Author: Ayotunde Mamudu
Title: DRIFTWOOD A tale of leftovers.
Publishers: Parresia Publishers Ltd, Ikeja
Year: 2021
Pagination: 107
By
Osareme Enahoro (400 Level, Mass Communication, UniJos)
The genre “Teen/Young adult” is one that is generally loved and has been portrayed by foreigners and natives in books, films, and shows. I grew up with an unrealistic “Coming of age” expectation; most of us stuck our faces in front of the television trying to figure out what to do if, by chance, we didn’t fall in the clique with the “cool students”. Films and books have given us tips on how to turn a group of outcasts into the stars of the school. Imagine my shock when I realised it was basically impossible to just become the stars overnight. One thing portrayed in every existing work is the feeling of being the “outcast”.
Ayotunde Mamudu’s Driftwood is a tale of leftovers from a Nigerian’s reality. The book takes us on a roller-coaster through 8 chapters: “Dive In, Woken Curse, Bycatch, Chum, The Pillage, Stormy Waters, Rat Traps, and Anchor”. It has an unconventional format as opposed to the usual “Beginning, Middle and the End”. Mamudu presents us with the End as Nanret’s present reality and gradually introduces the reader to a fictional yet relatable world. Relatable in every sense, from the experiences in a car park to the pidgin and Hausa language used while conversing. The names of the characters are familiar to Plateau state natives and the location is familiar to anyone who has lived in Jos, a city in North Central Nigeria. These factors play a key role in understanding and relating to the characters.
Nanret, the lead character, is your typical teenage girl who had everything she was used to disrupted as a result of a “crisis” (another issue that brings memories and familiarity to the readers). Nanret is an orphan who experienced rejection every time a child was adopted and she was left behind. The only mother she knows is Sarah Aelwyd Graham or “Nat Reti” (as Nanret prefers), a foreigner who got married to a Plateau man and lost her husband to an illness four years after marriage. Sarah, the only constant in Nanret’s life, suddenly has to travel for treatment after being attacked during the crisis. Shortly after, she discovers her mother’s diary and finds out she was abandoned as a baby at a bus stop.
We are presented with a seventeen-year-old girl who has suddenly lost everything she holds dear. The element of suspense employed on each page makes the reader want to know what she does next. Her emotions fuse with those of the reader and we feel everything she feels: the anger, frustration, betrayal, hurt and confusion. Her inquisitiveness feeds our desperation to know what happens next. While following her through the journey of rediscovering herself, we are conflicted with mixed feelings. The anxiety gets out of control when she goes to the hospital to make enquiries about her birth mother. Her approach is uncalled for but each and every one of us can relate to the helplessness that comes with being desperate, confused and angry. As Nanret continues to read the diary she becomes a literal ticking bomb.
The thing about anger and desperation is that we always act first without considering the consequences of our actions. An unexplainable feeling grips us and we ask why exactly does she have to go through all this alone? What was Mamudu thinking when he placed a seventeen-year-old in the middle of all this? Just as we are wondering about the surrounding characters, Mamudu clears our doubt by introducing the other characters. From the “cruel” matron to the brother-like figure Danladi, the friend Veronica, the chef, the Reverend and even the notorious bully Seenio. Every character plays a pivotal role in Nanret’s journey through stereotype, sexual assault, bullying, peer pressure and jealousy.
Frankly-speaking, her move to the remand home was unexpected but relevant in rediscovering herself. Confronting the bully and putting an end to his threats gave her a sense of achievement. The encounter with the pedophile is a stretch but it teaches her how to confide in another person. Every encounter in this book is an average Nigerian’s reality, if you look at the encounter each and every character faces.
This book is an exaggerated reflection of our society today. Girls being victims of sexual assault and keeping quiet because of the “shame” and stigma. Victims of child abuse running away from home because nobody defends them. Thus, they try everything to get money so they can finally feel free. The youths turning to “weed” to free themselves from the misery. These encounters are too familiar.
Towards the end of the book, I finally understood why Mamudu titled this masterpiece DRIFTWOOD. “I realized we were all the same, like driftwood. Children and adults all hacked to bits and left to rot” (105). Unfortunate events happen every day;, we humans are the casualties of such misfortunes. We have to survive the pain one way or another. “We all go through periods of our lives we don’t have control over” It can be losing a family or having “parents who wish they never had us” (106). At the end of the day, we are all “drifters” seeking means to survive and retain control.
Driftwood A tale of leftovers is a book that reveals the harsh reality of the Nigerian society. The writer employs suspense and indigenous locations and language to create interest and familiarity within the reader.
Osareme Enahoro
