Gods of Noonday: A White Girl's African Life

by Elaine Neil Orr

Book Overview

The daughter of medical missionaries, Elaine Neil Orr was born in Nigeria in 1954, in the midst of the national movement that would lead to independence from Great Britain. But as she tells it in her captivating new memoir, Orr did not grow up as a stranger abroad; she was a girl at home--only half American, the other half Nigerian. When she was sent alone to the United States for high school, she didn't realize how much leaving Africa would cost...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081392510X
• ISBN13: 9780813925103
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Plenty at Stake in "Gods of Noonday"

Elaine Neil Orr's memoir, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl's African Life, is an essential book in an era of global expansion. Orr's courage to claim as home Nigeria, the land of her birth and childhood, despite her expatriate status, should encourage expatriate children everywhere to claim their various nations, whether they integrated to host cultures or not. It should encourage them to do the archeology, as Orr does, uncovering the archetypes of their host cultures, whether they were conscious of them at the time or not. And it should encourage families raising children overseas to give them a fuller immersion, permit them host country playmates, and encourage local education and language study. Parents employed outside their borders must recognize that their childhood homes are not their children's childhood homes. Orr's most symbolic immersion was swimming in the cool clear Ethiope, and she claims the river as her sacred ground. "Nothing you could tell me about Jehovah was equal to the proof of divinity provided by the mere existence of so lovely a river. And so I worshipped it." The river represents the cultural immersion Orr longs for, after the fact. Her life in Nigeria seems decorous and material as she recalls American girl toys she got for Christmas in an American decorated house, later wishing it had been African art. Orr contrasts herself to "real missionaries" who spoke native languages, lived among Nigerians and regarded her, a white child, as no "more special than they (Nigerian children) were." Honesty glimmers through that exceeds "Out of Africa" and "The Poisonwood Bible," however much those books claim to be "of the land." For instance, Orr sees the anger of Nigerians directed at American missionaries during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement when bulletin boards were defaced in the hospital where her father was administrator and her mother a nurse. It seems that Orr mourns a land she lived on, often secluded from, rather than in and among. And yet she dares to claim more, and that claim of being Nigerian is like catharsis in her illness, which is, perhaps, her most poignant claim. She suffers a disease, diabetes, common to African Americans in the U.S., many of whom, she realizes, may not have received the care she did as she faces end stage renal disease. Dr. Orr's writing recalls Isaak Denisen's, in that there is longing on every page. But it also recognizes the fallacy of claiming too much, knowing (as Ngugi wa Thiong'o did in "Weep Not Child," his lament in response to "Out of Africa"), that the land taken by colonists was not theirs to mourn. Even when her mother attempts to involve the teenage Elaine in Sunday evening meetings, she realizes, "I had become too Americanized to feel comfortable trying to pass as a Urhobo girl...." Her voice and project gain strength as she interweaves her adult experience of declining health and relationships, finding that she has resisted intimate friendships,

A Memior Which Speaks to Parents

While the descriptions of the land and the people of Nigeria are powerful and beautiful, the relationship of the children and the author in particular, to the adults and to their parents really spoke to me. Do we pay attention to our children? Are we there when they need us? What happens when we are so distracted by our work and our passion that the child's voice goes unheard? Ms. Orr's book also portrays the universal struggles of young women, teenagers in particular, as they grow up amidst difficult and demanding societal pressures. Ms. Orr may have felt attached to Africa but America had a hold on her as a young woman. This book offers a rich experience for mothers and daughters to read "Gods of Noonday" together and to explore their own unique relationships. It is also a story of great survival and determination as Ms. Orr faced the very real possibility of losing her battle against Diabetes and kidney failure. "Gods of Noonday" is a treasure.

Going Home

Elaine has succeeded in what many MKs (missionary kids) have wanted to do and that is to write about our experiences while growing up in Nigeria. I too, was born in Ogbomosho, Nigeria and knew Elaine and her family while in living in Nigeria and when I read her book, I could see, hear, taste, smell and touch Nigeria just as if I were right back there. It brought back so many precious memories that I have not thought about in years, some that I had even forgot. It helps to strengthen our common bond when we have the opportunity to share with one another about our experiences in Nigeria. It makes me appreciate and proud of the heritage that we all share. Thank you, Elaine, for making "going home", close as possible.Your fellow guava tree lover,Ron Wasson

This is a wonderful book!

I have not been able to stop thinking about this book which is so beautifully written by Elaine Neil Orr. As she told the story of her childhood in colonial Africa, I could feel the heat, smell the sometimes awful smells, taste the dust, and relate to her pain of being a child of 2 countries. She writes hauntingly of war breaking out all around her and how the Americans chose to ignore it and just kept "carrying on". This is a great book for anyone that grew up one country( mainly due to their parents' jobs) but were then sent back to live in their parents' country. Elaine starts the journey to find what she left behind in her beloved Africa only after her health takes a serious turn for the worse. I could not put this book down until I knew the ending.

This book hit home.

Like Elaine, I am an MK from Nigeria, but in the far north eastern part. As I read her book my overwhelming feeling was "Yes, I know that emotion". What a treat it was to read her book. I bought two copies. One to keep and one to share.