Society is always evolving to become better and it takes the most courageous of us to lead the uncomfortable conversations that are necessary for this to happen. Jirani & Other Short Stories by Balaba Aseka are that courage, challenging our thought structure, the norms we are afraid to fear talk about, and the culture we are afraid to question.
Stories are a mirror that we hold up to see ourselves. We use these stories to laugh about the things that stifle our growth. The stories in Jirani and Other Stories live among us. We are these stories. There are so many uncomfortable things we carry in our lives that we cannot explain but continue to carry because doing so is tradition. Someone once said, “tradition is peer pressure from the past”. I guess they were right.
Culture and religion
When culture meets religion, it’s the people that suffer. Joseph expects to have an heir. A man is expected, by culture, to have a boy. When his wife ‘fails’ in this, she is kicked out. It is the tradition and Joseph falls for it. Men like Joseph who cannot stand to claim their space suffer in situations like these.
Opinion
Opinions like those of Jajja in Namale’s Baby and Maama Kagenda in Jirani contradict those of Jirani herself. Jajja does not approve of girls’ education just as she questions Christianity’s stand on divorce. And once education is reduced to a threat then it cannot attract others to join in. The same is true for Namale’s baby when one of the women in the labour ward argues that pills are for bazungu. In this story, conversations on birth control are limited to what could go wrong, other than their benefits. Opinions are formed from what we are told and what we see. When we are told something over and over again, we take it to be the truth and that is the case with this book. It is always the quality of conversations that shapes opinion in any society.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. It is interesting to learn that much as the stories in this collection are set in the 80s and the 90s, their impact can still be felt today. In the Trips to Mombasa, Mombasa was the go-to place for traders at the time more recently Juba was the hot cake, today, you could say that place is Dubai. Yet the detail is not in the trade but rather the trip. There are so many Butares who are exploiting their spouses’ hard work for their personal selfish benefit.
Time happens to all men. Time is responsible for the coincidental meeting of Sonia and William. A childhood encounter that takes another twist in adulthood. No one prepares you for such things yet they are the backdrop on which the silhouettes of our lives are drawn.
Choice
Nothing is as rewarding (to self) as the choices you make for yourself. The best example of this is Grace’s mother in the Parcels of Fish as she extends to herself the kind of grace that she needs. Often, society bent and built on bias, doesn’t extend the same grace to women as to men when they take similar decisions. Society “understands” when a man sends away his spouse not so when a woman does.
It is out of choice that Peggy in The Fundraiser lives the way she does while at university. We have the liberty to make any choice but each choice comes with a consequence and we do not choose the consequence. Such is life.
This collection is a revelation of many things that have survived time, crossing over from one generation to another. The way of life, beliefs and norms have a tendency of taking a slow and gradual change. The cause for unlearning, learning and relearning is something we need to be aware of in whatever we do.
The voice of these stories is a new breath that we all need to renew our minds
Pages: 1 2