Beasts of no Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Insight on the book: Beasts of no Nation is written as a
narrative in Agu’s words. Agu is a child soldier in a war set in an undisclosed
African location, but some of us will find it easy to guess the Author’s
locale. In the book Agu talks, in his own mastery of the English Language, he
talks about his life experiences before and while he’s a child soldier, he
talks about the difficult choices he faced, his conflicted guilt, his suffering,
his initial innocence and brutal maturity, Agu talks about his hope for
survival and eventual reunion with his family. To quote the book;
“thinking
that to be a soldier is the best thing in the world because gun is looking so
powerful and men in the movie are looking so powerful and strong when they are
killing people but I am knowing now that to be a soldier is only to be weak and
not strong, and to have no food to eat and not to eat whatever you want,…...but
I am only knowing this now because I am soldier now”.
The book
gradually takes the reader through Agu’s feelings and emotions and this really
helps in the better understanding of Agu’s suffering and difficult life as a
child soldier and further appeals to the readers’ compassion. The end of the
book is particularly interesting, for me when I got the end of the book, I was
shocked I didn’t see it coming at all I felt like I reached a climax without
knowing it. It’s like when you’re eating a doughnut absent-minded and when
you take the last bite you don’t even realize it, you expect to still have more
doughnut left but you don’t!
Beasts of no
nation was written in 2005 by Uzodinmma Iweala as his undergraduate thesis in
Harvard University and now Beasts of no Nation is a major motion picture
produced in 2015. The movie is highly rated, this is in fact what got me
interested in the book and since I want to explore more stories from African
authors also am one of those people that believe that the book has more depth
than the film, but if you disagree, do check out the movie, however there’s a
plot twist, while the commandant survived in the movie, he didn’t survive the
book and some other little changes here and there but the most important is
that the essence of the story and its message is not lost.
All in all, I look forward to seeing from
Uzodinmma Iweala.
Title: The book is named after Fela Kuti’s
1989 album ‘Beasts of no Nation’. The title can also be assumed to refer to the
crew of war bandits that Agu was afflicted to, they called themselves soldiers
with a commandant but they had no real training or purpose of fighting and yet
they committed heinous acts, so in my opinion, ‘Beasts of no Nation’ could very
well refer to them.
Theme: War, suffering, hope
Life Message: The book creates an awareness of child
soldiers, it says that there are some children who have been/are victims of
warfare in this way. Before reading this book I knew very little about child
soldiers but now I know, some children have suffered and are still suffering
because of war, they were given no other choice of survival but a machete.
Favorite Quote: “where
we are going, we will be going and we will be getting there when we are getting
there”
Rating: 5/10
5 comments
I really can't wait to read your opinion on the book...fingers crossed
ReplyDeleteYou really did capture most of the book in such short lines...and I agree the book had more depth.... Nice writeup
ReplyDeleteThank you both, I hope you enjoyed it too
ReplyDelete"Brutal maturity"I love that.did you know fela referred to united nations as 'beast of no nation'in the song.nice write up.kudos.Muhammad
ReplyDeleteThanks Muhammad, I haven't listened to the song by Fela but I'll try to find it.
ReplyDelete