Title: The Web
Author: Idoko Iddahson
Reviewer: Aruwa Veronica
Publisher: Flap Publication
No of Pages: 154
A tangible yet surreal account of unwitting victims of cultural mores – a veritable tool in the hands of the mischievous and petty – manipulated on a whim with the characters of Ojonya and Onyela, her mother and sole soul companion as cynosure. These are caught in an atmosphere of manipulations, machinations, hostility, conspiracy, alienation, lies, deception and intrigues as a result of a dark and intricate ancestry enveloped in an enigma albeit comprehensible.
The Web possibly and unintentionally draws attention to the evils perpetrated with but not inherent in custom because custom exists to streamline people’s actions and relationships with one another within a group to the end of entrenching a sense of identity, belonging and discipline. Invariably, there’s nothing absolute about the peculiarities of a culture.
Iddahson examines culture as a vehicle of exploitation especially against women. Why would it be mandated for a woman to run around nude in the name of some purported ritual cleansing? The manner in which customary norms are executed plays a pivotal role in the happenings at Owailo and the lives of the heroines.
Written in 2014 under Flag Publications by Idoko Iddahson, a budding, young and enthusiastic writer, it embodies 17 defined chapters spread over 154 pages. The Web is the work of a versatile, religiously oriented and well informed writer with a unique style. It is an in-depth exploration of the tradition and axioms of the Idoma people from Benue State in Nigeria that the book can be delineated as a graphic descriptive narrative.
The contemporary novel in my opinion is a syncretic, trado-Christ fiction. A coalescence of the subjects of religious belief, loss of faith, conventions, disillusioned Christianity (with Christianity as a form of escapism), desire for acceptance, self-assertion, feminine solidarity closely linked with a closely-knit friendship, attraction/fleeting love, spite, vindictiveness, mischief, communalism, pain, regret, poverty etcetera.
When Ojonya’s maternal grandfather decides to arbitrarily execute the law by succumbing to a thief and seductress’ offer of her body as restitution, he is branded a rapist with communal implications for the Ejaas and especially for his immediate family. As part of the spoils of war, Ojonya’s maternal grandmother is raped to death and her mother taken as a slave wife for her indolent father by her paternal grandfather bringing about their torrent of adversity. They are treated as usurpers. Ojonya’s misery also stems from her personal charisma, positive demeanour, self-imposed principles and staunch Christian background.
She had been too long starved of a man’s attention and affection – these she is alien to – that Sunday’s avowals of love and shower of unsolicited gifts broke down her long guarded walls. This anecdote is akin to a child ensnared by a new toy or a lamb innocently being led to the slaughter while in the know. Igbotu, Igli and Igbombe, the village nuisances are the antagonists with their roguery who guide Owailo’s tradition to plague Ojonya which inadvertently makes the custom in view anti-hero too. Ojonya too is not without a flaw.
In an attempt to make sense of the senselessness of it all, she strays. Still, one is compelled to relate and identify with her. This is one of the strengths of the novel. It portrays a high sense of verisimilitude and speaks to ingrained psychological and societal issues.
The Web weeps up emotions and the device of the omniscient narrator helps to keep the reader emotionally involved.
The title in its entirety is a metaphor that aptly describes the protagonists’ bitter life experiences from which they seem unable to extricate themselves. “…The two of them had been co-travellers in the wilderness of life…” (p. 148)
There are instances of simile (pp. 1, 6, 135, 136), paradox, situational irony, euphemism (p. 117). Iddahson also creatively utilizes the frame narrative technique severally (see pp. 115-116 etcetera) seen in stories within the main story itself. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is in the genre of a frame narrative which is employed in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It is paradoxical that Ojonya goes against her espoused convictions which I must say are very idealistic. It is ironical that her fortitude births tragedy.
The book tends towards fanaticism and idealistic religious beliefs that could not be upheld. It is lousy with raw and vulgar expressions that might seem a little scandalising to the prude and conservative.