TokisoM Writes

I tend to get lost in myself Forgetting my ambitions My goals and dreams I tend to get lost in myself Living to cushion others in their lives Mesmerized by everybody smiling - but me I tend to get lost in myself Never hearing the inner laugh Dazed from the inside out I need to find myself again Stop being ungrateful for the simple things in my life! Move in my time, smile for more than a while I need to stop missing in action! And live my life the way I want to live it With a smile, laughter and joy from within With so much of the physical happening We sometimes leave the inner to gather dust I want the dust off, and let in shine My inner that is left alone I tend to get lost in myself sometimes. (19 September 2006)

Half Of a Yellow Sun written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a heartbreaking, thought provoking novel. There are five main protagonists (although the blurb tells us about three) whose lives intertwine to bring this story to life; Alonna: The beautiful twin, educated in London, from a wealthy family in Lagos. She goes off to shack up with her professor lover – much to her parents’ disappointment; they wanted her to date within their elite circle. Kainene: She is the not so pretty twin and she knows it. She comes across as someone who couldn’t be bothered about the opinion of others. She smokes, doesn’t smile much and runs the family businesses. Richard: The token white guy in the story. He falls in love with Kainene. He is odd and at some point irritatingly needy.   Odenigbo: He is Alonna’s professor lover. He is a pan-Africanist with loads to say about the state of current affairs in Africa for the black man and especially Nigeria. Ugwu (13-year-old): Is the rural boy s...