The day I purchased this book, I was searching frantically for a reward. I had just concluded my final semester exams, and I was drained emotionally and physically, but I had a large percentage of my allowance to spend and nowhere to. My two attempts at eating out failed so badly: the first restaurant no longer existed, and I had to stare at the dirty abandoned bungalow in disbelief for thirty minutes, waiting for another ride to take me to my second choice; my second choice had not updated their location information on their very active instagram, making me shamefully explain their restaurant to workers in the restaurant that was based there instead. I spotted "Spine & Label" bookstore across the road and, with barely any energy left and wet eyes, I marched on.
I searched the shelves for an hour, picking things up and regretfully dropping them back, jerking back from books i considered way too expensive, touching poetry books and scoffing at their mediocrity. I was so intrigued by Swallow's cover and the summary about the two young lovers torn apart against the setting of Yorubaland in the mid 19th century, during the trans-Atlantic slave trade and where the colonisation by the British was imminent.
A lot of books boast about their historical settings, selling back to the reader their own nostalgia for lost times, and they end up being poorly researched or accurate. Swallow paints such a vivid picture of this time that when I read it, I can feel truly transformed and transported. The setting helped expand my perspective when viewing the current situation in Nigeria, I became unable to gloss over the changes caused by decades of colonisation. I grew thirsty of a society drowned in their old traditional routines, rituals and spirituality, . Sadness and regret filled my heart in waves, but they fueled my determination to become better connected to my roots. Also, + to clarify, I am not Yoruba, I am from the Etche tribe in Southern Nigeria.
Few Nigerians are willing to recognise the historical presence of queerness in our cultures, but this book spits in the face of non-believers and saunters past by offering a glimpse to how queerness may have been expressed back then, and also allowing modern readers to conceptualise a Nigerian society where queer individuals are free. The relationships in this book, queer or otherwise, showcase all the sweet, sad, ugly and regrettable parts of love. Each one reminds me of a relationship I have experienced in real life. This entire book is a bittersweet taste, it is made especially for adults and a certain genre of pretentious teenagers.
The book shows all these seemingly disconnected characters, scenes and stories, leaving you wondering at all times what importance any of it is. You have to abandon the linearity of time that a person gets used to in other novels. Additionally, the diversity of the characters ensures there is never a dull time when reading, every new chapter becomes a peer into a person with motvations, upbringing and personality largely unidentical to the last. I am trying not share too much, so that if anyone really does choose to read it, they will not be plagued by my feelings and conclusions.