Book Review: Simi Bedford's 'Yoruba Girl Dancing'
Yoruba Girl Dancing is Nigerian
author Simi Bedford's debut novel published in 1991 (in the UK) and 1992 (in
the US). It tells the story of Remi Foster, a girl from a very wealthy
background living in Lagos, Nigeria post-WWII. Her grandfather was one of the
richest men in Lagos, in their household they spoke 4 languages, and she was
the most loved one by her granparents. When she turns 6, her grandfather sadly
passes away and her father decides that Remi should go to the UK to be educated
so that she can come serve her country once she's done. So begins Remi's new
life.
In Yoruba Girl Dancing we follow Remi from
childhood to adulthood - from when she was 6 until about maybe 18 (as the
books ends with her being in university). She gets sent to a posh boarding
school in England where the uniform is 'nigger brown' and she has to cope with
being told that the black will rub off of her and onto the other girls if they
come close, and having to grapple with why people call sunny Lagos the 'dark
continent' when the UK is so dark and gloomy. As she continues her life in the
UK going from her posh barding school, to the working class English family she
lives with in Thornton 'Eath (Thornoton Heath, a neighbourhood in South
London), to another even more posh boarding school in the UK, to different
homes of her father's missionary friends during the summer, Remi begins to see
herself more as an Englishwoman than an African - after all she has spent more
time in the UK than Nigeria. Even though she still faced discrimination - like
as a child constantly playing the native in the Tarzan games, or when she went
to a schooltrip in Germany and they asked her to describe Africa (even though
she had been gone for years and hardly remembered a thing), or when a young man
in Germany asked her if she was 'considered attractive in your own country?',
or when her Literature A' Level teacher assumed she wouldn't be able to grasp
Shakespeare and other great English writers/playwrights/poets (even though she
had the highest grades in her Literature O'Levels class) - she still saw
herself as English. As she got older she realised, all her posh barding school
experience couldn't change the fact she was black and African. It ends with
Remi Foster realising, there isn't a sight more beautiful than a Yoruba girl
dancing.
Remi is a highly intelligent (and curious) girl and
from an early age learns to tell people what they want to hear in order to make
her life more pleasurable. One thing I loved the most about Yoruba Girl
Dancing, is that it was a story about a wealthy African family in post-WWII
era. Although Remi's parents were absent for most of the book, coming from an
upper-class Nigerian family her father's behaviour in public in England and his
blissful ignorance towards his surroundings made me smile.
This was a simple and enjoyable read about
identity and cultural transformation.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
0 Comments