Review

                                          Caine Prize for African Writing 2023 Stories

Title: The Tangible Thing

Author: Yejide Kilanko

Country: Nigeria

Yejude Kilanko
Credit: www.caineprize.com 

The Tangible Thing is yet another powerful entry for the 2023 circle of the Caine Prize for African Story. It is scripted by a Nigerian, Yejide Kilanko.

This Tangible Thing is a story of a Nigerian man who travelled home with his daughter that was born in Canada but never visited Nigeria. She is a girl with an identity crisis, given the racial bias, she suffers in Canada, where her schoolmates refer to her as “a joke” –her name is Ajoke. At the same time, she is a girl who never travelled to Nigeria to understand the culture and feel Nigerian.

Father travels home to Southwestern Nigeria with his daughter. A mistake that led to the late arrival of luggage compels dad to return to Lagos. The daughter is left with granny. While they await the return of the father, Grandma uses the chance to get her granddaughter conversant with the Yoruba culture through folktales, a history of the family, and everyday family rituals of the Yorubas.

The story plays the Yoruba firmness of upholding the culture and a strong family discipline that is typical of educated Yoruba families.

The author creates imageries using simple words, albeit in a very creative manner. However, it is common for an African to take a child home to enable him to learn about his roots. It happens a lot of times. Thus, it introduces a tone of ambiguity between fiction and reality.