When Ben Okri published his Booker Prize winning novel The Famished Road for the first time, readers in the UK and the world was shocked to know how a person can see spirits, how a person can slide into the realm of spirits. For most people raised in Euro-american settings, such realm as the realm of spirit is a news. However, through The Famished Road, Ben Okri “campaign” the existence of such realm, at least, in the eyes of African people—well, actually not only African, but also Asian people, or more exactly, Southeast Asian people.
In The Famished Road, Okri tells about a boy named Azaro who finally realized how actually he is an ‘abiku’. In Nigerian belief, an abiku is a ‘childish’ spirit who likes being born to a mother only to die while still very young and later chooses to be born again, still to the same mother, and only to die while still very young. In Azaro’s case, he unconsciously loves his mother so much that he does not want to see her hurt by his death again—well, no body knows whether this time is his second life, third, or fourth; the point is, this is not his first life. While he does not want to die, his abiku friends always try to tempt him to die and when he showed open resistance they try hard to kill him through various incidents.
As you turn the pages, you’ll see how Azaro struggles to keep alive and how his father struggles to keep his family alive, :D. The unique part is that, while we are exposed to the personal life of this spirit-kid, we will also see some incident in the history of Nigeria and you’ll also see some bits of white dominance in Africa. Okay then, wanna know more? Just borrow the book from nearest libraries or buy it somewhere and you’ll soon delve into the mystery.
