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Bezig met laden... The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (2001)door Neshani Andreas
Books Read in 2022 (1,353) Namibia (1) Bezig met laden...
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Namibia. The first book by a Namibia native and former Peace Corps employee. Perhaps best read for its images of village life and descriptions of the tensions associated with women's traditional roles. I enjoyed reading it and gained a better appreciation for the ways that African (and other) communities can reach negative decisions about a member who does not quite conform to expectations. Two women from different domestic situations: Kauna is married to a man who beats her and treats her physically and mentally unbelievably. And Ali is married to a great man who treats her wonderfully, so wonderfully that he has family members worried that Ali has him "under her thumb". A feminist approach to different marital situations and a call to action and awareness of women's experience in Namibia. When Ali hears Kauna let out a chilling scream, she believes her husband is again beating her. When she arrives at her home, she finds Kauna's husband dead. He was not ill, so the number one suspect is Kauna. She comes under more suspicion when she does not mourn the loss of her husband - but how can one blame her? Married to a man who hates her, beats her and does not love her. His death was a kind of divorce for her, free of him - how can she mourn that? However, the rest of the society does not see it that way. Andreas' book examines the role of women in a small village in Namibia via the lives of two friends. Ali is very happily married, but is forced to watch as her best friend (Kauna) is beaten, abused and cheated on by her husband. When her husband dies suddenly, Kauna is accused of murder, witchcraft or, at the least, failure to keep her man happy. It seems that whatever goes wrong in a marriage is always the woman's fault, almost by definition. Ali comments on Kauna's life, and on those of other women who have had similar problems in their lives, and tries to understand the lot of women in her society. 'The Purple Violet' is not, perhaps, an example of great writing, but is a very effectively told parable. Andreas uses flashbacks to tell anecdotes about women Ali has known, which is something I think can be difficult to do without disrupting a story too much. However, Ali is a very likeable protagonist, and the book is skillfully enough written so that it stays well away from becoming a series of vaguely connected anecdotes. An interesting addition to the literature examining a 'mans world' from a woman's perspective, from a place often not on the literary map. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
This is the story of a woman who refuses to mourn her husband's death. The village knew she was an unhappy wife, but she is still expected to weep and speak the praises of her husband. Her story reveals the value of friendship between women, based on liking rather than traditional beliefs. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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But then Shange dies suddenly, probably of a heart attack, and Kauna finds hordes of Shange's family descending on her, accusing her of poisoning, witchcraft, and worse, as they strip her of her property. As a widow she might have legal rights in theory, but in practice she is powerless to assert them.
Andreas also touches on quite a number of other issues in the course of this short, simply-written and very engaging novel: another widow is accused of witchcraft when her husband dies of AIDS-related illness, Kauna's aunt makes a precarious living as a market trader, Ali's husband is injured in a collision between overloaded minibuses, and so on. At the very centre of the story is a lively okakungungu, a working party where all the women of the village come together over food and freshly-brewed beer to help Kauna finish her ploughing before the rains. ( )