A Book Review of ‘Wake Me When I’m Gone’ by Odafe Atogun.
By Nnachetam Calista Chinonye
Odafe Atogun is a Nigerian writer born in Lokoja. As a child, he found escape through writing, especially at night. ‘Wake Me When I’m Gone,’ his second novel was published in 2017.
The novel is written in a prosaic form and has themes of Grief, Motherhood and Love. It is set in a Nigerian village that could almost be described as ‘magical.’ The village is under the rule of a despotic king who exercises absolute control, and his council of priests. Their belief system is both patriarchal and orthodox and any form of opposition leads to banishment or death. Widows are expected to remarry within a designated time frame after losing their husbands; and if they do not, their children are forced to live with their uncles, or in extreme cases, exiled to the town limit and left there to forage for food. Nobody is willing to pay the steep price for such an inhumane system until Ese.
Ese, a beautiful woman who lost her husband, must now face the brunt of the king’s decree - losing her only son, Noah. The King happens to be in love with Ese, and marrying him would offer Noah better odds at survival but Ese declares that she will only marry a man she loves.
As the novel progresses, Ese and Naoh form a strong bond with some homeless orphans and take care of them, even though it meant incurring the King’s wrath. Women in the village are seen as inferior as it is a patriarchal society. Hence, the attempt by the Head Priest to force widows to remarry or lose custody of their sons to a male relative. The villagers also cling to cruel beliefs such as the orphaned being responsible for the death of their parents because they are cursed. The community is heavily steeped in superstition, afraid of the wrath of their gods and defiance of the gods will bring madness or death.
Ese, unwilling to accept the customs of the village, begins a lonely search for safety and shelter where she meets an older woman who becomes her guardian and makes her influential overnight. This arrival is a prophecy fulfilled, and what she could not do in her own village, she is able to achieve elsewhere.
In the book, there is a constant battle between good and evil, and every time we are made to think she will be conquered by the priests, she slips out of the trouble and lands safely.
Odafe allows us to journey with Ese through her tribulations, and also dishes out justice to the priests that betrayed Ese.
Wake Me When I’m Gone is a good read that provides insight on the customs and traditions of Nigeria, and challenges you to question your own beliefs.
