#BookReview: Waiting By E.C. Osondu

Emeka Nwakobi

Osondu writes with a clarity of mind, that is capable of engaging ones attention for whatever length of time and evoking just about the right emotions.

Written from the point of view of a child, Osondu tells the story of the devastations of war and its impact on the wellbeing of children. Set in a refugee camp, as the title of the story suggests; the children wait for miracle to happen. They take pictures and with the help of the Red Cross, send them across to their potential abductors and if they are lucky; a family takes a liking to them and they are liberated from hunger, from the horrors of war and the possibility of becoming child soldiers.

Orlando Zaki the narrator, whose name is taken like all other names in the camp, from the t-shirt given to him by the Red Cross, takes us further in on the condition in the camp. There are children whose mothers are still alive. This means that those lucky children get to eat homemade food, prepared by their mothers and don’t have to go through the daily drills of fighting to get their ration.

We also get to know they once had loyal dogs, dogs that fed happily on children’s faeces and helped shield them in the event of an enemy raid on the camp. But when fighting gets intense and the Red Cross people are unable to go through with relieve items, they eat some of the dogs and gradually they disappeared, only to reappear one day to shred a baby into pieces.

We meet Acapulco, who like every other person has derived his name from the t-shirt given to him by the Red Cross. His parents were killed for being unable to pronounce “Tsofo” correctly. He is orphaned like Orlando, and has a bad ear that oozes pus and attracts flies. He is too weak for the daily fights required to survive and more than anything wish he could have his mother back who would cook for him. He forms and acquaintance with Orlando and together they wait on fate.

Osondu doesn’t come outright to name the setting of this story, but he leaves hints as; “Tsofo” “Zaki.” This technique gives the story a universal feel, that is, the possibility of the event happening in any part of Africa, as it is obviously Africa, undeniably so with the rising spate of insurgency. One would agree, that despite the gory that resonates throughout the story, humour permeates its very fabric.

E.C. OSONDU is a Nigerian writer whose works has appeared in online platforms as Guernica, and is forthcoming in Fiction. He won the 2009 Caine Prize. He is the author of “This House is not For Sale.”