A evaluation of If the Rain Comes by Sunny Eze, Kraft Books, by OLAYINKA OYEGBILE.
We’re victims of unhealthy habits – Muhammad Ali Jinnah
SOCIETY has been formed since time immemorial by the concepts of leaders, regardless of the truth that they (the leaders) at all times say that they’re there on behalf of the individuals. That is what Marxists name 'the thought of the ruling class'. It’s subsequently what the leaders of a society resolve that shapes the ethos and legal guidelines of such a society. That’s the reason what’s regulation in a single nation could also be unlawful in one other. The historical past of the world has subsequently been formed by the whims and caprices of those that are within the corridors of energy. Due to this, man begins transferring from one part of society to a different in quest of higher legal guidelines that go well with their sample of life.
Leaders attempt to drive or persuade individuals to see life by their prisms. This has led to the expansion or decline of society, relying on their alternative. The selection that society makes determines the way it will progress or by which path it is going to transfer. This conflict of will and option to maybe take a unique route is what makes society progress.
In outdated Nigeria, earlier than the arrival of colonialism, the delivery of twins was thought-about taboo. Each household that brings twins into the world is aware of what their destiny will probably be. That is the core of the story that Sunny Eze, a physician, wrote in his debut novel If the Rain Comes. On this story, intrigues meet and the stage is about for an ideal battle.
Mary Slessor, the well-known Scottish missionary who helped finish the widespread apply of killing twins in some southern components of the nation, instantly involves thoughts when studying this novel, which can be devoted to her and the authorized storm petrel chief Gani Fawehinmi, “and all of the others who raised their voices for 'an opportunity' for the little kids of Africa,” the creator says.
Within the village of Umuaroko, twins have been rejected and disadvantaged of their lives for a very long time. Nonetheless, it takes one individual, one of many leaders who has decided the destiny of different twins, to be influenced earlier than issues hit house and the principles need to be modified. The rule needed to be modified in a classy method and manipulated by many twists and turns to have the ability to revise this quite hasty determination.
The rationale for killing twins was by no means mentioned or reasoned till the connection of one of many clan leaders had one, and it turned a tough determination to make. A frontrunner who had many wives who had given delivery to boys and now had a spouse who gave delivery to a set of feminine twins! Selfishness units in as a result of the person now is aware of that the collection of boys he had would marry and sooner or later face their households, whereas the ladies, even when they marry, wouldn’t flip their backs on their dad and mom. Feminine kids care extra for his or her dad and mom than the males, they imagine.
The dilemma was how one can impact the change of techniques with out the choice affecting the place of the chief. If the clan chief goes towards the needs of the clan, he should both abandon his place or pay for it, a technique or one other. It was the identical method Okonkwo paid along with his life when he selected a path the place the society he thought he was preventing for took a unique route. Ought to he now sacrifice his place to attempt to change the rule?
That is captured within the assertion of one of many leaders: “If you happen to say so. However are you certain there may be nothing extra to it?” the elder requested, seeing Uduma trying away. He then summed it up: “After we inform this story to future generations, we’ll level out that today was not simply in regards to the killing of twins, however extra importantly, it was about how the pursuits of males in energy had formed this nation for good and evil.”
The creator, with the data of at present, has written a novel that chronicles the time when Nigerians, in accordance with a primitive customized, resorted to killing twins. With out passing any judgment, he has made the readers perceive that it’s important to know what drives a convention or determination and what results in it. It is very important word that the choice to eradicate the thought of killing twins was unilateral, the choice of some.
If the Rain Comes is an allegory in regards to the state of being in Nigeria, taking a look at what is going on and the way selections are made. How is the inhabitants thought-about when selections are made? Are they made for their very own profit or for that of a choose few? Eze has contributed to this lifelong debate with this debut.
- Oyegbile, PhD, is a senior journalist and scholar.
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