Title: Save the Dream
Author: Chigbo Nnoli
Reviewer: Yemi Adebisi
Publisher: Kraftbooks, Ibadan
No of pages: 280
The cardinal function of a contemporary fiction in any given society is to comprehensively transverse the society within its ambiance and return with unprejudiced assessment. It’s sole focus is to beam searchlight on the motive that leads to man’s act as well as his fate in the latter days of his life. A well written fiction also shoulders the harrowing and rigorous responsibilities of enumerating the consequences of man’s act as well as proffering solutions to the aforementioned vices. All these are captured in the new book, Save the Dream, by Chigbo Nnoli.
The 280-page book is a riveting adventure into the world ruled by war, greed, lies, injustice, deceit, betrayal and death.
Set in a fictional country called Bakassi and written in first person narrative, Save the Dream, tells a story of a young boy called Olisa (protagonist), growing up in Limo, a fictional state in Bakassi and the major setting of the novel. Olisa is only two years when his father left for Congo, on peace-keeping mission.
At the invasion of civil war on Bakassi, Olisa and his mother, Ijeoyibo, alongside others, find themselves at the crossroads. They became refugees running away from the ferociousness of this continental and global madness called war. Nnoli seems to have a way with words as he poignantly captured the deliriousness, trauma and freight associated with pressure occasioned by an imminent war.
“As we left Limo, I saw families with mats, bags and blankets. Some were with fowls and others dragged goats and sheep. Few people loitered with unfurled umbrellas in the absence of rain and sun. A good number of children were crying. People wandered aimlessly along the road. It was a mission to nowhere.” (p. 48). This is a lachrymal retrospection into the Biafran-Nigerian civil war, which ended 33 years ago.
Having lost the company of his mother in Cote d’Ivoire, where he is a refugee for three years, Olisa returns home to discover that someone has taken over his father’s house. The new occupant has pulled the old house down and erected new house. Here, Nnoli painted the colossal magnitude of the loss of Olisa’s home, creating a phantasmagoria image.
“The new house was a nice bungalow which glowed with glimmering asbestos. Shrubs of periwinkles, which had just been snipped clustered, round the house… (p 57.)
Olisa later secured job with a newspaper company, called The Pioneers, but his stint with the company is short-lived. Olisa’s dissidence, feisty and ruthless approach to his work goads him into writing a revealing article, titled Quick loot, fast plunder. The effect of the article brought him a plethora of joy and sadness. He became a celebrity overnight. He is also a marked man because a lot of people were miffed. The article is a dangerous incursion into a society where gross of deceits, sadism and betrayal hold sway.
In Bakassi, anything goes, but Olisa refuses to look away. The author’s usage of three major flashbacks in the book is well timed and suitably juxtaposed because it helped in connecting the present to the past in order to create the future.
The article caused a furore, which sparks public protests and demonstrations. By the time the dust finally settled, the management of the newspaper company lays him (Olisa) off. He forms a musical band called ‘De-Hurricanes’ after his divorce with The Pioneers, but months after, the band comes into a serious scrutiny. They are framed and charged to court. Olisa and his band mates are sentenced to life imprisonment. 10 years after, they are released.
Save the Dream is an enthralling adventure into the dark politics of a contemporary African state. It is a lonely voice crying in the wilderness. The book is an incredible incursion into a world characterised by dog-eat-dog idiosyncrasies authored by half-baked politicians, who see political gimmickry as platform for the portrayal of their gross incompetence, deceit and betrayal. It is a story of war, trials, defeat and amazing victory, victory of good over the evil. The book emphasises the confirmed axiom that no matter the rage of darkness, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Nnoli’s intent is to rebrand and repackage African literature. This he successfully achieved with his debut book. The book is written for students, academicians, scholars and politicians. The book is meant for everybody who believes in change, change for the better. It is also written for those who believe that sincere hope never fails. The cover of the book is catchy and the packaging superb.
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