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A review by vee_thereader
Swallow by Sefi Atta
5.0
Whew. What a book. Theres so much to unpack that I long to discuss this book with someone. Sefi Atta’s writing is unique and poetic, her ability to inhabit the characters’ minds and lives convincingly, proves furthermore that she was born to write. Sefi Atta is one of the latest in a great line of female Nigerian writers. This book was so engrossing, her style so unobtrusive that after a while they transcend the reading experience.
‘Swallow’ is a vivid tale of the life of a Lagosian & the effects of the socioeconomic & political landscape on Nigerian women. This book touched on a lot of issues that I felt aren’t talked much about in African households- such as; drug trafficking, sexual harassement, the effects of poverty, etc. After reading this, I asked myself one question: “What does empowerment for women look like in countries where there are limited opportunities?” I believe this story answers this question–“who cares?” This book focused on a lot of issues. Time and time again, we are reminded that the world doesn’t favor women. We are reminded that women are nothing without marriage, that when a man is infertile, it should be kept a secret but when it is a woman it deserves to be publicly announced, that when we are making more than our husbands we should be silent about it, and when we are taken advantaged of, we should endure it…or else.
In a society dominated by men, Tolani along with her roommate, Rose, navigate through the hardships of living in Lagos. But to what extent can poverty push someone? What decisions does one have to make just to survive? Although the plot is introduced much later in the story, through the smallest details of the characters’s everyday life, they are able to carry the plot. As I am still recovering from the story, I don’t think the author’s point was to center this entire book on drug trafficking but instead to skillfully expose the hardships women go through in Nigeria and how far poverty and lack of governmental effectiveness can push a person. Besides these two women, Tolani’s mother story is incorporated intermittently, exposing what many women endure in a marriage.
‘Swallow’ is a vivid tale of the life of a Lagosian & the effects of the socioeconomic & political landscape on Nigerian women. This book touched on a lot of issues that I felt aren’t talked much about in African households- such as; drug trafficking, sexual harassement, the effects of poverty, etc. After reading this, I asked myself one question: “What does empowerment for women look like in countries where there are limited opportunities?” I believe this story answers this question–“who cares?” This book focused on a lot of issues. Time and time again, we are reminded that the world doesn’t favor women. We are reminded that women are nothing without marriage, that when a man is infertile, it should be kept a secret but when it is a woman it deserves to be publicly announced, that when we are making more than our husbands we should be silent about it, and when we are taken advantaged of, we should endure it…or else.
In a society dominated by men, Tolani along with her roommate, Rose, navigate through the hardships of living in Lagos. But to what extent can poverty push someone? What decisions does one have to make just to survive? Although the plot is introduced much later in the story, through the smallest details of the characters’s everyday life, they are able to carry the plot. As I am still recovering from the story, I don’t think the author’s point was to center this entire book on drug trafficking but instead to skillfully expose the hardships women go through in Nigeria and how far poverty and lack of governmental effectiveness can push a person. Besides these two women, Tolani’s mother story is incorporated intermittently, exposing what many women endure in a marriage.