THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI BY AKWAEKE EMEZI — A BOOK REVIEW
I made this my year of reading purely African literature, and coming across this book, I couldn’t be happier that I read it. I have to give Akwaeke her medals for writing it — they are truly deserved.
The story, based in the southeastern part of Nigeria, is about a transgender teenager, Vivek. Using the word 'transgender' doesn’t fit Vivek properly for me. I’m also not sure I can refer to Vivek as a 'he' since we never get to know Vivek’s perspective of himself, which is one thing I honestly wish we got the opportunity to read. The book talks about the life of an average teenager in Nigeria. Born to a Nigerian father and an Indian mother, Vivek was beautiful, and his problems were as beautiful as he was. I won’t call them his problems but rather society’s problem with Vivek. One of the characters, Osita, wished, much later, that he’d told Vivek the truth — that he was so beautiful he made the air around him seem dull.
This story is written so beautifully that I saw Vivek as Vivek saw Vivek. Vivek being dead from the onset of the book — even the title gives that away — was a different conundrum. The book brings to light the daily struggles of today’s youths in society. Every day, we have crises of identity coming up, and the question of the day is whether this should be an issue. Speaking majorly about Nigeria, seeing that the novel was focused on this country, I see this being a lasting problem. We can see from the life of Vivek how his mother was ‘aware’ but not aware, how his peers mocked him for being different — the very same peers who actually admired him but didn’t have the courage to live as openly as Vivek did. Case in point, the bully whom Vivek gave a blow job. That aspect of people living their everyday lives in self-denial, all in the fear of being different from what society has deemed normal, stood out for me.
“So that’s why you came here?”
“Are you ashamed you don’t want to be like that?”
I scoffed, still not turning to look at him. “How am I supposed to answer that? You want me to stand here and tell you that I don’t want to be like you?”
Oh, the fear of meeting your death for being gay in a not-so-liberal country! Vivek died, but he died out of love, out of fear of being left at the mercy of the citizens; he died in a bid to protect a loved one. I can’t help but wish I could reach out to Osita and see how he is faring. Does he live in guilt?
“I’m so sorry”, I told the grave.
“It was an accident. I would never have hurt you, not in a thousand years. I swear to God. You were my brother, and I loved you. I only wanted to protect you”.
This points to the danger of hiding rather than speaking up. How long can we keep hiding rather than cry out for equality and freedom of expression? When will change be brought about for the LGBTQ community to live completely without fear?
This was a very great read. Vivek was brave, and I loved Vivek.
Here were Vivek’s last thoughts: “I wonder if I died in the best possible way- in the arms of the one who loved me the most,wearing a skin that was true”.
For Vivek, I will always wear a skin that is true!
