Five books to heal us again
This would have been my joy. For as everyone knows, all spiritual fasts are expected to cleanse, help us put our bad habits (which we eliminated while fasting) behind us. This is the period of renewed self; you lied before you can cut it out during Ramadan and try not to go back to it. […]
This would have been my joy. For as everyone knows, all spiritual fasts are expected to cleanse, help us put our bad habits (which we eliminated while fasting) behind us. This is the period of renewed self; you lied before you can cut it out during Ramadan and try not to go back to it. If you had issues with sins of the flesh, this is when to let go of it and hopefully permanently. Fasting is a spiritual re-awakening, sort of a cleansing exercise. These set of books can only make their way to this column minimally. The rest of the books will be presented from our archive of books for healing. Some we have presented to you before, others are new. This is necessary in the face of the twin bomb blast early in the week. We all need healing, collectively and individually.
I shudder to think that there are those among us, family members and friends, who know those perpetuating these crimes and yet are keeping quiet. The blood of the innocent attack us daily as persons just minding their businesses are blown away and their families left befuddled, bereaved and utterly destroyed. Do these people just eking out a living deserve this? A big question for us all to answer. For we are all as culpable as the insurgents when we politicise, when we carry on like nothing has happened, when as communities we refuse to out our enemies or point at the bad eggs among us.
Here are the books. I am too weary to cry.
As a nation we need to understand the growth of other countries and try to see how we are faring, compare and contrast. This is why I am recommending Nobel prize winner for literature, Naguib Mahfouz’s masterpiece trilogy .The books are Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street where he telescopes a family chronicle into an unparalleled picture of Egypt under the British protectorate. Time’s Literary Supplement describes Mahfouz’s trilogy as a “marvellous novel with many messages, open and concealed, for those who will be instructed” The catch for me is “for those who will be instructed” As many holy books will warn, those who have ears, let them hear. There are many warning signs for us as a nation. Let’s take heed and each person, each Nigerian should make a pact to be less money conscious, less corrupt, improve work ethics and be patriotic. Let us all gather round and tell our stories so we can correct our faults. In addition let historians chronicle our lives, let literary personalities write about the grandeur of Nigeria and the beautiful things therein. I love the Cairo trilogy because it makes Egypt breath taking. We can make our country better. There are lessons to be learnt in this book.
I have been reading Sefi Attah’s Lawless and Other Stories for the second time. I recommend it to all Nigerians to see some of the things we get up to as citizens that minus us all over the world. In warm tones and elegant language, Sefi captures us brilliantly and also does so with much emotion giving out reasons why some citizens are broken and making us empathise. Nigeria needs fixing and we should all be part of the solution.
The story of the Kennedys is always a place to start when lessons of History are to be learnt. The story of President Kennedy and the American people is always a delight and the American dream. Always Americans ask what they can do for their country. Always, always. Let us rout our enemies and chase insurgents from our communities. They have families. Let us be watchful. My favourite Kennedy book is An Unfinished Life, John F Kennedy by Robert Dallek.
I present to you Snow by Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk. According to The New York Times,” Snow is enriched by…mesmerizing mixes; cruelty and farce, poetry and violence, and a voice whose timbres ranges from a storyteller’s playfulness to the dark torment of an explorer, lost.” Margaret Atwood writing in The New York Times book review says Pamuk is narrating his country into being. A book for a time like this when we all need to feel the timbre of a rich literary voice to hold Nigeria in awe and wish it out of its challenges.