Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies (2001) ISSN: 1530-5686 Okechukwu, Chinwe. When Rain Beat the Cow in the Eyes. Eagle and Palm, 1999. 78p. ISBN 1-8902-061

O. Gwamna

I like the collection because of its detailed focus on the civil war that raged in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970. All eight stories touched on public and private episodes of the war, focusing specially on the after effects of war on the Nigerian society. For those who did not experience it, Okechukwu’s various stories provided gory and uncomfortable images of carnage in Kafaland and Obigbo, the fictional settings of the northern and eastern regions of Nigeria. Senses are assailed by the horrific scene in the lorry when the young female narrator in “Homecoming” is forced to hide in the midst of decapitated bodies and festering corpses. In the same story, there is the unforgettable massacre in the train with Obigbo passengers being hewn from the moving locomotive by insane Kafans. Then, there is the corresponding scene in the tear-jerking tale of “Mama Alafi.” Here, Obigbo people are rounded up by longtime male Kafan neighbors who proceeded to cut them up right in front of stunned female relatives. In this regard, the author should be commended for presenting an uncensored graphic view of the conflict. Okechukwu is from the erstwhile Republic of Biafra, the section of Nigeria that bore the brunt of the civil war. That she knows a good story is without a doubt, the issue is in its telling: it leaves much to be desired. One cannot honestly recommend the collection in its present form to a larger audience.

If the collection was intended for an African or Nigerian audience, the terminologies and cultural assumptions would have gone unnoticed. But since the publication is also for the U.S. market many terms and phrases are not adequately explained. For example, “tumbler” is meaningful to British-oriented Africans as a cup, but to an American, a tumbler connotes one who tumbles or rolls around. Additionally, the book generally suffers from poor editing. Sentences are wordy; words are mis-spelt, and even pidgin English is wrongly transcribed. “wee de go” for “wey dey go” in “Ifeguluonye.” She annoys the reader by constantly reminding one of the titles which she repeats in four stories. After a while, nobody really cares when the next deluge will hit the cow. These incidents tend to weaken the message and discourage a reader from completing the book. Consider for example, “Ndende,” a story about a mentally unstable stark naked woman who roams the market collecting food items to make a sumptuous dish for her lover, a fellow lunatic who rules supreme under a tree. The story starts off well but somehow the reader loses Ndende as the author detours into other stories of hungry fighting kids and a pregnant widow, forced into early labor and eventually ends up dying. Nobody sees Ndende again until a couple of paragraphs before the end of the story.

While self publishing promises to be a rewarding experience for the bold and independent minded, it often mars what chances a budding writer like Okechukwu has of being taken on by reputable houses. These houses, as the reader is aware, reward well thought out idea with a highly professional and profitable finish.

Copyright 2001 Africa Resource Center, Inc.

Citation Format

Gwamna, O. (2001). REVIEW: Okechukwu, Chinwe. When Rain Beat the Cow in the Eyes. Eagle and Palm, 1999. 78p. ISBN 1-8902-061. Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: 1, 2.