Caroline Omoifo’s long awaited book Saving Bekyah, which was previewed on this page, last June, finally hit the bookstands this week and in hardbacks only. The book, which has been slightly updated (the ending scene changed), since when I read it in manuscript form, goes well beyond its stated theme of being about “confronting female circumcision, sexuality and womanhood.”  Whilst meticulously dealing with these issues, the book is an engaged and passionate effort to explore, dissect and analyze various human and socio-cultural themes that continue to fixate general interests, but are yet broadly unattended to or discussed, because such social customs present as taboos.  In addition, these issues may be routinely foreclosed on, in deference to ancient mores or due to inhibitions and the involved persons being in absolute denial.  Indeed, the book’s subtitle is a loss leader, if not a misnomer.  This is a universal book for every woman and a must read for every man, virile or otherwise.

In Saving Bekyah Omoifo weaves her story around the not-much-talked-about ancient custom of Ureh, aka female genital mutilation (FGM) and its debilitating impact on the lives of its victims and unknowingly to many, on their sexual relations with the men in their lives.  The negative impact of the custom is stretched to its logical conclusion, and linked to marital breakups, indiscretion, and the unintended consequence of mental torture.  What is perceptibly good to its practitioners is proven in reality, to be most harmful to the recipients; yet the natives would fight hard to hold on to the quaint practice that is widely acknowledged to have no added value to life and a woman’s overall wellbeing.

Set mainly in modern day Nigeria, with cameo support scenes in Spain and the United States; Saving Bekyah delves into issues many would deem controversial, for indeed, they are.  The attending controversies, however, are offshoots of mindsets and cultural values; thus, what may be easily acceptable and tolerable in Africa and parts of Asia may be anathema in the United States or other western countries.  However, there are many strands of shared values and commonalties, of which human sexuality and personal relations are not by any means, the least important.  Ms. Omoifo did her homework well.  Noting that an estimated 130 million women have undergone circumcision worldwide, she sought the views of those likely to be least affected by the procedure - men – to support her research into the subject matter.  Pointedly, she asked the men “if they’ve had sexual relationship with a circumcised woman and how the procedure may have affected their sexual fulfillment.”  Their varying and revealing responses formed the basis of some of the key characters in the book.

Anyone, who elects not to read Saving Bekyah due to its sub-theme, would have lost an invaluable insight into the dynamics of human relations, human sexuality and the adverse impact of female genital mutilation (FGM).  They would have also opted out from understanding the compelling force behind such archaic local traditions, which were rooted in “the era of ignorance”, and the length to which the adherents would go to preserve them.  The raging discourse about FGM, its utility, and its being of no added value is universal.  The same debate continues to dominate major religions.  It also straddles the lines between social and tribal customs and religion, especially in Africa, the Middle East, and Far East.  It is noteworthy, however, that in most cases FGM happen for non-therapeutic reasons.

Cultures and people who favor FGM do so in the controversial but uncertain belief that it guarantees chastity.  Within Christianity and Islam, the value, authenticity and credibility of female circumcision is inconclusive, hence a debate is still much entrenched on the matter.  Those opposed to the desecration of any form of God’s creation see FGM as such; and Women’s Leagues worldwide equate it to the ancient practice of male castration, which produced eunuchs for royal courts.  But the practice of Ureh, may have been sustained unwittingly by the importance societies attach to virginity and chastity – hence the notional application of the Ureh as deterrence to promiscuity by curbing the desire for sexual intercourse.  While this latter point is scientifically unproven, it forms the basis on which Bekyah Tage must undergo the Ureh procedure of being circumcised in her native Nigerian village of Ologne.  “Could she be saved?  The village would fight any interloper in order to preserve their traditions.”

Enter Candice Zakeih a US-based Nigerian.  A woman in the business of saving other women in social crisis, and seemingly haunted by her own painful experience of the Ureh and being in a polygamous marriage, Candice takes on the local establishment, including her own family and sundry, to push for the abolishment of the Ureh.  She employs several of her American associates, to the extent that some of them voluntarily engage in “conversion” sexual liaisons with the locals.  The fight and challenges that ensue are hardly pretty or for the feint hearted, but in the end, she finds the most unlikely allies for her cause. Candice would begin to appreciate the passion and sexual fulfillment that had been eluding her due to her circumcision, only after a unique sexual encounter with her boss, Kesson Davone, during an unplanned tryst in Madrid left her utterly contented and reeling with a redemptive “liberating gaze in her eyes”.

Supported by her cousin Tessa, Candice’s encounter with the Ologne village council is the dramatic highpoint of the novel.  Hardly the forum for the open discussion of sexuality in its “physiological, pshychological and spiritual context”, the tough meetings would prove manifestly productive.  When the villagers are confronted with the reality that Ureh has no social, religious or scientific redeeming value beyond creating sexual dysfunction, including painful sexual intercourse (despareunia), childbirth complications, anxiety, depression and a feeling of incompleteness for the woman, they yield, but not easily.  Omoifo’s collaborative negotiation and ownership strategy used in coercing the collective consent from the villagers is simply brilliant.  Ditto the book’s ending!

Saving Bekyah is serious, sometimes dark, variegated and yet jocular book that transports the readers into the complex realm of some women’s torturous life and decimated psyche brought about by female circumcision.  The undertone of a clash of cultural, religious and scientific values pervades the entire book.  It is an engrossing and continuously troubling, but very informative and explosive book, which is creatively crafted, introspectively grounded, and convincingly rendered.  It is a roller-coaster ride into the finer, intricate, alien, and spiritual dimensions of human sexuality and proclivity, without being cavalier about this serious subject matter.  Across board, Saving Bekyah is a compelling, perfectly pitched, albeit, sexually graphic page-turner, that unmasks the blinkered, society-induced indignities, pain, loss, loneliness, trauma, alienation and overall flagellation associated with female genital mutilation. 

Omoifo writes so exquisitely, that the richness, conviction, reality, love and other emotions of her characters are palpable and livable.  Though declared “a work of fiction” every man, woman and child will find a sliver of their persona, and that “what you always wanted to ask or know about sex” in this book.  This is an extremely powerful advocacy against FGM and then some.  Saving Bekyah is equally provocative, educative, and illustrative of the depth of the prevailing debate surrounding one of the key controversial health issue challenges of our time.  Well beyond that, while the intended consequences of this book is not to rival Masters and Johnson, I suspect that it will rekindle many flagging sexual relations and marriages and in fact, might even safe some. Some, undoubtedly, will focus on its controversial dimension.

Omoifo may have written her magnus opus without knowing it. Saving Bekyah may very well be for Omoifo the rewarding celebrity door opener that every aspiring writer craves for – her launch pad to literary stardom. She can now be counted among the budding and gifted Nigerian authors. 

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Mr. Oseloka Obaze, an aspiring writer, is a founding member of the Kwenu.com Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo and Afrocentric themes.  He is also a supporting Member of the African Writers Endowment (AWE).  From 1999 to 2005, he served on the editorial board of INYEAKA, the journal of Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large.   He is also on the editorial board of The Amaka Gazette, the journal of the Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America.    His collection of poems, “Regarscent Past: A Collection of Poems” was second among the top three finalists in the poetry category in the African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004.   His novel, “Happy Eulogy” will be published soon.  He reviews books and arts strictly as a hobby.  © Copyright 2 February 2008.