A review by lsbonnie
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

dark informative reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

 Okay. There is a lot that I want to say about it. 

I don’t think I had ever read a fiction focused on ecology, which is why I was drawn to this story to begin with. What a treat! An American company settling near a fictional village to dig and take all of its oil to bring back to the USA, not caring one bit about the consequences caused by its activities. The water is polluted, the soil is polluted, the air is polluted, children are dying… What can they do to protect their village? Should it be peaceful, or violent? What will happen when they rebel?

But it is more than just ecology. It’s also about colonization. 

Colonization has impacted the lives of Kosawa and neighbour villages for decades and still to this day. Slave trade, colonialism, putting a dictator in place who works with the American/European, neocolonialism, … It shows in plenty of small and big ways. It is everywhere. The story may be fictional, but the History is not; it is a reminder (for white people, really) of the violence committed against non-white people when invading countries.
I also particularly liked the part with Konga not wanting the help of the Restoration Movement, not wanting their freedom to depend on them, because then are they truly free? “when you're old, you'll see that the ones who came to kill us and the ones who will want to save us are the same. No matter their pretenses, they all arrive here believing they have the power to take from us or give to us whatever will satisfy their endless wants.”
 

Culturally speaking, it is a truly interesting book. The Spirit, the twins Jakani and Sakani, Juba coming back from the dead, … – all the supernatural and other inexplicable events were gripping but also just made normal. American and European cultures tend to look at these beliefs in a condescending way but here they are shown as just normal, existing, part of everyday life, which they are. Even putting the supernatural aside, the book shows their lives as they are, without the patronizing view American/European can have (“they live in huts omg poor African people!”), which is refreshing. 

On another note, as a (white and European) feminist, it was sometimes hard for me to read as there is quite a lot of misogyny in this book. But I also found it interesting because it reflects how some cultures are. You cannot expect every country, every culture to meet you where you are, you have to meet them where they are and try to see their point of view, their history, their ways of living. Just because they do things differently it doesn’t mean that they are wrong. Moreover, the Kosawa community is not completely closed off, I’d even say that it is open to change.
For example, even though Thula won’t get married and have children, they still listen. Yes, the impregnation ceremony was awful to read, but in a way they are still giving her a choice (the child won’t come unless she decides to have a child), they are not sending someone to rape her or refusing to listen to her because she is a childless unmarried woman. And they were doing so to help her, so that she would be listened to in other communities. There are mentions of other sexualities and of gender, and while the Kosawa community may not understand they do not react violently or reject it categorically.
Honestly, I would love for Mbue to tell us why she included all those elements. I read some interviews but saw nothing about that. 

However I’m confused as to why the (tw: pedophilia)
grandfather assaulted by his uncle when he was a child
was in the story. Maybe Mbue wanted to say that (tw)
boys and men get raped too?
Maybe it is something that part of her community prefers ignoring therefore she wants to shed light on it? It would be interesting to have her reasoning on this too. 

To finish, I liked the writing style. I usually am not a fan of multiple narrators and/or narratives over many years as I tend to get lost, but I found it easy to follow here. I particularly liked when the narrator was “the children”, a whole group of people speaking at one. I will say though that at times it felt like Mbue went into too many details, slowing down the narrative. But I believe that it is worth pushing through, to read the whole story. 

Almost a 5*, but I took off 0.5 because of the pace too slow at times and for some details that I consider unnecessary. But apart from that, I truly recommend reading this book, especially if you are white. 

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