Everything Good Will Come
Everything
Good Will Come is a coming-of-age
novel by Nigerian author Sefi
Atta about a girl growing into a woman
in postcolonial
Nigeria and England. It was published by Interlink World Fiction in 2005, and won the Woles Soyinka Prize
for Literature in Africa.
Throughout
the novel the main character, Enitan, is faced with various personal
entanglements connected with family troubles, rape, cheating boyfriends, and
imprisonment. The novel is also a biting commentary on post-independence
governments in Nigeria and tensions between Igbo (Biafrans), Yoruba, and Hausa ethnic groups after the Biafran War.
Plot summary
Everything
Good Will Come is a bildungsroman that tells the story of Enitan, a young Nigerian woman
growing up in her native homeland coping with the demands of the patriarchal
society that encompasses her. Enitan is raised in a divided home struggling to
identify herself in the midst of her mother's strong religious beliefs and her
father's manipulative political ways. Due to her being an only child and the
death of her brother, her parents have strict demands that restrict her from
having a normal childhood. Her rebellious nature is first seen when she defies
her mother's wishes and leaves the house on Sundays to play with the girl next
door, Sheri, who is considered "yellow" because her father is Muslim
and her mother is a white English woman. Sheri is a sassy young girl sassy with
a rebellious nature, constantly testing those around her, while craving the
attention of any male. Their friendship builds as they continue to defy
Enitan's mother by seeing each other.
The
girls are soon forced to separate; Enitan is sent to a school abroad to receive
a better education than that offered in Lagos. Her father, an educated lawyer,
wants the best for her and hopes she will take over his firm once she has
finished school and proves herself as a lawyer. Sheri and Enitan keep in touch,
writing letters back and forth about school, boys, and when they will meet
again. During a holiday visit home, Enitan and Sheri meet up and go to a party.
Enitan, who doesn’t feel comfortable in the situation, wants to leave. On her
way out, she witnesses the three men pinning Sheri down raping her and bruising
her body as they degrade her. The image of Sheri's rape affects Enitan's
ability to allow herself to trust men. The aftermath of Sheri's rape leads to a
partial termination of their friendship and Sheri being sent to the hospital
due to an attempt to give herself an abortion.
Years
pass and Enitan returns to Lagos
to stay with her father and work under him to start her career as a lawyer. She
begins dating a struggling artist, Mike, and has an emotionally complex but
short-lived relationship with him. Enitan runs into Sheri one afternoon and
reconnects with her. Sheri is a mistress to a Muslim brigadier, who pays for
her living and gives Sheri a good life. Sheri believes in playing
the system rather than settling down with a
man because she is aware of the lack of individualism a woman receives once she
becomes married in their society.
Enitan
gradually becomes closer with a man called Niyi Franco, who is separated from
his only child who was taken away by his ex-wife when they moved to Britain.
This relationship quickly becomes a marriage. Enitan at first feels comfort and
safety in Niyi's arms, but their relationship is soon tested when she refuses
to submit to his demanding ways and struggles to conceive and carry a child.
After she becomes pregnant, Niyi and Enitan's differences over each other's
behavior and expectations build. In addition to the stress from her failing
marriage, her father's political outspokenness and subsequent arrest forces her
into activism and results in a night in jail. Enitan joins a group of women in
the fight against the government for women's rights during her pregnancy. Her
drive for change is frowned upon by her husband, who wants her to stay at home
and take on "women-like" tasks. Niyi's lack of support for his wife's
beliefs, along with her unwillingness to concede to his requests, leads to
their separation. Enitan continues to stand up for what she believe: wanting
women to have the ability to choose whether or not they will be submissive in
society with hopes for individuality.
Characters
Enitan
Enitan
is the main female character that the story follows. The novel starts when she
is a little girl and meets Sheri for the first time. The story progresses along
with Enitan's life. In the beginning Enitan witnesses the rape of her friend
Sheri, which causes Enitan to withdraw from Sheri. Throughout her life,
Enitan's father, and later her husband Niyi, encourages her to stand up for
herself. This causes her to always speak her mind when it comes to her rights
even in the face of adversity. The political changes in her country affect
Enitan's life in many different ways. First, she comes home from college and
has to go through military training and later she has to deal with gas
shortages, being stopped on the roadside by soldiers, her father's and her own
arrest. As she grows she comes to realize that she has lived a privileged life
even though she has had to deal with the stigma of being a woman in Nigeria.
She also finds out that she has a brother while her father is in prison.
Although they become friendly with each other, this just reinforces the fact
that Enitan cannot trust any of the men in her life to treat a woman with
respect or as an equal. Enitan is a strong female lead in the novel who fights
the traditional male dominant culture that she lives in. She is the example of
the Nigerian woman who is educated and fights for the nice life that she has
lived. Her own time in jail shows Enitan for the reality of how the people in
her country, specifically the woman, are being treated by the people on power.
At the end of the novel she breaks tradition and leaves her husband to lead a
group of women fighting for the release of political prisoners.
Sheri
Sheri
is also a part of the story from the very beginning. Her life is hugely
affected by her rape in the beginning of the novel. When she became pregnant
after the rape she aborted her baby with a clothes hanger, making herself
barren in the process. To a Nigerian woman being barren is the worst thing that
a woman could be and being able to have children is the major value of a woman
which Sheri has now lost. She also grows up in a family with more than one
wife. She has always seen firsthand the more traditional side of her culture
which certainly influences her decision to live as a mistress in order to
survive. When Sheri and Enitan meet again after Enitan comes home from England
Sheri is the mistress of the Brigadier. Up until this point Sheri is the other
type of woman in Nigeria: the one who depends on a man. In exchange for an
easier lifestyle, she plays the role of housewife and does all of the cooking,
cleaning, and care of her man. Sheri knows how to take advantage of the fact
that men often stray from their marriages in Nigeria and it is even considered
normal to have more than one wife or women on the side. Enitan gives Sheri the
idea of a catering business, which she puts into motion when the Brigadier hits
her. This enables Sheri and her family to take care of themselves without being
supported by a man. Sheri and Enitan are very important characters because they
show the contrast between the two ways that a woman can survive in Nigeria. She
is also a character who is deprived of motherly care and the privilege to
experience the joys of motherhood. She is often referred to as a strong person
by Enitan.
Sunny and Enitan's mother
Sunny
is Enitan's father and he is the person who starts her thoughts of fighting for
her rights. In her childhood, Sunny tells his daughter not to worry about
learning how to cook because he says that girls don’t need to learn that in her
generation. He fills her head with such ideas but later when she grows up and
uses his lessons against him he reverts to being a sexist male. Sunny expects
Enitan to stand up for herself except when it comes to himself: everything he
says is supposed to be right regardless of logic. Sunny's character shows how
hard it is to escape the traditional mindset that the males in Nigerian culture
have the final word regardless of what the women think. Enitan's mother starts
out as the villain of the story and later turns out to be a victim of society.
While married to Sunny, she is constantly ridiculed for her beliefs and actions
and seems psychotic with her part in the church. Later in the novel Enitan's
mother is a woman who tried everything to save her son and breaks down when
nothing can be done. Enitan brings her mother back into her life when she
realizes that Sunny believes in the traditional roles of man and woman, which
is the same reason that Enitan's mother leaves Sunny early in the story. Enitan
learns to relate to her mother because as women they are both subject to the
demands of the men in their life until they separate from those men. Enitan's
parents are important to the story because as time goes on the reader learns
how their marriage fell apart and how this affects Enitan.
Niyi
Niyi
is Enitan's husband with whom she later has a child. At the beginning of their
relationship Niyi is just like her father and tells her to stand up for her
rights when the men at her job try to take advantage of her in a work-related
way. Up until Enitan gets pregnant everything seems all right with their
relationship even though Niyi acts like a child that Enitan has to take care of
instead of a grown man. Soon Niyi expects Enitan to obey him and while his
concern is for the unborn baby he also cannot handle the fact that Enitan does
things that he tells her not to do. Niyi doesn’t want Enitan to draw interest
from the government when her father is arrested but she gets arrested herself
when she gets involved with Grace Ameh, who Niyi also doesn’t want Enitan to be
involved with. Niyi only helps take care of Enitan when their situation is at
an extreme and the baby is in danger after Enitan's mother dies. Unfortunately
for him, this shows that Niyi has always been capable of helping out around the
house and cleaning up after himself and instead let Enitan do everything. This
contributes to their divorce but the major reason is that Niyi refuses to
support Enitan's interest helping women prisoners.
Grace Ameh
Grace
is the reason that Enitan is able to get more information about her father and
she influences Enitan to put herself in danger. Enitan is arrested because she
is attending a reading that Grace is a part of and both women are taken to
prison where Enitan sees firsthand the treatment that women and prisoners in
general. Grace also invites her to the group of women who campaign for
prisoners and this is the group that Enitan leaves her husband for which he
won’t support her interest in.
Mike
is the first man whom Enitan really likes when she comes back to Nigeria from
college and he treats her well. After she fights with her father about his son,
Debayo Taiwo, she leaves her father's house for Mike's and finds him with
another woman. This is an early example for her of how the men in her life
cannot be relied upon and only think of themselves. Most of the men in her
life, her husband and father especially, tell her to be a strong woman and to
stand up for herself except when it comes to them.
Nigerian culture and history
Nigeria
is home to over 250 ethnic groups and over 50 languages. However, the three
most dominant tribes in the country are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. The Hausa dominate the northern region of Nigeria, the
Yoruba dominate the southwestern region, and the Igbo dominate the southeastern
region. Religious differences also endorse the strong divide between different
regions of Nigeria. The Hausa are predominantly Muslim. The Igbo are mostly
Catholic Christians, and Yorubas are split between Christians of various
denominations and Muslims. The different tribes of Nigeria operated as separate
states with little interactions with each other until its unification and colonization
by Great Britain in 1914. During the colonization of Nigeria by Great Britain,
local tribes were used to govern their regions and the British government
served as the central power. The Hausa excelled in the military field and made
up most of the colony's military forces. Since the trade capitals and oil
reserves of Nigeria are located in the south, the Yoruba and Igbo naturally
excelled in education and trades. The balance of power was well-regulated by
the British so there were little ethnic conflicts.
After
Nigeria gained independence in 1960, the balance of power was maintained
through elections and a democratic approach to all national issues. However,
the situation became volatile with back-to-back military coups that were led
mostly by corrupt Hausa military officers. The coups also generated ethnic
violence between the different groups and tension was high. In an attempt to
rule its own region, the Igbo declared themselves independent from Nigeria, and
named the southeastern region of the nation Biafra. But since most of Nigeria's valuable natural resources lay
in the new "Biafra", Nigeria refused to recognize the newly formed
country, which led to war between Nigeria and Biafra. The war lasted from 1967
to 1970, claiming about 3 million civilian and military casualties. At the end,
the Biafran state was eradicated and discontinued. This is why
"Biafra" carries a negative connotation in the book.
Currently,
all tribes of Nigeria are functioning in a cooperative manner though underlying
tension still strains the relationship. Although members of the different
tribes interact freely all over the nation and equally share political powers,
the clear division among tribes leads to civil unrest and rebellion. Enitan and
her father spent time in prison due to their rebellion.
Political unrest and religion
Other
important themes in Everything Good Will Come include political unrest
and religion. Throughout the book, which covers many years, political unrest is
present and, though it is not explicitly said, much of this conflict has to do
with religion and the distribution of wealth and power. The book is set mainly
before and during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–70) or the
"Nigerian-Biafran War". The main character and her family are Yoruba.
At the beginning of the novel we see how different characters view the war and
react to it. The main character Enitan's father, Sunny, is a lawyer and has two
fellow lawyers as friends. Enitan describes how they were so close they
considered themselves, when they were studying at Cambridge together, the
"Three Musketeers"
in the heart of darkness. When the war starts we see how the allegiance of
these friends are divided. One joins the Biafran side out of fear and is
killed. Another supports and encourages the Yoruba movement, while Sunny seems
to quietly support it. Later in the novel when Enitan is in law school in
Britain she hears of all the political unrest still in her country although the
war ended in the '70s. She talks about how people are being imprisoned without
charge, the suspension of the constitution all by the military regimes that had
taken over Nigeria in order to enforce peace and discipline in the country.
When she returns to Nigeria she realizes her father has become politically
involved, is imprisonment and, despite the objections of her husband, so does
she.
In
the Yoruba and Igbo tribes in the eastern parts of Nigeria Christianity is the
dominate religion because of the early and quick success of the Christian
missionaries when they arrived; construction of Anglican and other Christian
churches followed. Enitan's mother, Mama Enitan, is a devout Anglican.
Throughout the story Enitan describes her perception of the ways and beliefs of
her mother's church. Sunny uses his wife's religion as a way to belittle her,
call her crazy and endanger Enitan's life, which, at times is not completely
false. Yet, the importance of religion to Mama Enitan is strong as she has lost
her son to disease, suffers through a bad marriage and is subject to the dual
pressure put on all the Nigerian women that result from colonization and sexist
societal attitudes; she turns to religion as one would self-medicate with
drugs, alcohol or sexual activity as an escape from reality.
Significance
The
significance of Everything Good Will Come lies within the historical
perspective Sefi Atta uses to look at her character's life. By being based in a
true Nigerian culture and political atmosphere, this fictional story has
relevance to the time period in which it is set. This relation between fact and
fiction gives the reader insight to how likely and the effect politics could
play a role within each character's life. Although the focus is on the middle
and upper classes, the unsettled government of the 1970s through 1990s is still
well represented. The history of this novel follows Nigeria through a civil war
and into the Second and Third Republic, all times of different political powers
but connected through the character's lives.
The
author also has credibility for writing about this time period because much of
her life experiences paralleled those of Enitan. Born in 1964, Sefi Atta was
only seven years in 1971 when the novel begins. Her childlike perspective of
this time is seen in the novel by having Enitan's character at a similar age,
aligning Sefi and Enitan's ages and developing their perception as the novel
progresses. Both women also receive their education abroad in England and then
return to their native homes. Although their majors differ, Enitan and Sefi's
perspectives of being a Nigerian abroad would be quite similar by experiencing
the same "culture shock." In an interview with Ike Anya, Sefi even
acknowledges similar characters in her own life, stating "every Nigerian
knows a Sheri." She also recalls experiencing similar situations such as
dealing with her mother's traditional belief that "women must fulfill
their duties as wives and mothers, no excuses," a viewpoint that
conflicted with not only her own but Enitan's as well. The parallels between
the Sefi's and Enitan's lives allow the novel to have a realistic foundation
and give accurate insight to the history and culture of this time period.
The
generation Enitan represents was born in the late 1960s, so is younger by
comparison with those in many other novels of similar genre, giving Atta's book
a unique perspective. The main difference lies in the different political
atmosphere each generation faces. Rather than living through colonialism, those
growing up in this timeframe face the aftermath of it. In terms of this
generational representation, Atta states: "I consciously did not hold back
as I wrote and ended up with this very personal chronicle of post-independent
Nigeria." This brings up the issue of political instability as a
repercussion of colonialism by showing Nigeria at a time of political flux. The
argument against colonialism is discussed by the characters: "Uncle Alex
blamed the British for the fighting ‘...Come here and divide our country like
one of their bloody teacakes.’"Because of this blame on the British, this
novel has more significance in its publication locations: the United States,
England, and Nigeria, all of which have become united through colonization,
which brought western culture into Nigeria.
The
idea of universalism is shown that by the fact that although the women of these
countries may seem very different, they all face many of the same issues. At
this time, England and the United States were seen as more progressive in
gender ideals through women having the ability to maintain independence, but
they still faced discrimination in the work place as Enitan did in her father's
firm. All three countries are also faced with infidelity and race
discrimination, issues that make this story relevant beyond Nigeria. To combat
these issues Atta shows the negative effects and allows her main female
protagonists to gain independence in the conclusion of the novel.
This
positive outlook on a woman's ability to become self-sufficient and successful
against family and political strains of this time contributed to this novel
receiving the Wole Soyinka Prize
for Literature in Africa.
References
·
Ayna, Ike. "Naijanet.com". Sefi Atta: Something Good Comes to
Nigerian literature. Naijanet. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2011.
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