For fans of Girl, Woman, Other and Homegoing, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions follows the lives of a generation of Nigerian women, exploring their identity and experience, within Nigeria and the US, through a set of interlocking stories
Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape forge an unbreakable bond at a Nigerian boarding school, where we meet them for the first time in the middle of a riot. The uprising triggers a chain of unforeseen events, forever altering their lives.
Through a set of interlocking stories - traversing seamlessly through different voices between Nigeria and the US - Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions provides a window into the past, present, and future for a generation of Nigerian women.
We meet Solape's mother, whose life was irrevocably altered by the fallout of the school riot years before. We see Nonso grapple with the world outside Nigeria when she moves to America having fallen in love with an African-American man. We meet Remi's future husband, Segun, in the Bronx as he becomes entangled with the police. Meanwhile, Aisha's overwhelming sense of guilt about what happened the night of the riot haunts her, until she sees a chance to save her son's life and, through her sacrifice, redefine her own.
Ogunyemi has reinvented the classic narrative of diaspora. Each story is unique but together they crystallize into a remarkable and important vision of heritage, culture, and an indelible sense of home.
I couldn't put this book down and I loved spending time in the lives of Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape. Truly this book will grab hold of your heart and mind and everything in between.
I truly loved this linked short story collection. The narrative takes us into the intimate workings of friends and families. Omolola explores their complex lives in astoundingly beautiful language. If, like me, you enjoy stories that take you out of your reading chair to worlds that follow you back to your own, then this is the book for you.
Ogunyemi writes powerfully and compellingly of relationships, both romantic and non-romantic. Her characters are recognizably human, and their struggles and desires explored in incisive, delightful prose.