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Ignorance might be bliss, but what happens when reality forces its way into your life? Olivia’s world is turned upside down when her eldest daughter begins experiencing mysterious falls, and her attendance at her sister’s wedding stirs rumours of jealousy.
This marks Olivia’s reluctant journey into a fate she has long resisted. She is caught between ancient beliefs and her father’s staunch Christian warnings against the “ways of the devil.” Ezekobe’s Mmirinzo brilliantly captures this clash of traditions and faith, weaving a compelling narrative that keeps readers hooked from start to finish.
Olivia would go on to complete the initiation rites of being a water witch, leaving back her fears and prejudices in the village as she makes it in time for the wedding.
Mmirinzo mediates between science, religion, and magic as interpretive apertures to divvy and digest the world. In a time when the physicalism of science tugs violently against the psychic methods of (Western/Eastern offered) religion, throwing magic in the ring may appear to give the ongoing struggle a royal rumble tilt. Maybe, maybe not. But first, let it in. Achalugo’s case is simple – if you are going to throw away African spirituality, then you better have held it in your hands first, for how do you throw something you never held? And what if, as Ben Okri posed, every reality is superstitious, and there is no one right light with which to make sense of the world?
Mmirinzo is a gorgeously relatable read which distributes jabs at everything and everyone, from the reliable unreliability of local tailors to the outdated obsession with pre-marital virginity far out to the perils of deculturalization and “endangered speeches” as it goes about its business of vivifying Lagos life with Olivia, her friends, and imaginary friends in it.
In tow of the likes of Ben Okri and Onyeka Nwelue, Mmirinzo follows the thread of magical realism in a charming way that renders it with the sauce of a Hollywood superhero movie. Seamlessly, the Cartesian dualism of Olivia’s life as a lawyer and as a rainmaker coming to self is explored in two simultaneous stories in the sensory and supersensory realms. Of the two spinning gear wheels, the world of Afulenu, its rich deployment of textured language evincing sagey wisdom, accurately makes a case for Igbo intellectualism, which holds my gaze. Afulenu is Olivia’s spiritual guardian, who lures her progressively backwards until she finally makes peace with her primordial pact.
Barring the somewhat gooey impossibility of Olivia and Leonard’s office romance, the epilogue, which had no reason to be a standalone part of the book, and some print typos, Mmirinzo is a fun read that makes the reader feel at home.
Overall, I rate Mmirinzo 7 out of 10.
You can get your copy of Mmirinzo here.
Book Title: Mmirinzo
Author: Achalugo Chioma Ezekobe
Genre: Magical Realism
Publisher: Winepress Publishing
Publication Year: 2020
Page Count: 282