Comprehensive Summary Of JAMB's New Novel, 'In Dependence' By Sarah Ladipo Manyika

Also, it brings the social realities
of Nigeria into light- a situation where the poor gets poorer everyday without
any improvement. With the events surrounding Tayo’s life, Sarah Manyika brings
to limelight the effects of bad governance on the country’s tertiary
institutions (universities) and the ensuing massive brain drain that Africa has
experienced. There are also issues of racial discrimination and cultural
dichotomy and we see Tayo, Vanessa and other characters live their lives amidst
these issues.

Outside the political spheres, In Dependence is Tayo and Vanessa's
story of a brave but bittersweet love affair. It is the story of two people
struggling to find themselves and each other - a story of passion and idealism,
courage and betrayal, and the universal desire to fall, madly and deeply in
love.

Furthermore, it is a convincing narrative on the price we pay for the
decisions we make in our lives, whether right or wrong; and life sometimes is
just about doing what makes you happy regardless of people's opinions. Unfortunately,
most of African cultures reject such philosophy. For us, life is not only about
the individual but also about family, relatives, communities, tradition,
culture etc.

Through an authentic and objective
voice, the novelist ensures that all these realities that characterize Nigeria
and Africa at large are adequately portrayed in her story.
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Summary of the Novel
Sarah
Ladipo Manyika novel which showcases the love affair of two main characters
(Tayo and Vanessa) begins with these lines:

One could
begin with the dust, the heat and the purple bougainvillea. One might even
begin with the smell of rotting mangos tossed by the side of the road where the
flies hummed and green-bellied lizards bobbed their orange heads while
loitering in the sun. But Tayo did not notice these – instead he walked in
silence, oblivious to his surroundings.

It is the early-sixties (1963 to be precise) when a young Tayo Ajayi
sails to England from Nigeria to take up a scholarship at Oxford University. Nigeria has been independent from
British colonial rule for just 3 years and Tayo is part of the newly educated
generation eager to take up educational opportunities abroad so that they can
return to their country and help it become successful. With high hopes for the
future of Nigeria and confident in his own ability to make a difference, Tayo
throws himself into Oxford life, but a romantic attachment to a white English
girl, Vanessa, derails his plans. In this city
of dreaming spires, he finds himself among a generation, high on visions of a
new and better world. The whole world seems ablaze with change: independence at
home, the Civil Rights movement and the first tremors of cultural and sexual
revolutions. It is then that Tayo meets
Vanessa Richardson, the beautiful daughter of an ex-colonial officer and a
racist. When they first meet, Tayo and Vanessa are drawn to each other,
him to her because she's different than women he knows in Nigeria; her to him
because she seems to have a fascination with all things from the continent of
Africa. 

As their
relationship progresses, it seems that her love for him is also rooted in
antagonizing her conservative, colonialist father who is also a racist. Their love
affair faces lots of challenges with racism as its major challenge. It could not survive
the pressure of racism from passersby, policemen and especially Vanessa's
father who is a self proclaimed racist.




Tayo also worries
about whether his own family will accept Vanessa, and whether she will be able
to live in African society. On her part, Vanesa begins to wonder if she is simply
something for Tayo to do until he meets a Nigerian woman, as she has witnessed
with friends of his.

Many of the problems, however, are of their own making - they hold
back from saying what they feel, they miscommunicate, misunderstand, lash out
and they are unfaithful. Then, fate and politics intervene at crucial points -
as Tayo is about to propose, he gets a telegram saying his father is dying and
he has to return to Nigeria. Tayo leaves England with every intention of returning to
Vanessa but first, he is delayed by his father’s illness and then a military coup.
Much later, he is about to visit Vanessa in England but is arrested on his way
to the airport. Consequently, Tayo resigns himself to staying in Nigeria and
marrying a local woman.

Vanessa hopes for
two things: marry Tayo and return to Nigeria with him and also become a
respected journalist. Unfortunately, things didn’t happen the way she has hoped
and due to circumstances beyond her control (and her stubbornness in some part)
she ends up marrying an older white man and adopting the child of a Senegalese
friend. She does, however, become the respected journalist that she has hoped
to be.

Tayo later meets
with Vanessa many years later and this meeting provides him with an opportunity to rekindle
his romance with her, but just like their earlier encounters, it feels stiff
and wooden.

Tayo and Vanessa end
up living their lives independent of each other but no matter what they did,
and where they were, the thoughts and love they had for each other lingered on
(even though the other didn't necessarily know). I guess love really does stand
the test of time.

Role of Some Characters

1. Tayo
Tayo is the protagonist/main character of the
novel. He is an intelligent man but he always seems to do wrong. He tries to do
the right thing, never wants to hurt anyone but in the end he does, especially
the women in his life - and there are quite a number of women in his life that
he hurts.

2. Vanessa
Vanessa, on the
other hand, dreams of being a journalist writing on African issues, marrying
Tayo and moving with him to Nigeria to start a new life. Unfortunately life
gets in the way and a host of things prevent most of her dreams from coming
true. She does end up achieving one of her dreams - being a world renowned
journalist on African issues.

3. Christine
Christine is the
Nigerian woman that first caught Tayo’s eye. Christine is shown as an
opinionated woman that does not shy away from engaging men in intellectual
conversation. However, this character is killed off too quickly in the novel
and the reason for her death—suicide, was not very convincing. It was hard to
picture Christine as a love struck and defeated woman who would kill herself.

4. Jane
Vanessa’s cousin who
is quite outspoken about her sexual encounter.

5. Vanessa’s Father
He was a colonial master in Nigeria
before 1960. He is against Tayo marrying his daughter and has refused to accept
Vanessa’s adopted half-cast son. He seemed more racial against half-casts
earlier in the novel confronting Tayo about his fears for a half-cast
grandchild. It was later understood that his hatred for the blacks was as a
result of an affair his wife had with a black man during the colonial era.

Discussion of the Predominant Theme
Although love exists as a theme in
this novel, the theme that runs through the novel is racism, consequently
making it a predominant theme. Sarah Manyika showcases this theme in different
forms.

During Tayo’s life as a part time
lecturer in Sans Francisco, Manyika used a scene to unbolt some deeper issues
of racism. She pointed out the racist ties between the African American and the
pure African. These issues she raised apply everywhere even within Nigerians. A
Yoruba would refer to an Igbo as a greedy money monger and dubious monster, and
in turn the Igbo would refer to the Yoruba as a dirty, loquacious and foolish
personality who spend all he earns on parties and alcohol. It had to be understood
that racism was one those existences that would live for a long time as far as
misunderstanding between people existed.

There are also lines that are coated
with humour in this novel but could be called racial remarks. Young black Yusuf
came clean in his conversation with Tayo. He said white women were for sex
treats while black women were for decent relationships that could lead to
marriage. He added that a white woman looked so old when she turned thirty.
This in its entirety showcases the idea of racism.

The battle against Tayo and Vanessa's
love is instigated by racism with Vanessa's father as the instigator. He is the
worst racist in this book. He was a colonial master in Nigeria before 1960. He
is against Tayo marrying his daughter and has refused to accept Vanessa’s
adopted half-cast son. He seemed more racial against half-casts earlier in the
novel confronting Tayo about his fears for a half-cast grandchild. It is later
understood that his hatred for the blacks is as a result of an affair his wife
had with a black man during the colonial era. Manyika, whose picture shows she
is perhaps a half-cast, is able to make a point here. She draws a difference
between being black and being a half-cast (brown). This would have been quite a
storm for her to write about because of the racial wind against the brown
people living in whitely dominated regions. In contrast to a pure black
country, half-casts are seen as beautiful which Manyika failed to point out. In
fact in the black continent, the typical black man may feel inferior to a
half-cast.
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  Short Summary of 'IN DEPENDENCE' by Sarah Ladipo Manyika's

In the early sixties a young Nigerian Tayo Ajayi was granted scholarship to study abroad in Oxford University. Where he met a lot of Nigerians like himself, with whom they formed the most important African Association on campus. Life was bubbling over with excitement. He was in favour of Nigerian independence and was involved with the Civil Rights movements and all the revolutions of that time. Meanwhile, he met Vanessa Richardson, whose ideas on African politics do not differ much from his; even though, she was the daughter of a racist ex-colonial officer.  They fell head over hill with each other. However, seemingly, their love could not survive the pressure of racism. Especially, since Vanessa's father was a self proclaimed racist and Tayo's doubts with regard to Vanessa fitting in his tightly knit polygamous Yoruba family. One thing led to another; hence, they miserably came to a parting of the ways. h
In Dependence is the story of two people who were madly in love with each other but could not stay together due to the racist preconception of their time. It is not a romance novel per se and should not be categorised as such. Nevertheless, it is a serious novel that convincingly narrates on the price we pay for the decisions we  make in our life, whether right or wrong. And life sometimes is just about doing what makes you happy independently of other people's opinion. At the end it is your life. Unfortunately, most of African culture reject such philosophy, for us life is not only about the individual but also about family, relatives, communities, tradition, culture and the list goes on. Additionally, the characters were so realistic that I could feel them. The novel also covered the political changes that took place in Nigeria, such as the independence, the coups, the civil war, military