Things They lost – Okwiri Oduor

Genre: Fiction/ Fantasy

Pages: 358

Author: Okwiri Oduor, Kenyan

Setting: Mapeli Town, Kenya (Fictional town)

Themes: Death, Family, Love

She wondered why the Jinamizi never brought her happy memories. Was it because joy got passed down through generations, in songs and legends and tales, while pain got stuffed away, buried in unmarked graves? Was it because not all ghosts stayed down, and some got spat up, and they needed for someone to light candles, pour libations, sing dirges, bloody their scalp, look them right in the eye and say, I see you?

• Ayosa Ataraxis Brown, Things they Lost (page 228)

***

Ah, I loved that Okwiri did not limit her imagination while she was writing this book. The characters, mystical creatures in the town of Mapeli, the generational ache of daughters waiting for their mothers and her creativity with the death news, had me turning the pages of this book and listening to the audio book while I walked, just so that I wouldn’t miss a beat in the narration.

Ayosa Ataraxis Brown, daughter of Nabumbo Promise Brown and granddaughter of Lola Freedom is the protagonist of this book. Living in a town created by her great grandmother, Mable Brown, Ayosa goes about her life everyday listening to the odd deaths of her towns people while re-living moments from history that her Jinamizi brings to life. She develops strong feminine relations with characters like Sindano from the Matheu Must Go café, the Fatumas; mystical creatures living in the attic of her house, the apothecary, Mbiu Dash and Temerity; the apothecary’s ward.

The book explores the generations of the Brown family and the vicious cycle of mothers abandoning their daughters for their lustful desires and daughters, overwhelmed with undying love for their mothers, staying at home and waiting for them to return. In a town infested with wraiths (a version of the dead that come to take the living), Ayosa and her counterparts are in a constant pursuit to protect themselves from being taken to the land down under.

This book is definitely a masterpiece in terms of the style of writing Okwiri Oduor adopts and her uninhabited imagination of the setting and characters of the book. Imaginations like a town established by a white missionary who sets it up by bringing in people that she needs; the death of people caused by the flimsiest of reasons like swallowing a ball point pen and the grief of the Fatumas in the attic that causes the whole Brown house to tremble. Okwiri adopts the use of satire as well in her narrations and the spiteful cackles of the Jolly Anna’s adds a beautiful blend to the fantasy world Okwiri creates in this book.

Ah, I also loved the fact that Okwiri uses Ayosa to talk about the candid nature of Kenyans, in response to the stereotype that Kenyans tell lies. Here is an excerpt,

‘Kenyans would never lie to you. They told you the truth even when you ought not to hear it. They told you if your mouth smelled like sewage, or if your head had too many concerns. If anything, that was the problem with Kenyans. They did not know how to hold back with the truth. They brutalized you with the truth.’

• Ayosa Ataraxis Brown, Things they Lost (page 27)

If you’ve read it, do let me know what your thoughts were on it but I would definitely recommend it. Also, I really need to talk to someone about how this book ended. There was so much suspense.

Cheers.