The Jewel of Kabibi

Title: The Jewel of Kabibi

Author: Dr Mawuli Adzei

International book number: 978-9988-1-921-8

Reviewer: Emmanuel Kpeglah

When Salma, The Jewel of Kabibi, fled the North to Accra, it was to foil the planned marriage between her and a rich village octogenarian Baba Askan and perhaps to transform her economic status. But Accra, known for its utopian economic prospect revealed an inexplicable reality – “survival of the fittest.” This dreadful discovery stretched the survival instincts of most of the characters to regrettable lengths as they slipped into vices and compromised virtues, so sacred, to cast as trifles.

“Criminals are societal creation; no one is born one,” the 272 page book strongly echoes this adage. In human behavioral genetics, heredity is naturally programmed when one is conceived and environment works on the person`s whole life to enhance or change that which heredity predetermined,https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100426175426AAAA7wL. In effect, one could argue that because Risky was nurtured in the street he ended up a criminal. It is very disheartening that Danfo, the father of Risky threw Abena, his maid out of his house who was then carrying the pregnancy of Risky, the product of the illicit sexual affair he (Danfo) had with her. Could Abena be blamed for abandoning that child? Of course, the street whose rough arms are wide opened absorbed and raised Risky a hardened criminal. Abena stooped to expose the evils of Danfo but was killed because Danfo, a minister of state must protect and preserve his image from shame.

On a visit to Ghana in 2009, Barack Obama, President of the United State of America admonished Ghanaians to “build strong institutions rather than strong men.” This is because the institution such as the law is the only tower that could protect Abena and since there are strong men than strong institutions in Ghana, Abena could not taste justice she deserved the whole of her life.

Dr. Adzei, made a striking disclosure - a harmonious cooperation between prostitutes and criminals where the former depend on people like Risky as brothel “pilots” for protection from cheats and assailants. Though it is difficult to establish a causal connection between the two, it is something the novelist brought to the attention of the security forces for action.

The book is powerfully structured, presented in picturesque descriptions and flavoured with charming suspense that has the potency of holding readers captives. Risky's confession to Salma as her rapist was interestingly crafted. The maneuvering was interspersed with tender love, affection, guesswork, tears and when the truth finally burst out, the stage was already prepared for the forgiveness Risky yearned for and indeed he had it unconditionally.

The Jewel of Kabibi defies chronological plot and with much ferocity ignites its plot with such a melancholic account of flood victims whose quandaries reminded us of the Great Flood in the Noahic time that retrogressed the earth to its pre-creation era of aquatic chaos.

The vengeful flood “….in their ferocious march…,” symbolized the annual torrents in Accra and other major cities in Ghana which results in several deaths and loss of property. These yearly disasters end with relief items such as blankets, some food items and a few other essentials from the government to the victims after which they are left to battle their way to restoring their economic loss. The causes of the city flooding are well known –choked gutters, buildings on water ways however, little or no efforts are invested in solving them.

Mawuli Adzei provokes deep reflection, whether Africa still believes in the post independent slogan: “the black man is capable of handling his own affairs.” This is because “half a decade of the end of the twentieth century, Black Africa`s first independent state cannot properly dispose of its own excreta. Years and years of dumping truckloads of raw human waste into the sea had left half of the city imprisoned in a perpetual ambience of demonic stench.” This is a place Ghanaian humorously christened “Lavender Hill,” “to dissipate the dangerous situation in slogan” though a health danger, which “ticked like bomb ready to explode,” at all cost one day.

Ghana, a dignified cocoa producer in this present time mostly cultivates the soil with cutlasses and hoes and depends to a large extent on the precarious weather for her irrigation needs. Tongka, father of Salma, who is a farmer, cannot determine what lies in the sleeves of the weather, whether it is flood, drought and bumper harvest or pests attack. As it is “one reason they had so much food stuff and they did not have the means to preserve it and they watch despondently as the food stuff rotted.”

In the heart of the city, Accra, there is James Town, a slum, teaming with joyous residents, “simple people” whose “women throw their padded buttocks in the air” to kpalongo rhythms with the men clinging firmly to their waists as they danced their troubles off.

Dr. Adzei must be credited as a feminist judging from this work which unravels the problems confronting women from their lives' cradle. Most girls have truncated school life, they are first to be considered as maids, condemned kitchen makers, sex objects, suffer genital mutilation and hence so powerless in society. Yet they are warriors who fight battles men cannot fight.

The characters are bonded amazingly by ties - blood, family, tradition, profession and friendship. And when nature in its inexplicable way unmasks all masks through actions and inactions of the characters, readers are led to the spiciest climax.

There are many evils on the blind side of society and it is only those with the “third eye” that can see them. This intensifies the role of James, a journalist who holds the key to unravel such crimes to give hope to the silence minority like Salma, Abena and others.

The book brought to the fore belief systems notably the link between the living and dead and the faith in ancestral spirits and deities. The death of Gago Yinlah led us to a ritual dance in honour of a fallen warrior where an orchestra of warriors performs the “predatory arrogance of the lion, mimicked “the leopard craft of stealth and ambush” to send the hero home.

Death in the rural areas come in many forms according to the novelist, through guinea worms, snake-bites, infant and maternal mortality, anthrax meningitis “all of which are attributed to witches and wizards or the gods,” but are mostly preventable.

To Mawuli Adzei, corporal punishment is a bane to child education because caning is like a scare-crow that scares children never to return to school. Through the character Bente a beautifully crafted sub-plot emerged which described teachers as “oppressive adult monsters who claimed to know everything yet did not know that it hurts to the marrow when they lashed poor pupils mercilessly.”

Set in the rural North and the capital Accra, Dr Adzei in this novel roars with an omniscient view point and as an omnipresent observer (third person) who ploughs into the psyche of his characters and reports their minds with the full-throated power of a griot. This he did in a very simply, catchy and clear language which blended history, tradition, proverbs and scientific facts to tell a captivating story.

Nevertheless, Dr Adzei, a lecturer at the English Department of the University of Ghana has left readers in a limbo when people like Mr Danfo, the Interior Minister will be caught in the crossfire of the law when they pay for their wicked deeds. This unexplored plot may give pain to most readers.

The Jewel of Kabibi succeeds as a modern novel and possesses the qualities of timelessness like other great novels. It is highly recommended. Other books of the author are Taboo and “Testament of the Seasons.”