Tiny Sunbirds Far Away – Christie Watson

Part of the ‘Into and out of Africa’ reading journey.

Thirteen year-old Blessing’s privileged life in the well-heeled Ikeja suburb of Lagos comes to an abrupt halt when her mother finds her father ‘on top of another woman’. It is he that has the good job, money and position so Mama packs up Blessing and her elder brother Ezikiel, and heads back to her parent’s village deep in the (Niger) delta.

Blessing’s new life in her grandparents’ compound lacks the home comforts she is used to – electricity, running water, flush toilets, TV, and air-con, but in time she finds new emotional ties and cultural values that compensate.

But life on the delta is hard for her and her family. Little money means no electricity, sporadic schooling, basic food and the risk of running out of medication for the asthmatic and nut allergic Ezikiel (who goes hungry with virtually everything cooked in nut oil).

Mama’s search for work brings her into contact with the white oil-workers and executives, and her earnings grow suspiciously. Ezikiel takes a different view of the oil industry and leans towards the rebel groups that infest the riverbank. As for Blessing, she is taken under her grandmother’s wing and becomes her apprentice in her role as birth assistant (midwife).

It is through this role that she discovers the horrors of ‘cutting’ (female circumcision or female genital mutilation); seeing the traumatic effects on affected women come home to roost during childbirth.

Against this political, economic and cultural turbulence, home life goes on with relationships ebbing and flowing (much like a West African version of The Archers) until some climactic events shift it into a higher state of being. The outcomes stay uncertain to the end, but a plausible and satisfying resolution ensues.  

The book is well written, giving what seems a fairly balanced picture of Nigeria at the time (1990’s?); maybe a touch long, with for me too much detail on the pain, joys and drama of giving birth. But these are minor quibbles and do not detract from a good and, for me, unusual read.