[Review] 'Ghana Must Go': Railroading Taiye Selasi's emotional roller coaster

"Ghana Must Go," was one of two books I failed to read as planned in the year 2018. I was back to it with an unyielding plan to railroad through to the end.

Apparently, a reading friend like me had also failed to read same. When she found out in my review of Chinua Achebe's "No Longer At Ease," she asked what made the book difficult to complete.

Here was my paraphrased response to Ugandan Amelia Martha Nakitimbo: The sentence constructions were super complex. The adjectival load was concentrated and getting a grip on "who was who and where," was draining to say the least.

Having said that: I resolved that "Ghana Must Go," must go, if you like "must fall" - going by the popular refrain of South African protests in 2017/2018, "Zuma Must Fall, Fees Must Fall, Data Must Fall."

The book had proven to be an apartheid-era relic and I was in Mandela mode to see it fall. Good news is, it has since fallen and I have the pleasure of sharing the hustle and the parcel, a review.

July 2018: My copy with me at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport 

In October 2018, I read a weird book in "Africa Under the Prism," a collection of photos across five editions of the famed Lagos Photo Festival. November was to conquer "Ghana Must Go, " so that I could deal with Mrs. Obama’s "Becoming," in December.

The story - tells of a family of six; dad, mum and four kids - Gender balanced with a set of twins sandwiched by a big brother and little sister.

The past of both parents largely determines that present i.e. how they bring up their kids. In between it all, the kids have different emotional loads, each felt in a unique way by mother Folasade Savage but not exactly known to her.

Daddy, physician Kweku Sai, sets out to raise a family in the United States having escaped a rather torrid upbringing back in Accra. He loses his job unjustly, fights unsuccessfully whiles living a lie in front of family.

When truth finally outs, he abandons family, quits the States, returns home to reconstruct his life, dies. Folasade after years, opts to return to Ghana.

The death, becomes a rallying point around which a family long torn apart unites. Kids led by Olu, a doctor, jet into Ghana with different levels of emotional discontent - at daddy and mommy.

The last born, Sadie gets to hit out at mom, gets "healed," then one afternoon, the female twin, Taiwo, bares her heart out at the horror mom inadvertently dumped them [she and twinnie, Kehinde, a famed painter] at the time in their teens, into - with no bars hold, Taiwo told the story of Uncle Femi and Auntie Niké in Lagos.

So, some core points I gleaned over the 318 pages of fine, bold print.  
1 - The stories are so intertwined a reader must forever stay alert to survive the big picture.
2 - Taiye so easily drifts from a theme and builds link "roads" then returns to the highway.
3 - Between Boston, Ghana, Nigeria and London, one gets to feel African and diasporan.
4 - The big deal about death and funerals come to the fore - but the late Sai ends up cremated.
5 - Story underscores why the past must someway somehow be told, as it has a bearing on the now.
6 - It tells of a mother who wanted all things good for her kids but missed fine details at crucial times.

How I managed to complete it on second attempt: I divided the 318 by 25 days giving me approximately a dozen pages per day. Missed some days and ended up finishing on December 4, 2018.

Reading I have said before, is hard work that requires three main ingredients: discipline, discipline and a reading material - of course. Lol.

We're fixed on Michelle Obama’s "Becoming." With aim to double read, this month - a plan shared by Ms. Nakitimbo.

That said: The other book I failed to read "Fire and Fury," must fall by the first quarter of 2019 - God willing. We plan and Allah plans but HE is the best of planners. Let's keep reading pals. 

1st Rabius Thanii, 1440 = December 8, 2018.