Story 12: The Headstrong Historian

On today's story review of The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, we're looking at the final story in the collection, The Headstrong Historian.

And what a way to end a book.

The story begins with Nwamgba, a young woman who insists on marrying Obierika despite concerns about his family's history of childlessness and miscarriages. She loves him deeply, but shortly after the birth of their only son, Anikwenwa, he dies, a death she suspects was orchestrated by jealous relatives.

Fearing for her son's safety and inheritance, she sends him to the new Catholic school established by the white missionaries, and that's where things begin to change.

School gives Anikwenwa opportunities, but it also distances him from the traditions and beliefs his mother holds dear. He becomes a catechist, starts a family of his own, and raises children in a world very different from the one Nwamgba grew up in.

But for me, the heart of this story is Afamefuna.

Born into Christianity and colonial education, she could easily have accepted the version of history handed to her. Instead, she becomes curious, she asks questions. She changes her course of study from Chemistry to History because she wants to understand where she comes from.

And that's why she became my favourite character.

She didn't reject foreign ideas, she investigated them.

The more I thought about it, the more the title made sense. Afamefuna is a headstrong historian because she refuses to let other people tell her who she is or where her story begins.

This story made me think about identity and what happens when history is told by only one side. About how much can be lost when people stop asking questions, and how much can be recovered when someone finally starts.

A beautiful ending to a beautiful collection.

So tell me, is preserving your identity about holding on to the past, or about understanding it well enough to carry it into the future?

@favvy_Okwans🖤.