Onitsha

by J.M.G. Le Clézio

Book Overview

Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial system. His youthful point of view provides the novel with a notably direct,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803279663
• ISBN13: 9780803279667
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.8" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

"Going native" as opposition to colonialism

It wasn't until the end of the novel that I really connected this novel with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, which was based on the Biafran War in the 1960ies where the eastern part of Nigeria, primarily represented by the Igbo people, were hounded into succession and an attempt to found their own state. Or that I began to wonder why so much of the literary output of Nigeria (besided Adichie, Chinua Achebe in the previous generation and Chris Abani more recently)--at least that which has got attention in the West--comes from this area of the country. Of course, LeClezio is not Nigerian himself, but he clearly identifies with the people of this area. LeClezio's novel spans the time frame of Achebe and of Adichie, with the novel beginning in 1948 when its main character, Fintan, first travels to Africa and ending in 1969 when Fintan travels to France where his father is dying and from there, one speculates--since he resigned his teaching job--to Nigeria. Fintan is 12 when he travels with his mother on the Holland Africa steamer from France to Nigeria. Mother and son are unusually close and both write on the ship--the mother (Maou, short for Maria Louisa), bits of evocative poetry and Fintan, a chronicle called "A Long Voyage". On the ship with them is the new British DO (District Officer) at Onitsha--where they are headed--giving the reader a preview of the racial and cultural disconnect they'll encounter at their destination. In addition, we have the strange circumstances of their own voyage. In the 30ies Maou had married Geoffroy, an Englishman, in her home country, Italy. Shortly after their marriage he goes off, presumably to Africa, promising to send for her which he does only after his child is 12 years old! Fintan resents the father he's never met and doesn't like him in person and we're at first on his side as his father seems to be as insensitive as the other British functionaries in the local colonial government--including the DO met on the ship. Gradually, though, as Fintan toughens up his feet and runs with a local boy, learning the ways of the forest and the river, we learn of Geoffroy's passion for the ancient myths and legends of the people who first settled on an island in the Niger. His interest borders on obsession, is deemed inappropriate by local whites. When Maou speaks up about British mistreatment of the people at the British club, she's ostracized and the powers that be decide they have to go. The point of view shifts almost imperceptibly between Maou and Fintan. LeClezio excels in characterizing the place, through descriptions of the sights and sounds of the forest and the river and the love of the land and the people that grows in mother and son. The sections that represent Geoffroy's thoughts are printed in a different font to indicate a shift; at first they seem irrelevant to the contemporary world, though gradually people and events from the past seem to merge with those in the present. R

Soooo excellent!

This book is totally excellent, one of the best I've read in years. I see myself reading it again shortly. This is Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) from a French boy's eyes.

"Now he knew that he was in the very heart of his dream... "

Memoirs or fictional accounts of childhood experiences in Africa have become popular in recent years, in particular by Africans having escaped the horrors of war. They express a need to reconnect with their roots and their lasting influence on their lives. JMG Le Clézio's fictional treatment of his own formative time in Nigeria as a child has resulted in this powerful and alluring novel. Written in 1991 with the hindsight of historical events, most of the narrative is set against the harsh realities of colonial Nigeria in 1948/49 when revolts against the British had been increasing and, at least for one protagonist, the "end of the empire" was already in the cards. The story concludes twenty years later at the time of the brutal Biafra war, fought by the then independent Nigeria. In a lucid, yet often poetic language Le Clézio effortlessly blends an intimate portrait of his young hero, Fintan, his family and the personal challenges they confront with a sweeping impressionistic depiction of a real, yet also mystical place in its cultural and historical context. During the month-long sea voyage from France to the remote Nigerian town of Onitsha, the twelve-year old Fintan experiences a rainbow of emotions: joyous anticipation as well as anxiety about their new home, homesickness and, above all, a sense of dread of the father he never knew. The intimate relationship to his mother, Maou, short for Marie-Luisa, may be under threat in the new circumstances. Maou, Italian-born and desperate to leave her difficult life of prejudice behind, dreams of an Africa that is wild, idyllic and beautiful. It will also finally reunite her with her beloved husband. The romantic Geoffroy, whose fascination with Africa goes way back, had been caught up in Africa during all of WWII, and had finally, in 1948, asked his family to join him. Reality is usually very different from dreams and all three main characters have to go through crises, substantial change and learning before they can find themselves and, hopefully, each other. The author lets the reader follow the path that each takes in their unique ways. Fintan, an uncomplicated and receptive youth, has the easiest time in absorbing the new surroundings, literally throwing off his black shoes and wollen socks to follow his new friend Bony running barefoot through the long grass of the Savannah. The boy, son of a local fisherman, increasingly takes the role of Fintan's guide into the mysteries of the local culture and religion. For example, when Fintan, unthinkingly destroys termite mounds, Bony chides his friend for having attacked the gods of nature. There is playfulness in the way they explore hidden paths to the river and its islands. Mystery abounds not least in the persons of Sabine Rodes, the eccentric loner who seems to live in a different universe from the British community, his "adopted son" Okawho and, above all Oya. Young Oya, whose name means "river goddess" in the local language, appears from nowhere

Heart of Africa

Is it possible to write of a journey upriver into the African heartland without falling into the shadow of HEART OF DARKNESS? And yet the example of Conrad's masterpiece need not be a dead weight, as ONITSHA, the 1992 novel by the recent Nobel laureate JMG LeClézio, proves. As Conrad had done, LeClézio begins his book with a long voyage by water, in this case from Bordeaux along the coast of Africa to the mouth of the River Niger. His protagonist is a young boy, Fintan, who travels with his Italian mother (nicknamed Maou) to join his English father Geoffroy Allen, whom he has never seen, working as a shipping agent in the river town of Onitsha. Fintan's situation is clearly based on that of the author himself, whose father was also separated from his mother during the War, and who similarly spent part of his childhood in Nigeria. I was surprised to discover that Onitsha is actually a real city, for it is also presented as a place of myth. All through the long voyage (deliberately prolonged to emphasize Onitsha's remoteness), Fintan and his mother look forward to a tropical jungle paradise. What they find is a deforested commercial outpost run by British colonial officials on behalf of the trading companies. Fintan meets a slightly older African boy and soon discovers his own Onitsha, running barefoot through the savanna and pottering in the reeds at the water's edge. Maou fits poorly into colonial society and at first feels very lonely, but eventually she forms her own ties to the place and its native people. And Geoffroy, no more than competent in his official work, becomes obsessed with the idea that the Onitsha region might contain the new city founded by the semi-legendary Queen of Meroë at the end of her long trek across the continent from the Nile, two millennia earlier. Conrad's novella is about the evils of colonialism, and some dark force that takes possession of its central figure, Kurtz, and drives him mad. LeClézio also sees colonialism as evil, but he presents it in its last dying throes, denouncing it less for its horrors than its isolation and irrelevance. For the mysterious heartbeat of Africa that seduces each of the three main characters is not some kind of black magic, but the sense of an ancient history, an even older religion, and a oneness with the land and its elements. Once these things have entered the bloodstream, they are impossible to remove. Only war, famine, and commercial exploitation can do that; but the worst of these things happen (as they did in the Biafran War) after the main part of the book is over. This is a powerful novel, but a magical one also, and not nearly so harrowing as the description on the back cover might indicate. At first, the book's oddly-named characters, almost allegorical setting, and university-press printing, combined with the reputation of the Nobel Prize, almost screamed French Intellectual at me, but I found it almost impossible to put down. Even in translation, LeClézio's writing i