#23 Cell One- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This is my first encounter with the fiction of Chimamanda
Ngozi Adiche, however I know of her talks on culture and gender. The Cell comes from the short story
collection The Thing Around Your Neck.
This is a story about change, social class, generations and
family. We wee a college community on
the Nsukka campus in Nigeria. There is
rash of professor’s sons robbing their neighbor’s houses. Everyone is aware of the culprits but pride
and embarrassment causes them to blame outside riff-raff. These thieving boys are part of a new
cult/gang phenomenon.
“They are symptoms of a larger malaise.” We see corruption
and resentment throughout the piece. The
University, the Cults, and the Police, they are all guilty.
When a brutal murder happens on campus, many in the known
cult members are locked up including Nnamabia, the older brother of the narrator. The
rest of the story takes place during family visits to the prison or The
Cell. Being of better means, Nnamabia is
able to see his family and tell them of what happens inside. He tells them of an old man who is imprisoned
because the police can’t find his criminal son. Just like the old man is in
jail for the sins of his son, Nnamabia is in jail for the leniency of his
father.
Nnamabia represents the younger generation in Nigeria,
charming, brash, entitled, irreverent, and disrespectful. His lighter skin is seen as a young virtue where his darker skinned site is scoffed at. In the end, he’s just an immature child,
innocent and getting smacked down by the reality of a cruel world.
Good story telling, easy style. I’m looking forward to the
rest of these.
Notable Passage: “It would have been so easy for him, my
charming brother, to make a sleek drama of his story, but he did not.”
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