Tomorrow I Become a Woman

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I could not understand how Uju’s mother had that much of a stronghold on her children but that might be because I can be quite defiant where necessary. There was also this endless hunt for a male child that killed one of the characters. Sister Chinasa giggled nervously. ‘Of course, of course,’ she said pushing at my shoulder a bit too forcefully. Chinelo winked at me as I slowly got to my feet, stunned. Themes covered include the aftermath of war, loss, motherhood, love, domestic abuse, friendship, religion and health. She’ll keep coming,’ Chinelo jumped in enthusiastically before I could utter a word. ‘She’s our good friend and a really nice girl…’ For Uju, the daughter her mother never wanted, marriage would mean the attainment of that long elusive state of womanhood, and something else she has desired all her life—her mother’s approval. All will be well; he is the perfect match, the country will soon be democratic again and the economy is growing, or so she thinks....

By the time I was a teenager, Mama had thrown away all her amulets and other relics of pagan worship she’d been brought up with, and dedicated herself fully to the church. What can I do?’ she asked. You can fight, I thought, you can fight for your daughters. But then again, who was I to speak of such things When Gozie and Obianuju meet in August 1978, it is nothing short of fate.where you can't have an intellectual conversation with a man because it might reduce your chances as a woman for marriage. A culture that (currently) still thinks that a woman is not a woman if she doesn't birth any sons for her husband. This book might have been written based on what our mothers experienced in the 80s and 90s but the sad truth is a lot of women still fight these battles in our current society.

I have a whole lot to say and a lot of anger built in me because of the characters in this book. Some much anger for a culture where marriage is seen as the ultimate goal for a female child, where it is declared useless to be overly educated as a woman, We all laughed; it was such a Lagosian statement to make – the city was a melting pot for several tribes, from Igbo to Yoruba to Igala, and so we threw words around that weren’t indigenously ours and forgot that kudi was Hausa for money and ode, another word we often used, was Yoruba for a daft person. For Uju, the daughter her mother never wanted, marriage would mean the attainment of that long elusive state of womanhood, and something else she has desired all her life – her mother’s approval. All will be well; he is the perfect match, the country will soon be democratic again and the economy is growing, or so she thinks …

Biodun Da-Silva: What’s The Secret Formula to Success?

The following semester, Akin walked into a lecture hall and introduced himself as our Econometrics lecturer. ‘Obianuju Nwaike. We meet again,’ he said to me after the class with a smile.

Good afternoon, Sister Chinasa,’ he replied evenly. ‘Do you mind if I speak with Sister Uju for a few minutes?’ he asked. It took Ada pinching me to make me realise he was referring to me, Uju. Brother Gozie wanted to talk to me? A bond was formed that day – he a twenty-three-year-old genius with a PhD and well on his way to becoming a professor, and me a nineteen-year-old student in need of affirmation and direction. ‘You’re always welcome to stop by my office for anything you need,’ he said that day and I took those words seriously, partly because I was really and truly fascinated – I’d never met anyone like him. Instrumentals blared from the side of the pulpit and out through the building and its open doors and windows as the service started. Men and women danced and shouted and waved their hands above their heads in rhythm with the music, a strikingly different form of worship from the solemn assemblies of the orthodox churches we’d been raised in. I watched in surprise as my friends joined in, dancing and screaming like everyone else, encouraging me to do so as well. But the session ended abruptly, before I could fully absorb the goings-on around me. Aiwanose Odafen spent a better part of her life wanting to become an economist, an accountant, then an entrepreneur before she discovered her love for writing. She has contributed to published non-fiction works and participated in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus Trust Writing Workshop. She was longlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and holds a postgraduate degree from the University of Oxford. When she's not writing, she's cheering for Manchester United or watching dramas. Her debut novel Tomorrow I Become a Woman will be published in 2022. A story of Uju, a Nigerian girl who grows into womanhood, seeking her mother’s approval, and trying to meet the societal and cultural expectations set for her, while all the time severely suffering for it.For Uju, the daughter her mother never wanted, marriage would mean the attainment of that long elusive state of womanhood, and something else she has desired all her life - her mother's approval. All will be well; he is the perfect match, the country will soon be democratic again and the economy is growing, or so she thinks …

You’re a witch!’ Gozie screamed. And I knew I’d dream of those words, the letters dancing in circles around me – you’re a witch! You’re a witch! With its two-dimensional drawing of Mama’s character, the novel details a time when older women tried to create wives for men through the painstaking training and domestic policing of their daughters. Everything about their daughters—birth, training, school—must be tailored towards a final end: marriage. Uju, a university student is very good friends with a young and handsome lecturer, she might even love him but he is Yoruba and she is Igbo. The ghosts of war lingers and while she spends a lot of time with him on campus, she can’t think about taking him to her Igbo parents. He is the perfect man: charismatic, handsome, Christian, and – most importantly – Igbo. He reminds her of her beloved Uncle Ikenna, her mother’s brother who disappeared fighting in the Civil War that devastated Nigeria less than a decade before. It is why, when Gozie asks her to marry him within months of meeting, she says yes, despite her lingering and uncertain feelings for Akin – a man her mother would never accept, as his tribe fought on the other side of the war.Mama always said I was punishment for her mixing ancestral worship with her Christian faith. She’d sought the counsel of native medicine men, worn amulets, and prayed to Ala and other deities to give her a daughter, even though she’d been an active member of her church. Her father still had a shrine in his compound although he had sent all his children to the missionary school in their village. And so, in anger, the gods had connived and sent her a daughter identical to her in looks but nothing like what she wanted. Questo libro non mi é dispiaciuto e si lascia anche leggere piuttosto in fretta perché é scritto in modo scorrevole, nonostante le frequenti incursioni in lingua yoruba o qualche altro dialetto nigeriano a me completamente sconosciuto. If you enjoyed Ogadinma, this book is for you. If you thought the characters in Ogadinma pissed you off, the characters in this book will make you want to beat somebody. Abeg if you are looking for a book that isn't heavily themed on domestic violence avoid this book and look for something light make you no go dey complain give us.