It’s been such a long time since I did a ‘Kawi Snippets Book Review‘ that I have forgotten how to do it. But let’s assume that it’s like riding a bike or swimming and the muscle memory will check in once I get into it in 3, 2, 1. Okay, that certainly didn’t exactly work as I expected.
I already confessed that I took two whole years to read this book, which is painfully embarrassing from someone who once enjoyed reading a book every so often. It was never about the choice of text, but more about me and my mental state. I could not focus long enough and follow the story, save for the distraction from other avenues like social media and TV. The annoying thing about this is that I thought about reading a book every day. I still do, and that’s why I am picking up this hobby once again.
Now, I kept going back to this book because after skimming through the first few pages, I knew this was a good story. It’s about four different women from different places in Africa, all living under different circumstances, but they find themselves in a similar predicament. The author takes us through the separate journeys that eventually bring them together, not because it’s a place that they had desired to come to but because as destiny would have it, that’s what life has accorded them.
They moved to Europe [specifically Belgium, Brussels] with the anticipation that life will look up for them, but as it turns out, it wasn’t even close to it. At least not in the promising way the guy who connected them with this gig made it look anyway. The way this guy is described gave me the “A Pimp Named Slickback’ vibes, but now an African setting.
Each burdened with the tumultuous task of working within the red-light district and a hefty debt to clear off; every day felt like they were in a hostage situation. And that’s how when one of them tries to break away, things go awry. It’s that tragedy that unites them and enables them to see each other as more than just strangers. More human, with a footprint and story worth being told and heard!
This book made me think about fate and how we are always looking for ways to better ourselves in life. We go through great lengths to break what we sometimes could believe has been passed from generation to generation like poverty, domestic violence, abuse, heartbreak, loss and displacement. These are some of the issues these four girls were running away from, because of how it made them feel; inferior, lifeless, worthless, and powerless. Not that the life they chose to seek would bring them more fulfilment, it didn’t; it’s the hope that it will grant them a ticket to be what they dream of being that kept them going. That’s what the Black Sister’s street must have meant to them.
Their stories are told in a way that makes you empathise with their situations, some so gruelling and gut-wrenching. I particularly liked how lucidly structured the book is, how she focuses on one woman at a time so that you’re able to connect with the present character. They feel so real that you even pick up their personalities and nuances, and suddenly their pain and struggles become yours too as they figure their way out of the Black Sisters’ Street. They all yearned for their freedom.
You see, that’s why I kept picking it up. It was definitely worth the read. It’s the street names in Belgium that amused me too. Like Zwartezusterstraat, Pelikanstraat. Haha, how do you pronounce that? Anyway, if you’re looking for a good read, this one is a good pick!
My next read is Travelling While Black by Nanjala Nyabola and sure enough it looks like it’ll be a fun ride. I am trying to be more consistent by reading at least one book per month, so wish me luck 🙂
In On Black Sisters Street, Chika Unigwe unravels the story of four girls from different backgrounds but similar circumstances who worked as prostitutes in Antwerp, Belgium. They all had one thing in common: Dele Senghor, the facilitator who introduced them to the business, and sent them to Belgium from Nigeria and to whom they pay a fee every month for his service. The whole set up was about to collapse when Sisi, one of the girls, met Luc, a Belgian banker who fell in love with her. After much prodding from Luc, she decided to quit prostitution, stop paying Dele and turn Madam, the in house pimp in, to the cops. She left the house one day, to Luc’s house, intent on never going back....and she never did.
The book, set in the early twenty-first century in Antwerp, Belgium with flashbacks to their lives before Belgium in Lagos, Enugu and Sudan, Chika Unigwe paints a vivid and somewhat disturbing picture of their lives, dreams, hopes, ambitions and setbacks they encountered.
SISI Sisi was a light. She would shine bright and save her family from poverty, or so the prophet prophesied at her birth. After years of schooling and finally graduating, Sisi searched for a job for years without success. Living with her parents in a two-room apartment in Ogba and stuck in a relationship with Peter her boyfriend whose life seemed to be going nowhere, Sisi felt stifled and frustrated. So when she met Dele Senghor, who promised to send her abroad to work as a prostitute, revolting as it seemed to her, it was an option and she took it. Perhaps it was a step towards fulfilling the prophecy, she hoped.
EFE When Efe’s mother got sick and died, a part of Efe died with her. Her father grieved into drunkenness and lost interest in his children. When 16-year-old Efe met Titus, a rich married man, she was drawn by the lust for finer things and the good life he promised. When Efe became pregnant, Titus walked away without a backward glance. When Efe delivered a baby boy, Titus refused to accept the child. After a year of shuffling cleaning jobs, Efe met Dele Senghor and a chance for a better life for her younger siblings and her child.
AMA Ama was sexually abused constantly by her father, a sanctimonious and overzealous assistant pastor. Unable to speak to her mother about it, she lived with the pain until she was 18 when during a heated quarrel with her father, she told her mother of his abuse. That day, she found out he was not her biological father. The next day, she was sent to Lagos to live with her mother’s cousin, Mama Eko, who ran a restaurant in Ikeja. After a few months, Ama felt caged. She wanted more out of life. It was in mama Eko’s restaurant she met Dele Senghor.
JOYCE After her entire family was slaughtered and she was gang-raped by the Janjaweed Militia in her home in Sudan, 15 years old Alek moved to a UN refugee camp where she met Polycarp, a Nigerian Soldier and their relationship started. A relationship which saw Alek in Lagos in a few months, living with Polycarp. It was all bliss with Polycarp until his mom came for a visit. Polycarp was the first son and could not marry a foreigner. Polycarp arranged for her to travel abroad and work as a nanny and the agent in charge was Dele Senghor who rechristened her Joyce.
The girls also had something else in common; the drive to succeed and rise above poverty. Another character worthy of note is Segun, the quiet stammerer who was quite skilful with the hammer. He also lived in the same house as the girls and madam.
This book cuts across different themes such as: Prostitution, Poverty, Terrorism, Sexual abuse, Love, Violence, Racial discrimination, Parenthood, Child Abuse and Rape.
There are many things I loved about this book. Unigwe is a descriptive writer. I loved her descriptions — things, surroundings, events, people, it was very detailed. I loved her imagination and her sense of humour. I loved the way she took not so subtle jibes at the government and politicians, highlighting assiduously, the hardship in Nigeria and how it affected individuals and acted as the major catalyst for the girls' journey abroad and into prostitution. She described a Nigeria where nepotism and corruption, even in the educational sector, are norms. I loved the way she described Lagos. she covered Lagos in its entirety. From its overcrowded streets, poor standard of living, to its owambe parties, even the system of gate-crashing parties and acting like you’re the reason everyone gathered.
After reading these stories, and giving my very imaginative mind the reigns, questions began to pop up in my head. At what point do we break? Is there a threshold of pain and suffering where we get to and doing immoral things to survive becomes okay? Are these 'Immoral' things really immoral or are they just people surviving the best way they can?
This book was a wonderful read for me and I recommend it to everyone.
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What is the story of Black Sisters Street?
On Black Sisters Street is the story of four women who work as sex workers in Antwerp in Belgium. Sisi, Efe, and Ama are from Nigeria, and Joyce is from South Sudan by way of Nigeria. The women work and live together but are not close in terms of friendship until one of them dies.
What is the theme of the Black Sisters Street?
Previous studies on Chika Unigwe's On Black Sisters' Street [OBSS henceforth] have focused mainly on the thematic concerns of the text - prostitution, sex trafficking and sex slavery, without paying considerable attention to the role of language in the projection of the phenomena.