The prophecy, like an angered beast, had gone berserk and was destroying his mind with the ferocity of madness . . . until all that he knew, all that was him, all that had become him was left in disarray. To my brother, Ikenna, the fear of death as prophesied by Abulu had become palpable, a caged world within which he was irretrievably trapped and beyond which nothing else existed.
Excerpt from The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma.
***
Set in Akure, a village in Nigeria, Chigozie Obioma explores the story of a closely-knit family of six having four sons. The book’s protagonist, Benjamin, the youngest of his four brothers, narrates the story in first person as a young boy and later as reflections of an adult.
Ikenna, Boja, Obembe, and Benjamin are brought up under an authoritarian and disciplinarian father who enforces strict rules in the house. As children during boy’s play, the brothers explore a couple of games to keep them active and later grow weary of them. One fine day, they come up with the idea of being fishermen, and they walk down to the lake that has been cast out by the village, against their parents’ orders, to start catching small fish that they store in their rooms. Consequently, they meet the village madman, Abulu, who makes a prophecy about their older brother, Ikenna. This prophecy turns out to be the start of all the misfortune that befalls their household.
In a rather desolate turn of events, Ikenna is consumed with the prophecy and resigns to its fate before the eyes of his parents and brothers. Boja, the second son, is then turned against his brother, and in the demise of both sons, Benjamin and Obembe are found in a rather precarious position.
‘The things my brother read shaped him; they became his visions. He believed in them. I have now come to know that what one believes often becomes permanent, and what becomes permanent can be indestructible. This was the case with my brother.’
Excerpt from The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma.
***
Chigozie’s writing will grip you from the moment the prophecy is told and have you turning the pages throughout. I listened to the audiobook version, which was brilliantly narrated by Chickwudi Iwuji, assuming the voice of all the brothers.
I loved that the book was written from the POV of a male child coming of age and forms the perspective of the clashes that arise with brothers in common child play as well as the power dynamics that some siblings have.
This is a very heavy-set book with heavy themes, and I recommend it for its thought-provoking nature that will have you thinking about some themes that will blow your mind. One thing that had me thinking throughout the last half of the book was whether the prophecy of the madman was accurate or whether the sheer fear within Ikenna of his looming death and betrayal from his brothers eluded him so much to make it palpable.
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Do let me know what you think about the book if you have read it.
Cheers!