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“Witches Brew and Other Stories” is a collection of short stories that span many cultural and contemporary beliefs and topics.
Crossed Bones chronicles what a boy-soldier in the Nigeria-Biafra war thought was fun only to be confronted by horrors of unimaginable proportions. Even in the snippet he narrates, it’s still difficult to put into words what he saw and experienced. A trauma that is his daily existence.
Deception explores a contemporary distressing phenomenon rocking the West African immigrants in America which has led to a slew of killings and suicides.
The Witches Brew taps into various cultural issues: from the way widows are handed over to the dead husband’s brother as if she were property, to the old quest for the elixir for long life and its repercussions.
“Aloneness” is a collection of poems that cover diverse themes. From the tussle between Christian beliefs and cultural issues, everyday events, loneliness and longing, personal love poems, to the beauty of nature and the joy of being alive.
The joy of poetry is that it speaks to the individual and everyone can interpret its messages in peculiar ways.
“Aloneness” contains a plethora themes that will tug at the reader’s heart. Many, I am sure, will find it a fascinating read.
In a time and culture where women left their wares in the marketplace knowing that those things would be intact when they returned the next day; where bonds of friendship were like blood ties, where when men shake hands over a deal, it was like iron clad agreements, breaking one’s word or promise was odious and people would inconvenience themselves to keep promises made.
Socializations in Igbo societies indoctrinate members to subconsciously defer to cultural norms. One of the reasons, I believe, is the action and reward belief systems of traditional and Christian religions. While traditional religion instantly rewards actions, good or bad, Christian religion on the other hand prolongs the rewards to the point that people often disregard their consequences.
The cultural beliefs that underpin many of these stories are profound. The dilemma of straddling between traditional and Christian beliefs, can be enervating.
This book explores the faithfulness of friendship in “The Pact Reloaded”, and how fate and people’s destiny were often determined by the gods in The Dilemma of a Firstborn Priest and The Flute.
Only the gods can ring a man’s eyes to see what other people can’t see. Oftentimes, peoples’ yesterdays catch up with their today, and the actions of their distant past haunt their present as explored in The Twins.
Story telling was always part of me growing up. My mother was particularly good at telling sweet stories. Many of the seeds to the stories that I have been harvesting, especially those set in the past, came from her. Even now, I can hear her sweet voice in my head. To Nwamuka, I dedicate these stories.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
