Childhood in contemporary nigerian fiction
material cultures as a source of memory
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| 2.6.1 material cultures as a source of memory This extra-textual device of memory is resourced from a pouch that Elvis carries on his neck, which contains a journal of recipes he got from his mother. It represents an inheritance on the part of Elvis, keeping alive, in him, his mothers memory (as reflected in his dance performance It was his mothers journal, a collection of cooking and apothecary recipes and some other unrelated bits, like letters and notes about things that seemed as arbitrary as the handwriting all that he had inherited from her, all that he had to piece her life together. These recipes of Nigerian cuisine are used by Abani as a structuring device preceding each of the chapters in the book, complete with sections of ingredients and preparation These are artifacts for Elvis the protagonist, which trouble his identity because of how critical they areas sources of memory. There is a space-time dimension to the location of these memories, portrayed in the formative years of his childhood, and Afikpo, the countryside place of his formative childhood. In talking about identity and the performance of memory, chapter four will examine a genealogical dilemma, reflective of a troubled masculinity on the part of Elvis. Having been physically and sexually abused, as well as witnessing the sexual abuse of his cousin Efua by his uncle 112 Joseph (64, 197-8), Elvis‟s performance of memory can be seen as dealing with trauma memory of his childhood. In this sense then, he shares in the trauma memory of Adichie‟s teenage protagonist Kambili in Purple Hibiscus. The recipes of Nigerian cuisine, a material and artifact level of memory, represent sites of engagement, on the part of Elvis, with a maternal memory and lineage that allows him to trouble the idea of his sexual identity within a highly masculine and militarised cityscape of Lagos. It is interesting the way the countryside landscape of memory also involves the initiation of Elvis into manhood (17-22). This is pitted against a very troubling present, in the city of Lagos, where Elvis‟s impersonation act is perceived as feminine. This takes us back to the image of the mask dancing – in pitting these dichotomies as complex representations of migrating memories, identities and selves. The image of Elvis dancing, as a masquerade across the city (12), presents a shifting sense of reality, blurring the memory of Afikpo and the ever present and troubling realities in Lagos. Eze Chielozona (2005) uses the metaphor of the mask dancing by examining the shifting realities that Abani seeks to represent as extending Achebe‟s vision in Arrow of God, at the advent of dichotomised realities of the traditional and the modern during the formative stages of colonial occupation. Chielozona‟s critique focuses on transculturation as a process of the formation of cosmopolitan identities, reflecting on the masquerade metaphor of shifting realities of the postcolonial city. It is interesting the way Achebe uses the same metaphor to implicitly problematise gender categories in Things Fall Apart, portraying the lack of moderation on the part of Okonkwo on gender issues as informing his tragic demise. Indeed, Elvis Oke in Graceland is a modern day masquerade – literally impersonating his American idol as a performance of his troubled masculinity. The recipes of Nigerian cuisine are therefore structuring devices that open up insights through the idea of a material culture of memory and its relevance in the performance activity of Elvis. They connect the memories of Afikpo and the present Lagos. These recipes are supplemented by pharmaceutical notes on the etymological history of plants with medicinal values, which are given Igbo equivalents. In his acknowledgement section, Abani cites RC Agoha‟s book Medicinal Plants of Nigeria as a source for this information. Part of Abani‟s strategy as a novelist, is to be able to have fiction that is 113 amenable to both scientific and artistic language. The recipes are also significant in influencing the chronotopical aspects of time and space in the novels plot. One wonders however about the danger of ornamentalism that comes with such meta-fictional interventions, and whether these are, in this context, postmodernist strategies or not. Again we can draw similarities herewith Adichie‟s book within a book in Half of a Download 1.93 Mb. Share with your friends:
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