Musings On Mortality, Desire and Despair in Itseme Akede’s Party of One, by Patrick Iwelunmor

Itseme Akede makes a boisterous entry into the Nigerian literary landscape with a self-published collection of three short stories depicting an enthralling mix of love, fate and destiny. Party of One arouses existentialist sensibilities as it also takes a deep dive into the impermanence of affection between two lovebirds, who ululate over their lost love in a manner reminiscent of Christopher Okigbo’s “The Stars Have Departed.”Akede equally treats the stark reality of life’s unsmiling countenance in a world desirous of joy and conviviality.

In “They Have Come Again”, Akede exposes the contentious issue of sexist partisanship in the typical African family setting where the level of male chauvinism could sometimes assume misogynistic dimensions. Obinna’s prominence in the world of this fiction owes its realization to his father’s decision not to train his daughters and so, all the resources the man is able to muster are invested on Obinna’s education.

Unfortunately, the one to whom much has been given ends up being unable to land his dream job. Obinna (aka Prof) finds himself in the less-travelled world of the Nigerian academia where remunerations are famous for their paltriness. His monthly take-home barely takes him home.

It is in the dilemma of this disillusionment that he decides to relocate to northern Nigeria where he believes life can be more fulfilling, owing to his passion for knowledge impartation, especially in a region famed with the highest numbers of out of school children. Here Akede subtly reveals the messianic mission of Obinna to the north – a mission that eventually proves to be a rude paradox of human aspiration.

It is the same people he tries to educate that send him to his early grave after he loses his only daughter and a leg.Obinna’s fate in northern Nigeria is a sad commentary on the incomprehensibility of life – a reality which even Jesus Christ had to learn the hard way. Jesus was everywhere doing good, feeding the hungry and healing the infirm and yet the same people he had come to save from death and destruction murdered him in cold blood.

Obinna’s death is avoidable as his wife, Ola continues to warn him about mingling with a people with the heart of stone but the young man’s perception is beclouded by a raging passion to teach an unteachable generation with traits similar to the one John the Baptist had encountered and had referred to as “a brood of vipers.”

Ola herself experiences the grim reality of northern life as she is fortunate enough to survive childbirth in a region were healthcare delivery is in tatters. Perhaps, this is Akede’ssuaveway of calling northern governments to order as statistics show that maternal mortality is unacceptably embarrassing in the region. The North East region has the highest MMR estimated at 1,549/100,000 live births compared to 165/100,000 live births in the southwest (SW).

Ola’s misgivings about her husband’s insistence on remaining in the north are painfully justified after the haters of western education killed their daughter, made him an amputee and eventually snuffed the life out of him. Faced with an inability to rationalize the mindless destruction of lives and property in northern Nigeria, she too asks a deep and touching existential question. “Of what use was contending for peace when your opponents didn’t even know the meaning of the word?”

While Obinna is passionate about education, those who claim to abhor western education succeed in destroying him through instalment death. The big question Akede raises is “Is it wrong to love people who do not love you?” As Oba Ovonramwen in Ola Rotimi’s Ovonramwen Nogabisi would say “tolove someone who does not really love you is like shaking the giantiroko tree to make tiny dew-drops fall.”

In a nutshell, “They Have Come Again” preoccupies itself with everyday issues confronting the average Nigerian yet she places them in deeper perspectives capable of engendering the rethinking of certain social aberrations such as religious fanaticism and the promotion of poverty and illiteracy.

In “Love Letters and A Half”, Chude and Ranti engage in a passionate regurgitation of their romantic past after “the stars have departed” in their lives and “the sky in monocle surveys the worldunder.” Though the former lovers are no longer immersed in the euphoria of physical intimacy, their hearts are nourished by the sweet experiences of yesteryears. Their story, which Akede scripts in pure poetic diction, amplifies the idea that when the cord of affection is broken between two lovebirds the mind becomes sickled by the bittersweet burden of memory. Akedetherefore preaches the gospel of continuous affection and mutual respect even when lovers are no longer entangled like two hearts that beat as one. Ultimately, Chude and Ranti’s affair is a testament to the limitless possibilities of inter-ethnic intimacy in Nigeria. This gospel should be preached vociferously, especially now that ethno-political sentiments are tearing Nigerians apart.

In conclusion, “Where Our Paths Met” tells the story of a young man whose childhood love reappears in his life after several years of nostalgic yearnings to reconnect with her. Chikeis eventually caught in a web of confusion as he faces a possible death sentence for an allegation of murder levelled against him in faraway United States of America.Akede raises questions about racial prejudice and how justice is often miscarried based on unfounded fixations of white minds about the corruptibility of the black man. Unfortunately, for Chike, it is on the day he is to fly to Nigeria to see his dear Kami that he is arrested at the airport to face charges for his suspected murder case – setback at the edge of romantic breakthrough.

Though an emerging writer, Itseme Akede demonstrates her ability to oscillate different literary genres in one compelling narrative. This eclectic creative orientation suggests that she has options to explore in her quest to find a place in the Nigerian and hopefully, international literary firmament.