need to redefine what is being defined for us as the path to happiness , to progress or to civilisation ... [ happiness ] is not a building or institution that is there forever . It is fragile and you enjoy it while you can ’ ( Democracy Now ! Arundhati Roy on Returning to Fiction , Redefining Happiness and Writing About Worlds Ripped Apart , 2017 ). Born from the violence of starvation , this female companionship is a vision of an alternative to the more patriarchal of traditional Nigerian values , to colonialism and to white Western feminism . It hints at a society built of shared support and compassion .
A similar form of compassion provides comfort to Animal . His earliest memory is one of intense physical pain : ‘ a devil rode my back and chafed me with red hot tongs ’ ( Sinha , p . 15 ). The imagery of heat and the devil connotes a fiery baptism that bore Animal into the world as other than God ’ s image . Yet in the midst of such corporeal violence there persists genuine compassion . ‘ Through flowers of pain I could make out the old woman kneeling by my cot , wiping my head and mumbling strange words in my ear ’ ( Sinha , p . 15 ). The woman that Animal describes is Ma Franci , a motherly figure who cares for Animal throughout the novel . ‘ Tears were falling down her face . Mine too ’ ( Sinha , p . 15 ). Whilst clearly an expression of sorrow , the antithesis of joy , when reflected upon by Animal , such shared emotion seems a symbol of light in a dark time . Ma Franci ’ s tears shed in unison with Animal indicate the authenticity of her humble empathy . By sharing his pain , she lightens his burden . This contrasts the insatiable sympathy of the Western journalist .
The Joys of Motherhood and Animal ’ s People both feature very different forms of violence , but both depict fleeting snatches of joy as a mode of resistance . Whilst Animal ’ s resistance is much more provocative than Nnu Ego ’ s both struggle against power structures that attempt to control and dehumanise them in order to reach towards agency .
" Kaya ' s essay is one of the most outstanding undergraduate essays I ' ve had the pleasure of reading in my career . It is wonderfully sensitive , original and provides thoughtful argumentation about joy in the midst of violence . It represents excellent scholarship throughout and really incisive engagement with postcolonial theory ." - Dr Lucienne Loh
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Billig , Michael , ‘ Freud and the Language of Humour ’ in The Psychologist , Vol . 15 ( 2002 ), pp . 452 – 455 .
Emecheta , Buchi , The Joys of Motherhood , 2nd edn ( Pearson Education Limited , 2008 ) .
Democracy Now ! Arundhati Roy on Returning to Fiction , Redefining Happiness and Writing About Worlds Ripped Apart , online recording , YouTube , 20th June , 2017 <
https :// youtu . be / Li-nTvbVpBc > [ accessed 5 December 2021 ].
Holoch , Adele , ‘ Profanity and the Grotesque in Indra Sinha ' s Animal ' s People ,’ Interventions , Vol 18 ( 2106 ) pp . 127-142 .
Lorde , Audre , ‘ Uses of the Erotic : the Erotic as Power ’ in Your Silence Will Not Protect You , 1st ed , ( UK : Silver Press , 2017 ), pp . 22-30 .
Nixon , Rob , ‘ Introduction ’ in Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor , 1st edn ( Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press , 2013 ) pp . 1- 44 ( p . 2 ).
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