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| Onitsha | 
 enlarge | Author: J.m.g. Le Clezio
Creator: Alison Anderson
Publisher: Bison Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $10.21
You Save: $4.79 (32%)
New (25) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $8.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 10492
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 206
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 6.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0803279663
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.914
EAN: 9780803279667
ASIN: 0803279663
Publication Date: April 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a youth who travels to Africa in 1948 with his Italian mother to join the English father he has never met. Fintan is initially enchanted by the exotic world he discovers in Onitsha, a bustling city prominently situated on the eastern bank of the Niger River. But gradually he comes to recognize the intolerance and brutality of the colonial system. His youthful point of view provides the novel with a notably direct, horrified perspective on racism and colonialism. In the words of translator Alison Anderson, Onitsha is remarkable for its “almost mythological evocation of local history and beliefs.” It is full of atmosphere—sights, sounds, smells —and at times the author’s sentences seem to flow with the dreamy languor of the river itself. But J. M. G. Le Clezio “never lets us forget the harsh realities of life nor the subsequent tragedy of war.” A startling account—and indictment—of colonialism, Onitsha is also a work of clear, forthright prose that ably portrays both colonial Nigeria and a young boy’s growing outrage.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nice, not boring, but still not perfect :) April 17, 2000
12 out of 22 found this review helpful
I read this book as part of my Sorbonne II exams literature study. At first, I thought it was going to bore me, and leave me all the way uninterested, mainly because I wasn't so keen on this type of literature, and because it seemed too long. But reading it was after all quite a nice experience! I found it wasn't boring, it kept me up, wanting to find out what happens next, although not all the time! :) Interesting because we learn so much about its theme (involving the status of Africa half a century ago). Interesting also, of a literary fashion; I, at least, found it fun to analyse it in class! It wouldn't get 5 stars because, well, it didn't exactly blow my skirt up, neither would it get 3 stars cause it just was more interesting than 3 out of 5!
 Heart of Africa October 23, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Is it possible to write of a journey upriver into the African heartland without falling into the shadow of HEART OF DARKNESS? And yet the example of Conrad's masterpiece need not be a dead weight, as ONITSHA, the 1992 novel by the recent Nobel laureate JMG LeClezio, proves. As Conrad had done, LeClezio begins his book with a long voyage by water, in this case from Bordeaux along the coast of Africa to the mouth of the River Niger. His protagonist is a young boy, Fintan, who travels with his Italian mother (nicknamed Maou) to join his English father Geoffroy Allen, whom he has never seen, working as a shipping agent in the river town of Onitsha. Fintan's situation is clearly based on that of the author himself, whose father was also separated from his mother during the War, and who similarly spent part of his childhood in Nigeria.
I was surprised to discover that Onitsha is actually a real city, for it is also presented as a place of myth. All through the long voyage (deliberately prolonged to emphasize Onitsha's remoteness), Fintan and his mother look forward to a tropical jungle paradise. What they find is a deforested commercial outpost run by British colonial officials on behalf of the trading companies. Fintan meets a slightly older African boy and soon discovers his own Onitsha, running barefoot through the savanna and pottering in the reeds at the water's edge. Maou fits poorly into colonial society and at first feels very lonely, but eventually she forms her own ties to the place and its native people. And Geoffroy, no more than competent in his official work, becomes obsessed with the idea that the Onitsha region might contain the new city founded by the semi-legendary Queen of Meroe at the end of her long trek across the continent from the Nile, two millennia earlier.
Conrad's novella is about the evils of colonialism, and some dark force that takes possession of its central figure, Kurtz, and drives him mad. LeClezio also sees colonialism as evil, but he presents it in its last dying throes, denouncing it less for its horrors than its isolation and irrelevance. For the mysterious heartbeat of Africa that seduces each of the three main characters is not some kind of black magic, but the sense of an ancient history, an even older religion, and a oneness with the land and its elements. Once these things have entered the bloodstream, they are impossible to remove. Only war, famine, and commercial exploitation can do that; but the worst of these things happen (as they did in the Biafran War) after the main part of the book is over. This is a powerful novel, but a magical one also, and not nearly so harrowing as the description on the back cover might indicate.
At first, the book's oddly-named characters, almost allegorical setting, and university-press printing, combined with the reputation of the Nobel Prize, almost screamed French Intellectual at me, but I found it almost impossible to put down. Even in translation, LeClezio's writing is both evocative and crystal clear; there is poetry aplenty, but no sense of heaviness. LeClezio is less an intellectual than a sensual writer, not just in his pervasive evocation of sexuality as a life force, but also in his sense of place. And his choice of characters is surely deliberate -- Fintan is a Celtic name, Geoffroy a French spelling of an English one, Maou a contraction of the Italian Maria Louisa -- all combining to create a rootlessness that is the opposite of the strong sense of place LeClezio will establish in Africa. He almost never mentions an African place name except as part of a string of such names, as Homer might have done. This is a slim book written in a world where Homeric grandeur has long since gone. But the sense of lost greatness remains, reaching a climax in passages like the following, in which an old resident shows Fintan the wreck of a warship [the ellipses are the author's]:
"Look, pikni! Here, in this hull, the officers would stand to attention when Sir Frederick Lugard came on board with his great plumed hat! With him came the kings of Calabar, Owerri, Kabba, Onitsha, Ilorin, with their wives and their slaves. Chukuani of Udi... Onuoorah from Nnawi... the Obi of Otolo, the old Nuosu wearing his leopard skin... the warlords of Ohafia... even the envoys of the Obi of Benin, even Jaja, the old fox Jaja from Opobo, who had resisted the English for so long... They all came on board the GEORGE SHOTTON to sign their peace treaties."
Anybody still hesitating to buy this wonderful book might check out the story by LeClezio in the current NEW YORKER (10/27/2008), "The boy who had never seen the sea," which shows once again his affinity with young protagonists and almost mystical feeling for nature. He is a subtle and magnificent writer.
"Now he knew that he was in the very heart of his dream... " November 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Memoirs or fictional accounts of childhood experiences in Africa have become popular in recent years, in particular by Africans having escaped the horrors of war. They express a need to reconnect with their roots and their lasting influence on their lives. JMG Le Clezio's fictional treatment of his own formative time in Nigeria as a child has resulted in this powerful and alluring novel. Written in 1991 with the hindsight of historical events, most of the narrative is set against the harsh realities of colonial Nigeria in 1948/49 when revolts against the British had been increasing and, at least for one protagonist, the "end of the empire" was already in the cards. The story concludes twenty years later at the time of the brutal Biafra war, fought by the then independent Nigeria. In a lucid, yet often poetic language Le Clezio effortlessly blends an intimate portrait of his young hero, Fintan, his family and the personal challenges they confront with a sweeping impressionistic depiction of a real, yet also mystical place in its cultural and historical context.
During the month-long sea voyage from France to the remote Nigerian town of Onitsha, the twelve-year old Fintan experiences a rainbow of emotions: joyous anticipation as well as anxiety about their new home, homesickness and, above all, a sense of dread of the father he never knew. The intimate relationship to his mother, Maou, short for Marie-Luisa, may be under threat in the new circumstances. Maou, Italian-born and desperate to leave her difficult life of prejudice behind, dreams of an Africa that is wild, idyllic and beautiful. It will also finally reunite her with her beloved husband. The romantic Geoffroy, whose fascination with Africa goes way back, had been caught up in Africa during all of WWII, and had finally, in 1948, asked his family to join him.
Reality is usually very different from dreams and all three main characters have to go through crises, substantial change and learning before they can find themselves and, hopefully, each other. The author lets the reader follow the path that each takes in their unique ways. Fintan, an uncomplicated and receptive youth, has the easiest time in absorbing the new surroundings, literally throwing off his black shoes and wollen socks to follow his new friend Bony running barefoot through the long grass of the Savannah. The boy, son of a local fisherman, increasingly takes the role of Fintan's guide into the mysteries of the local culture and religion. For example, when Fintan, unthinkingly destroys termite mounds, Bony chides his friend for having attacked the gods of nature. There is playfulness in the way they explore hidden paths to the river and its islands. Mystery abounds not least in the persons of Sabine Rodes, the eccentric loner who seems to live in a different universe from the British community, his "adopted son" Okawho and, above all Oya. Young Oya, whose name means "river goddess" in the local language, appears from nowhere and seems to live outside real time or space. Not only Fintan is completely mesmerized by her eerie beauty and behaviour...
Events also force Maou to adjust her dreams to the realities she encounters. Onitsha is a busy, British-run, urban trading centre, disconnected from the traditional way of life of the ancient cultures and religions and the natural idyll she was seeking. Her open-mindedness and sense of fairness towards the African population quickly brings her into conflict with the colonial establishment. Through her, Le Clezio expresses his strongest critique of colonialism while at the same time imparting her increasing sense of comfort and appreciation of her African surroundings and newly won friends. Whereas Geoffroy has become a middling bureaucrat in a trading company, his obsession with Africa has not diminished. He is unfeeling and overly strict towards his son and apparently uncaring towards his wife. While he becomes increasingly remote from daily life, he is absorbed in his search for clues as to the locality along the Niger river of a lost Meroe empire, refuge for the descendants of the last empress after they had to abandon the ancient city of Meroe in Upper Egypt. Geoffroy's sections in the novel are set apart from the rest of the flow of the story. They combine his personal quest with glimpses into this history-rich and culturally diverse region marked by the mighty Niger, a trading route for thousands of years. Le Clezio's concluding chapter - reflecting on the twenty years since the journey started - is deeply moving and satisfying.
The author's own experience percolates through his narrative and imagery. His detailed descriptions, evoking the beauty of landscape and the creatures inhabiting it, demonstrate an intimate knowledge of these surroundings: the magnetism of the powerful and mystical river on the peoples who live along its banks; the impact of the change of seasons and the play of colours and sounds from the early mornings to the setting sun in the mist after the heavy rains. The intimate connectedness between daily life and the spiritual realm is particularly well and sensitively conveyed. [Friederike Knabe]
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