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Book Reviewed by:Set against the backdrop of 1970s Nigeria teetering between post-colonial dependency and self-rule, Before the Mango Ripens examines the enduring themes of faith, disillusionment, and the search for belonging. Both epic and intimate, Afabwaje Kurian's debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
In Rabata, everyone has secrets—especially since the arrival of the white American missionaries.
Twenty-year-old Jummai is a beautiful and unassuming house girl whose dreams of escaping her home life are disrupted when an unexpected pregnancy forces her to hide her lover's identity. Tebeya, an ambitious Dublin-educated doctor, has left prestigious opportunities abroad to return to the small town of her birth, and discovers a painful betrayal when she strives to take control of the mission clinic. Zanya is a young translator, enticed by promises of progress, who comes to Rabata to escape a bitter past and finds himself embroiled in a fight against the American reverend for the heart of the church and town.
United by their yearning for change, all three must make difficult decisions that threaten the fragile relationships of the Rabata they know. As tensions mount and hypocrisies are unveiled, the people of Rabata are faced with a question that will transform their town forever: Let the Americans stay, or make them go?
Chapter Fourteen
Jummai stood under the Parsons' veranda, wringing her hands on the apple-dotted apron Ms. Katherine had recently insisted she wear when cooking. Her eyes raked the compound for Elijah. He liked to doze in the hammock behind the Reverend's house or she'd find him crouched against the cowshed, playing a game in the dirt.
She spotted him in the grapefruit tree, his whitish-looking hair peeking out of a cluster of leaves like a rooster's comb. She waved at him to come down. "Elijah! You know Nami is coming." "I know, I know," he said.
"You have to be ready with your books."
"I already am," he said, hopping out of the branches. A greenskinned fruit plopped off a limb, thumping the ground and rolling down to rest near his shoes.
He sprang up, brushing the little stones and dirt from his knees. "Jummai, I found something. Can I show it to you?" "No, you have to soon eat," she said.
"Please?"
"Elijah, if you make me burn my yam porridge—"
"It'll be quick! I...
The story of how Zanya and Jim first met is symbolic of their relationship throughout much of the book. As a new missionary in Nigeria, Jim's car broke down, and a group of bandits robbed and beat him. Zanya came across the heavily wounded pastor and carried him on his back to the home of a healer. As Zanya's story draws crowds to the church while he takes on the jobs no one else wants, it seems he is still carrying the pastor on his back. Jim wants to see himself as a leader of the Nigerian people he preaches to, not someone dependent on them. At the heart of the polite conflict between the two is a deeper tension happening in contemporary Nigerian society: is it time for Western missionaries to step back and let locals lead the institutions they've built? The nuanced portrayal of the missionaries points to flaws in the system that gives them so much power over the Rabata residents. They are not evil overlords, but rather people who think they are doing good and yet are ill-equipped for the leadership positions they've been handed. Jim, who left his U.S. congregation in disgrace, should arguably not be in a position of spiritual leadership over a whole community, and the fact that he is simultaneously feeds his arrogance and insecurities...continued
Full Review
(908 words)
(Reviewed by Jillian Bell).
Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was
What an absolute joy to read: vibrant, immersive, and lyrical…In this tale of the intricacies of faith and identity, Afabwaje Kurian is a keen and elegant observer. Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tinkers
One of those rare novels that seems to capture the whole world between its covers. Afabwaje Kurian choreographs and cross-cuts among so many elements of language and beliefs, cultures and histories, and she does so on so many scales—from the individual to the familial, the communal to the national, and to the marvelously cosmic as well—and she does all that with such clear-eyed artfulness, elegance, and seriousness, that no summary or paraphrase can approach an adequate description of its riches. Just turn to page one and start reading. Regina Porter, author of The Travelers
A beautifully rendered debut novel by a novelist who writes well beyond her years. Afabwaje Kurian's lyrical prose, original characters and uncompromising storytelling will keep you hooked from start to finish.
Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian focuses on the tensions between residents of a Nigerian town and white American missionaries based there. The book's Nigerian characters have a widely diverse set of reactions to the church: some adamantly oppose Christianity and persecute their Christian family members, others go to church in hopes of personal gain, some are devout true believers, and still others combine their Christian faith with elements of indigenous religious beliefs, like household gods. Likewise, the entire history of Christianity in Nigeria is a nuanced one, and the faith's role in Nigerian society can't be attributed solely to the efforts of Western missionaries.
Initial attempts by Portuguese missionaries in ...
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