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Between The Devil And Deep Blue Sea: The Betrayed ReviewBETWEEN THE DEVIL AND DEEP BLUE SEA, by Amechi Odidika
A Customer Review by Benson Okolie
It is often said that a novelist or a poet is the eye of the time and the recorder of events. And in performing this role, Amechi Odidika does not only record the contemporaneous accounts of the lives of the African immigrants in the Diaspora, but he also saddles himself with the responsibility of a prophet of justice.
In Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea, he relies on his good knowledge of the subject-matter and the use of a mask to paint a composite picture of the situation of the African immigrants in Pana, or elsewhere in Europe. His archetypal novel in the Diaspora describes the conflicts between the Africans and their hosts- the Panas from the perspective of an insider in a more realistic manner than the impression of utopian world the Africans give to their people at home about Europe. Their situation is a group-felt experience, though, the story itself is focused on Obinna and some other characters in the novel. The problems they are confronted with are the same problems faced by all the African immigrants, or the Africans in the Diaspora.
Through the plot, the novel exposes the short comings in both the African and European cultures and most of the conflicts between African characters and the Panans are generated by over bearing arrogance of the Panans that are based on their ethnocentric perspective of the Africans. Their discrimination against them is based on their belief that they are economically and socially better than Africans. While, the Africans on their part, feel they are morally superior to the Panans. Many of the African characters in the novel resort to alcoholism due to lack of integration, social exclusion and their inability to adapt to their new environment.
In her reference to Ekwekwe's drinking habit, Grace tells Agnes `It's a kind of frustration... consuming alcoholic drinks is more of an escape mechanism from endless worry over the situation here, and in so doing, he creates immunity to the emotional trauma, which hardships bring.' The plot develops in a progressive lineal form and there is a sequence of episodes in the novel that inter-relate in a chronological order.
The novel is divided into two parts. In part one, which is set in Kallorma, Pana, a fictional country in the southern part of Europe, Obinna is woken up by a premonitory dream, in which he is attacked by his elder brother, Obisike and Ezemuo, the leader of a dangerous secret cult called Ndike Cultural Club (NCC), in their home town Obodoukwu. Ezemuo and his cohorts have a grudge against Obinna for a crusade he carried out against them, fifteen years ago, before his migration to Europe. This horrible dream foreshadows the tragic end of the protagonist that takes place in part two, with a setting in Najia, a literary name for Nigeria. Obisike, with the collaboration of Ezemuo and other members of NCC misappropriates the huge sum of money that Obinna sends to him from Europe to build a personal family house, and consequently, sets a mood for one of the greatest family feuds in the history of their home town. When Obinna travels home to recover his money, the ensuing battle is very fierce; and it is fought at all levels: physical, spiritual and metaphysical.
Barely, a month after his return to Pana, where he lives, Obinna dies in very tragic and mysterious circumstances, just like the same way Obisike has boasted during their brawl. The major conflict in the novel comes to a climax in Obodoukwu, where, all efforts made by Obinna's town people to resolve their quarrel fail because of Obisike's belligerent attitude. And during his physical combat with Obinna, he casts magical spells on him and brags `if you survive more than two months from now call me a fool, and whatever I say from today onwards people shouldn't believe me.'
Through a masterful depiction of memorable characters, who are unique in their characteristics, but linked together by common circumstances and fate, Odidika shows the readers the portrait of those, who are trapped between two unfriendly worlds: the African world, where, the protagonist, Obinnna, ironically, loses his life for helping his people and in Europe, where, they fight an uphill battle against prejudice in order to survive. The major characters include: Obinna, who is generous but temperamental and his naïve but beautiful girlfriend, Grace, who suffers in the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea to arrive in Europe, only to realise that she is lured to work as a prostitute, contrary to working as a hotel manager as said by her cousin, Joy.
There are others like Udeora, a radically-minded young man, a social visionary, a human rights activist and a great admirer of the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, and a boyfriend of Agnes, who is very weird and used to be a prostitute; Robert is an overbearing, eccentric Panan, of Caucasian stock, rigid, myopic and often involved in sex scandals. Ekwekwe is a clown whose humours are a comfortable cushion against their predicament. While, Sam is the custodian of Igbo culture, a representative of the African cosmos in Europe. Through the blessing of a new yam to mark the New Yam Festival among the Igbos in Kallorma, Sam shows the polytheistic nature of religion in Igboland before the advent of Christianity. Like the ancient religion of Mesopotamia and other places in the Middle East, Igbo religion is made up of many gods: the god of sky, sun, earth, harvest, fertility and rain, with one supreme God. Sam is to the African immigrants in Europe to what Obiajulu is to the youths in Obobodoukwu. Obiajulu is a symbol of the Igbo dying cultural values; His speeches are often couched in proverbs and metaphors, and he always laments about the devastating influence of foreign culture on Igbo society and the emphasis on materialism that comes with it.
Charles is Obinna's childhood friend, a born-again Christian, a very rich and a popular philanthropist among his town people. He symbolises all that is good, whereas, Obisike, a changeling and a ruffian with inordinate ambition and his secret cult friends personify the new order in Obodoukwu, where the prosperity of the society is overshadowed by ever brooding presence of danger, fear and death.
Odidika employs various artistic devices in Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea that include suspense, digression, monologue, confession, conversational tone, anecdotes, flashback, ironies, proverbs and metaphors among others. His concentration of meanings, evocative power of proverbs and Igbo cultural nuances give a poetic quality to the novel. We can see a combination of these artistic devices in the songs and dance by Nkponkiti dance troupe, Okuruji age-grade dancers; Owuwanyanwu Progress Assembly, Women Wing; Umuada; and the lullabies sung by Grace, to their son, Kevin. Obinna's unsuccessful relationship with Sandra, the white Panan girl due to racism is told in a flashback. He also uses mysteries, superstitions and elements of occultism, dramatised through the sacred iroko tree, sacred fish and river, rituals, shrines, changeling, witches and wizards as well as a confessional technique to express some philosophical postulations of life and deep consciousness that border on the realms of psychology and parapsychology.
With a narrative technique that is fast and dramatic, a tone that is depersonalised, a language that is robust, colourful and poetic, this modern fiction is more than a social satire. It is a complete rejection of all that is ugly and in doing so, it exposes the injustice, the hypocrisy and double standard in the West, as well as the decay, corruption and dysfunctional leadership in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general.
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