3 out of 4 stars
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The Gods Are Silent by Daniel Dickson Boateng tells the story of Papa who is a potent fetish priest in a village in Africa. He is well respected and prosperous with 4 wives, 5 sons and 6 gods to care for. Unfortunately, his powers appear to wane as his youngest wife, Serwaa, appears to be barren and he is unable to cure her. In desperation, he consults a god from the north and is granted a child in return for the sacrifice of a ram at every new moon. But as one hand giveth, so the other hand taketh away. The god gives him a daughter but takes away his wife. After a while, life gets back to normal and the child is a joy until Papa forgets to make the sacrifice.
I enjoyed this book. The writing style has a rhythm of its own which gives it an authentic feel and the book gives an insight into a world which is very different from my own. Life in the village is ruled by superstition and vengeful gods. Anything that goes wrong is usually traced back to a broken taboo or some misstep or other. As well as the overall story, there were some interesting anecdotes of what had happened to people who had angered the gods.
Papa is a rather selfish character and he becomes less and less reasonable as his life spirals out of control. He puts his pride in his own skills above the needs of his family by refusing to contemplate the hospital, even when he knows that there is nothing more that he can do for his ailing daughter. The cruelty that is heaped upon barren women is shocking. Serwaa is called a witch, accused of casting a spell over Papa, and is shunned by the villagers. Her only friend is Papa himself, and he makes life worse for her by making her his favourite and thereby causing the other wives to be antagonistic.
As well as the African gods, there is a missionary school where the children learn of a kinder God, and it becomes clear that at some point, the old ways are going to be swept aside.
My only criticism of the book is that there were grammatical errors. I turned a blind eye to most of them as I felt that they added to the creative feel of the book. However, there was confusion over names. Serwaa’s mother was referred to with every combination of Mame, Maame, Mamee, Affia and Afia and even Mame Dufie who was Papa's eldest wife. Also, Serwaa was once referred to as Akoto. Other errors included missing spaces, missing words and incorrect capitalisation.
I would have liked to give this book 3.5 out of 4 as the grammatical errors weren’t too bad, but when combined with the confusion over names, they cause me to round it down to 3 out of 4 stars
This book will appeal to people who enjoy folktales and having an insight into lives and religions very different from their own.
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The gods are Silent
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Great review!
Thank you for your great review!
