Review of The Famished Road by Ben Okri

Ben Okri’s, The Famished Road, gives a very strong sense of the “in-betweenness” that other magic-realist texts we’ve read in this course have presented beforehand. Mainly with Azaro and his being an abiku (which is connected to Yoruba Mythology): a child that is destined to die before reaching the age of twelve. Azaro is constantly faced with his pre-destined death; being torn between the sprits who have come to collect him and the mother he loves – which I thought was interesting because it is said that the abiku do not particularly care for the grief their mothers face (because they always return to the same mother, and are always never planning on staying in the land of the living). I think that because we are presented, from the very beginning, with both the land of the living and the spirit world, there is a cohesive element that lies within the constant state of in-betweenness for all the characters. This book presents us with the concept of myth right from the get-go, and I believe is a big contributor to this book being labeled a magic-realist text.

The story starts with the phrase “In the beginning” which, while reminiscent of the bible, mainly reminded me of the creation-myths that I’ve been looking at in another class. Even the idea of the cyclical nature of life, especially for that of the abiku, in that everyone is destined to be born, live, die – wash, rinse, and repeat. This opening to the text also sets up how this world works and why knowing this is relevant to the story, in relation to the abiku. All of this is important I think, because despite the Yoruba folklore and cultural element to this story setting up a situation for those of other cultures, especially western and European audiences, to be “othered” it also gives us some insight and an ability to understand, somewhat, the journey that this text will take us on. I also found the father’s statement that it is more difficult to love than to die, very interesting when placed against the backdrop of colonialism. I mean, the very nature of colonizing depends on those who are doing it to hold themselves superior to those that they are colonizing. They cannot be viewed as people, otherwise the emotional toll would prevent events like colonizing from happening.

The idea that “people who look like human beings are not human beings”, and that humans only ever seek to wipe each other out, instead of understanding that their destiny requires unity. Alongside this, the idea that “Machines and poisons and selfish dreams will eat us up”, which when looking at the history not only of colonization, but also of industrialisation and capitalism, we can see how there is personal and societal reflection to be had from these statements.