You Are Not A Boy: African Feminine Resistance

Description

If you like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other African literature, then you’ll love this book. A fine story for people of all ages immerses you in an enthralling journey into the struggles of first-born female children in the south-eastern heartland of Nigeria.

Ada, a first child of three in her home, is frustrated by the constraints placed on her by an age long tradition, where being a male child means you enjoy some enviable perks. And challenging such meant been slapped with the annoying cliché, ‘you are not a boy.’

Her chief antagonist is Nonso, a manipulative and spoilt child of their neighbour, whose friendship with Dera, her brother, sees him pick up some bad traits to the extent that Obiageli, her little sister, suffers.

Due to her own father’s adamant stance not to abandon using firewood, a cheap but laborious fuel, for cooking, Ada is having a hard time making meals during the rainy season for her family. Cooking for the whole family is her sole responsibility as the subadult first child of her family; although she gets help from Obiageli in the kitchen.

Her strained relationship with her father becomes apparent when she faces off with him after he questions her for disobeying his decree. Ada insists that the more important issue was his failure to recognise the obvious bad influence leading Dera astray.

The tale set in Igboland has a occasional Igbo words and phrases thrown in to highlight the bilingualism of the Igbo people.