The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (African Writers Series)

Technically, this book is difficult to start and follow through. Maybe one of the hardest reads I've experienced in a while. However, when it comes to storytelling through art, this book quickly became a point of reference for me. The author blends tedious everydayness, humour, culture, and psychological struggles into the themes of corruption and moral decay. It reads as very local while providing the reader with many familiar patterns and characters. That makes you think this particular struggle is universal: how to stay close to your principles and integrity when it ostracises you from what seems to be the -only- way to play the game. At least don't be the person who goes to the river and complains about the current.

Ayi Kwei Armah, has crafted an otherwise unmoving story around a central question of how one maintains honor and pride in the midst of so much struggle. What do we gain and what do we lose when we try to stand apart from corruption? Also, how are those around us impacted by these moralistic stances? It is fitting that you are left with so many questions because Armah’s style is more philosophical that in its roots. The narrative is propelled by a existentialist’s gripping power of description about the known world as it is. The conundrum that is the lived experience is depicted in both the vulgar and beautiful passages. These sequences capture how nature prevails against humanity’s presence and abuse. Along with the decay of the built environment how our nameless Everyman protagonist navigates it all. It felt at times like a reimagined version of Joyce’s Ulysses but this time taking us through the Ghanaian landscape. What was missing was something or someone to have a stake in. Without that, it felt rudderless but well written.