‘A sack filled with valuable stones will solely decelerate your trek by the wilderness, in spite of everything, and is healthier dumped by the wayside or exchanged for a cup of water.’

-Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Buried Beneath The Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani chronicles the circumstances that result in Magdalene’s physique getting buried beneath the baobab tree in Sambisa forest. Her story represents the tales of 1000’s of women, with comparable beginnings and ranging endings. The ebook is a diary-style documentation of the lifetime of Ya Ta, which interprets to ‘My Daughter’ from Hausa. It manages to introduce very tough conversations with out being too triggering. Written in first particular person, it begins with the bizarre lifetime of a sensible secondary faculty pupil residing in Northern Nigeria.

Throughout the first few chapters, we see her desires and her relationship along with her finest buddy and household. We watch her reside the lifetime of the typical teenage lady—self-consciousness about her physique picture, fear about her interval, anxiousness about her crush. Towards the background of BBC Information and updates about Boko Haram’s actions, tragedy strikes instantly, as it’s wont to do. Ya Ta and her mates—Magdalene, Aisha, and Sarah, symbolize the various endings of Boko Haram abductees; Magdalene is stoic in her beliefs, refuses to transform to Islam, and is killed; child-bride Aisha, who has to cease her training when she will get married to an older man, dies throughout childbirth because of the absence of correct healthcare; Sarah adjustments to Zainab, is efficiently brainwashed and joins the jihad; Ya Ta, our lady, escapes however not with out the price of her psychological well being and future. The baobab tree which was an emblem of happiness and enjoyable for the ladies turns into their graveyard, the ladies are stripped naked of their innocence and clothed with horrors and abuse.

The namelessness of our protagonist heightens the facelessness of the numerous victims of Boko Haram, with their completely different names, ages, and desires blurring into one another. Her award-winning debut, I Do Not Come To You By Probability, showcased Adaobi’s expertise for well-paced storytelling,  Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree  cements her title on this function. Studying this ebook, we put on the footwear of those women—the reader partakes of their struggling, their anxiousness is our fear, and shares their pleasure, nevertheless few. It manages to be factual and true to historical past with out being too educational and rid of feelings. Adaobi has mastered the fusion of fiction and inventive non-fiction. The afterword by Italian journalist, Viviana Mazza, is the right icing on the cake. Right here, Mazza provides context to the story by giving the historic accounts of the unlucky occasions that type the background of the story, together with the kidnap of the Chibok women. She additionally explains, intimately,  the investigative course of and analysis that went into writing the ebook.

One should admit, nevertheless, that the writing will not be spectacular. It’s categorized as a ‘Younger Grownup’ novel really helpful for readers between the ages of 13 and 17.  The sentences are quite simple and primary. On one hand, it could possibly be argued that the sentence construction displays the informal ideas of a teenage lady. Then again, it may be argued {that a} lady who can consider a line as poetic as ‘how does one draw blood from a stone’ (web page 251) has it in her to assume in stunning prose. 

The ebook covers household, youngster brides, rape, terrorism, friendship, betrayal, spiritual freedom and intolerance.

Summarily, the ebook is a robust 3.5/5. It’s a nice choose for younger adults who get pleasure from historical past and anybody making an attempt to get out of a studying droop. It’s very best for school rooms and your native ebook membership.

Oreoluwa Oyinlola is a author and finalist on the College of Ibadan. When she will not be taking a look at pictures of cats on the web, she is writing fiction, artistic non-fiction or, ebook opinions.