**spoiler alert** A writer of Nigerian-British descent, Diana Evans models her debut novel, a devastatingly honest bildungsroman, on her own family. F**spoiler alert** A writer of Nigerian-British descent, Diana Evans models her debut novel, a devastatingly honest bildungsroman, on her own family. Fragmented and dysfunctional, the Hunters consist of the two twins, Bessie and Georgia, plus their sisters, Bel and young Kemy, and their parents, Ida, who is Nigerian, and Aubrey, who is British.
Evans skilfully weaves the narrative of diasporic identity through two main themes: blackness and twinness. Black skin and black hair are the first layer of diasporic identity. Their visibility is what makes blackness unavoidable for those who encounter it. A second layer of diasporic identity comes in the shape of hybridity, which Evans portrays in the character of the twins, Georgia and Bessie, who embody “twoness in oneness�.
The discourse on blackness in the book traces its roots to Nigeria, which Ida runs away from to escape marriage. However, she is not able to shake off her roots, which she carries into London via her relationship with food and magic. Ida’s strange eating habits, such as wanting to warm up everything she eats, highlight her difficulty in acclimatising to the cold climate of England. Ida brings with her traces of magic from Nigeria: the carving of an old spirit woman which she places opposite the mirror in her home “…so that you could see it if you saw yourself…�, underlining the British-Nigerian identities of herself and her family members. Despite these evident struggles in adapting to life in diaspora, Ida is able to build a home of sorts in London: “…home had a way of shifting…Home was homeless. It could exist anywhere, because its only substance was familiarity�. It is not only Ida for whom blackness becomes a struggle. Her daughters, with their natural black hair, run into difficulties at hairdressers, who simply do not know how to handle afros, and whose “torrential grief� causes Bel to become a chemical-free hairdresser dealing specifically with black hair. The hairdresser incident is a microcosm of a larger issue, of the English being reluctant to co-exist with ‘other� people. Thus, in Bel’s career choice we see another instance of the characters navigating their agency in the face of the problems posed by their blackness, and building a “home� for themselves.
One is immediately captivated by the character of the twins, Bessie and Georgia, but Evans has managed to deepen and problematise ‘twinness� as we understand it, by linking it to diasporic identity. Initially, the twins are seen as two parts of one whole, but an event in Nigeria changes the trajectory of their “twoness in oneness�. Georgia is sexually harassed by a servant at their house in Nigeria, a fact that traumatises her and changes the entire trajectory of her life, sending her spiralling into depression, and eventually, suicide. She hides this fact from her twin: “It was the first time ever, in this land of twoness in oneness, that something had seemed unsayable�. She loses her childhood in one evening “There was something lost. The nowness of things�, and spends the rest of her life dealing with the consequences of that evening. She begins to think of herself and Bessie as opposites: “You are light, I am shade�. I believe it is this kind of thinking which eventually leads Georgia to taking her own life. Bessie is split in two ways � in terms of her Nigerian-British identity, as well as by embodying a half-Bessie-half-Georgia identity in an almost otherworldly manner hearkening back to the magical story Ida’s Baba told of the twins Ode and Onia. Bessie’s becoming one contains elements of diasporic identity, too. Living in diaspora requires some of the doubling that occurs, to be curbed and incorporated into one, which Evans has expertly shown through the character of twinness (Bessie-Georgia) becoming oneness (Bessie). ...more
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.�...more
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