Set in Lagos in the 1980s in the heat of the Nigerian government’s War Against Indiscipline, Swallow tells the story of two young women, Tolani and Rose, who are pushed by a series of unfortunate events to consider drug trafficking as a means of survival. Published in 2008, it’s the author’s second novel.
“Lagos. The street on which we lived was named after a military governor. Our neighbourhood smelled of burned beans and rotten egusi leaves. Juju and apala music, disco and reggae music jumped from windows, and fluorescent blue cylinders lit up the entire place past midnight.”
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Narrated by Tolani and later by her mother, the novel explores themes of morality, corruption, friendship, love, identity, and self-discovery, amongst others. Tolani and Rose hate their jobs at Federal Community Bank but since there’s no alternative, they grudgingly board the bus to work every morning.
When Rose is fired and refuses to beg her boss, Mr. Salako, to give her the job back, she has to find another way to take care of herself and pay her bills. Poverty was the enemy and it had to be fought with whatever was available.
“She did not tell me why she had slapped Mr. Salako and she had not denied that she was his girlfriend either, but that was Rose, five times a girl, no explanations or apologies. She was always having her way and didn’t care about consequences. She took chances without thinking, never regretted the choices she made. In that respect, she was a fearless woman and tough, unlike me.”
Rose meets OC at a shop in the market where she and Tolani go to buy shoes when they have some extra money. At first, she sees him as a meal ticket since he was generous enough to pay for her shoes the first time he saw her. With time, though, OC becomes much more to Rose.
When it came to men, Rose was a no-nonsense woman; she didn’t like men who didn’t give her money or buy her things so OC easily won her heart. She soon became curious about his source of wealth and after much pestering, he introduced her to the trade. Everything was going well until they took a dark turn.
“Her troubles started with the brown loafers, not because she’d lost her job. Bad things had happened to Rose before. She handled them by arguing, defending herself, drinking beer or eating a bowl of pepper soup. Never did her solution come from unexpected generosity.”
With Rose spending more time with OC and traveling a lot, Tolani focused on her own issues. Sanwo, her boyfriend, constantly shied away from the topic of marriage and he always had one business idea or the other that never quite took off. Mr. Salako has also given her Rose’s former job and was continuously harassing her.
The city of Lagos is beautifully painted in this book. We also get a glimpse of the narrator’s childhood in Makoku and Tolani’s mother’s life as an adire maker, like the women before her. I really like how the other characters got some screen time.
I want to say the book is very well-written but it’s by Sefi Atta. She dey write pieces. The description of events in this book is so vivid you can see and maybe even smell each scene. I enjoyed reading her first book, Everything Good Will Come and I look forward to reading the rest of her books. I highly recommend both books.
It low-key feels like this book was written to be made into a movie, or maybe that’s because the movie was really good, almost as great as the book. It leaves you wanting more. I found this podcast episode that briefly compared the movie with the book, in case you’re considering checking it out.
Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Kindly leave a comment.
If you read this book after reading this review, come back and share 😊