remain the same or get better. He took good fortune for granted. As though it were impossible that it would abide only for a spell. She had never been able to shake the sense that life was war, a series of battles with the occasional spell of good things.”

~ Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, A Spell of Good Things
Book Specs

Author: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Publishing Date: 2023
Number of Pages: 332
Genre: Literary

Synopsis

Ẹniọlá is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Ẹniọlá spends his day running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must and dreaming of a big future.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the Wúràọlá is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is believed by Kúnlé, the volatile son of an ascendant politician.

When another local politician takes an interest in Ẹniọlá and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wúràọlá’s and Ẹniọlá’s lives become intertwined. In her breathtaking second novel, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ shines her light on Nigeria, its aging class divide and the shared humanity that lives in between.

About the Author

To learn more about Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, click here.