Under The Udala Trees

Chinelo Okparanta's Under the Udala Trees is a breathtaking narrative that combines difficult-to-discuss subjects with beautiful prose. Her story of Ijeoma, a young girl whose family is changed forever during the Biafran and who is forced to form her own idea about love and the world in the absence of parental guidance, is moving and provocative. Okparanta makes readers question the foundation of love and homophobia, the religious ties between the two, and the implications of this connection or lack thereof on the Queer psyche. Her exploration of public, familial, and self acceptance in a society that is not accepting is poignant and breathtaking. The plot never feels forced and her characters make decisions that are very true to human nature and behavior. Okparanta does not idealize or gloss over painful situations. Instead, she acknowledges the pain of suffering and indecision without wallowing in it. If you are looking for a thought-provoking, well written story I would highly recommend purchasing a copy of Under the Udala Trees.

Under the Udala Trees tracks the life and loves of Ijeoma, a Nigerian girl who discovers at a young age that she loves women and not men. Beginning with her experience of the war between Biafra and the Nigerian government, we follow Ijeoma when she is sent to another village to be a housegirl, where she meets her first love. As she journeys through a life of heartbreak and secrecy, whether at an all-girls boarding school or at an underground lesbian dance-club, we are exposed to the rawness of her mother’s attempt to cleanse her soul, the joy in her forbidden loves, and her fear and anguish when the unbending laws of the local culture tarnish her desires. “Happiness was what she called it. But I knew that happiness was a word like madness, like sickness, like confusion, like loss, like death. Even like beautiful or pure or angelic or God. Happiness was a word that represented some deeper, unexplainable, heavy idea, the kind of idea that goes back and forth between two different worlds.” Okparanta is one of those rare writers who can truly harness the power of simplicity to let the potency of the narrative shine through. Modest, unhurried language and a plot that meanders without dramatic twists and turns leave readers of Under the Udala Trees in a rare and fortunate place—one in which there is nothing left to consider but the bare truths of having a self that is forbidden. The simplicity of the prose makes it impossible to hide from the power and strength of the narrative, and although the plot is not necessarily unexpected, I found myself carried away in the treacherous and secretive lives of the Nigerian lesbian community. The book features wonderfully relatable female leads and reveals the power that a community can hold over those within it. We are shown how shame is engendered as thoroughly as a sense of belonging, and how this tension creates immense uncertainty for women (and men) who don’t quite fit the mold. Despite the masterful austere essence of the prose, sometimes I found myself wishing that Okparanta would go deeper. The simplicity made sense when the story was being told from the point of view of a child, but as Ijeoma aged the narrative style did not. For such an incredibly emotional and complex issue, it was disappointing to sense that there was so much being held back from the story. While I appreciate authors who allow the reader to complicate and intuit the deeper meaning of things, I’m not confident that this was Okparanta’s intent, and therefore find myself wishing that she had tackled these issues with a bit more grit. Given the fact that in 2014 all homosexual relationships became illegal in Nigeria, subject to at least 14 years in prison, I think this is an important book to read, and one that probably needed to be told years or decades ago. It’s easy to read but not easy to stomach—elements which I think make it a good narrative to make a wide range of people confront an issue they may know nothing about. Elise Hadden, Under the Heather Books (www.undertheheatherbooks.com)

As I had to read this for a class, I am always a little worried about those stories but I am so glad that I got to read this story. Honestly, I probably would not have read it otherwise, but I think that this book is very important. Very simply put, this book follows a young Nigerian woman as she discovers who she is and tries to be herself while also surviving a war-ridden Nigeria. This book is beautifully written and a quick read. I enjoyed every minute of it and will be trying even harden to expand my cultural genres for reading. I highly recommend this book for anyone and everyone! This book opened up my mind to realize that we cannot be taking what we get in life for granted because there are people who are worse off. It also makes me reflect upon the progress made here in the United States concerning the LGBT community compared to other places like Nigeria, but that we too still have issues to work on and are no where near perfect.

The story is about a young woman coming of age in Nigeria during the Biafra war, which is an intriguing setting. As it turned out, the war was over pretty soon and the young lady's struggle with her sexuality continued for the rest of the read. Though well-written and populated with interesting characters, I found it rather one dimensional, maybe to the point of obsession. There must have been a lot going on around her that was overlooked.

Great book. A journey of discovery in a war torn country written in a simple but beautiful way. Read it

Good story, well written. Touching story, difficult at time to read because of the topic. You can only have empathy for the main characters.

The story starts of a bit distorted but as you turn the pages it gets more interesting. A feeling of sadness, shock, love ,happiness and anger. Love it and love is love

Brilliant storytelling

This novel starts in the Biafran civil war, when the narrator's father is killed in an air raid and her mother is forced to send her away to live with family friends. There she develops a friendship with another young girl orphaned by the war, which over time develops into something more. The novel goes on to explore her life as a lesbian woman in a country where homosexuals face the risk of being murdered by mob violence. Ijeoma is a likeable narrator and her story is compelling without being melodramatic. It is disturbing to see how characters who are otherwise decent and well-meaning become utterly transformed over the issue of sexuality into cruel and unreasonable behaviour. Rather than painting those opposing Ijeoma as simple monsters, Okparanta's depiction of them as ordinary people is in many ways more upsetting and hard to comprehend. She also gives plenty of page time to the Biblical passages used by those opposing homosexuality on religious grounds, which was very interesting to read and gave me more understanding of the reasoning of those with these beliefs even though I don't agree with them. Overall it is a powerfully written novel about an important and current topic.