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Happy Grey Hair is a book of fiction written by Chris Wilson and is in the form of a play. It is set in an unspecified village in an unspecified country in the West of Africa. The play mainly revolves around a grandfather, Udo and his two grown Grandsons Chike and Eze.
The boys and their grandfather have an uncomfortable relationship which borders on open animosity. The grandfather is portrayed as an old man who wishes that the younger generation held closer to the morals of the older times, and he sees his grandsons as having no respect for their elders, and having no work ethic, being lazy and only wanting to get their hands on easy money. On the other hand Chike and Eze see their grandfather as interfering and nagging and always wanting to tell them what to do. Other important people in the play are the grandson’s friend Hunter, who is as his name specifies, a hunter. He is a hardworking individual and is also constantly advising the two grandsons to change their misguided ways. There is also Uzo, a village elder who is a friend of Udo, as well as Ngozi, the household help and Udo’s confidante.
What happens in the play is that the grandfather tries to put a plan into action that will turn his grandsons into upright men that he can be proud of. The grandson’s, on the other hand, think that they know their grandfathers plan and try to outsmart him. Although I enjoyed reading the play, I found that the characters of the grandsons Chike and Eze were too similar with no distinguishing characteristics of their own, usually agreeing with each other on every issue.
Although the characters and storyline were quite simple, the theme of the play is the conflict between African cultures and morals and the western lifestyle that has started permeating in all areas of the world. Another thing to note is that the language of the play is relatively expressive and not how we would usually converse in our normal language. This is because African language in general is very expressive in nature. Living in Africa I can assure of this.
On the whole, the play was simple, yet captivating, and it gives people an inside look on how a common village in the West of Africa operates and the challenges that face the people living there, and for this reason I will give this book three out of four stars, and I would encourage readers who want to understand the changing dynamics in African countries regarding the culture, respect and values that are entrenched in African Societies to read this book. They will then understand how the younger generation are going through a complex period in which they must try to hang on to the precious culture and morals of their forefathers, and at the same time move forward with the rest of the world.
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