The protagonist, symbolism and contemporary issues
Whispers from Vera is a contemporary African novel, set in an African city, Kampala. It is a story told in the first-person narrative, making Vera, the sole teller of the events surrounding her life and that of her friends. The choice of the first-person narrative fits the narrative. The themes in the novel include: love, life struggles, competing interests in family life and feminine advocacy – to be heard, understood and appreciated. The word whisper, which appears in the title, is symbolic. It is no ordinary shush, as you may have assumed. The book is about a wide range of loud, believable, hot, and relatable topics. Whispers from Vera is a classic novel about the African urban young women; it’s a craft of the joys, fears, dreams, wants, challenges and navigations of women transitioning in an African Society.
Humor or gloom?
The events in the story are emotive, gloomy, even dark at some point, but with an array of light hearted gossip and rib-tickling scenarios. These are made more alive by the use of vernacular – what we call the market language, lugha suk in South Sudan. Vera is able to make light of sensitive issues, like sexual assault.
Vera borrows expressions from the local dialect to praise Eric’s physique. She says, “as for his looks, banange! What can I say?”
Bravado, confidence or fear?
From the onset, Vera owns who she is, almost like a proud achiever, boasting about herself. She opens up to her readers, saying her name, revealing information about herself. Vera tells us that she is nearly thirty years old, is working class, and is in love with her prince charming, Eric. As we journey through the book, we are largely convinced that Eric is a gentleman. With his calm demeanor, Eric constantly portrays an image of a responsible man. He cuts a contrasting partner to the hot headed, inquisitive, sensitive Vera. Throughout their journey of love, these lovers complement each other. I appreciate the way Vera is bold, self-conscious, owning herself and her existence from the start of the novel.
Narrative Style
I was intrigued by Goretti’s writing style. The author uses simple English, mixed with vernacular, short sentences and brief, but loaded chapters. The choice of the book cover depicts a woman in her peak – a woman who has put serious thoughts on her looks – about her outer self-appearance, mental strength and exuding plain beauty. Goretti’s art of storytelling appears natural. As you read the story, you find yourself relating to events as they unfold, you feel you are part of the story, all your senses activated. Whispers from Vera is every chapter of being a girl child and a woman that wants to live beyond the standard bars in the African societies and traditional settings.
What is inspires me in Whisper from Vera?
As a young woman growing up in an environment where every step of your life is questioned, where years are measured along the lines of manners, relationships, marriage, commitment to family, career, wealth, etc and where feedback is often gossip, the author crafts my voice and the journey I would love to walk as a career woman. Like Vera, I’m a focused, ambitious and a determined career woman. I have also fallen in love with the man of my dreams. And again, like Vera, “I am rediscovering myself.”
Growing up as an introvert, I oppressed the woman inside me. Reading Whispers from Vera has encouraged me to embrace the wildest of my thoughts and to own myself. I now remain determined: for every text I write to my bosom friend, Achan about embracing my being, making mistakes, walking into trouble consciously, crying over it with her, my trials with relationships that hurt me, I never give up on the thought of having My Guy at some point. At 26, I am learning to enjoy the pleasures and power of my being. I don’t feel helpless or scared anymore. I am flowing like the Nile embracing all the good and the bad.
Whispers from Vera has become my mirror, my inspiration and the confirmation that I must live, thrive and carve for myself a world where I will have to create a meaningful space for myself, my family and my spouse. I think I need an Eric in my life. As a woman who loves adventure and the wild, I don’t want a perfect man. Vera echoes my thoughts when she says, “I knew Eric would manage all right… I wanted to say how truly proud I was of Eric. He had held the home together in my absence. He was a wonderful dad and husband and I loved him so much.” I just want mine who will understand and communicate even the worst that we can navigate through. Vera shows the importance of communication in marriage, and the urge to keep the fire in her marriage burning, for instance she says, “I don’t want to have unresolved issues piling up between us. Open communication is vital”
The inter-playing themes in the novel
The theme of sexuality is a major interest for young African women, because what one does with it defines failures, even deaths or successes. Throughout the novel, Vera lives the fantasy of a girl exploring her sexuality and feminine pleasures. Vera verbalizes her desires saying “I want to feel the force of his spear; scream in ecstasy when we finally reach the ultimate, I was resigned to settling for Mr Alright.”
Vera’s sexuality and search for a family man is purposeful and visionary. She knows what she wants and she gets it. Vera has formulated a mental image of a man she wants, she had him pictured on her mind – the dream comes to manifest when she meets Eric. Reminiscing about one Patrick, her second boyfriend. Vera says, “I thought I needed someone more experienced and mature; someone I could count on in times of trouble. A strong, well-built man.” And he (Patrick) is not that man.
I am a woman that wants the basics not right. I want more of a wild world in a calm sight of nature. Many think I am complicated, some in my circle think I should go on to find clay and create my own man because to them, a woman should be a postgraduate student with a man by her side. I want it all – a career and my guy with little pieces crafted out of us. I want a blend of all our best genes in the child’s. I just want to build a family and be a successful parent.
Whispers from Vera addresses the theme of independence: the need to be an independent woman who sets boundaries runs throughout the novel. Of course, I LOVE independence, and team work, just like Vera. I also care about my looks, especially in the workplace, which is what Marie, the CEO, emphasizes whilst giving Vera tips on how to be a female boss. I am a young woman who keeps learning the art of working hard – to learn and earn. I love to be the light, to carry the light with me. I believe as I strive to fulfill these goals, my confidence and inspirations might touch some soul to be and do better than me. I believe our purpose is to influence the best version of those around us.
On the question of setting boundaries which is usually the source of relationship break ups in our times, Vera knows how protect her boundaries, her world. She guards the wall that she has built around her world – no compromise. And Eric has to understand this boundary setting. As a career woman, Vera has built her own empire (House Project, business goals, etc). Vera firmly speaks up for herself when she feels disrespected. She involves the police when Nina makes a scene at her home. Much as the rest of the family feels she overreacted, Vera asserts her authority as a married woman. We hear her loud and clear when she says, “Nedda. I will stand my ground”
The theme of workplace politics, ambition and of being the light shows up in Whispers from Vera. Vera ruminates over her job and the sense of insecurity that comes with being the boss, being the light: “I miss my old job. It had fewer responsibilities. It has also hit me that when you’re the boss, you have no real friends at the workplace. You’re constantly balancing between being fair and empathetic; and being tough and decisive. I’m worried that I’ll not hit my performance targets”
Vera is a smart and calculative, a voice of many African Career Women. She fights for her marriage to be legalized, and struggles to maintain her autonomy as a fully married woman and mother of Eric’s children. According my own Dinka culture, the issue of a woman’s legitimacy in marriage is a huge point of concern. Being in a relationship with a man and having his child, without legality attached to it is not enough in my Dinka society. If the second woman ever appears in the picture, nothing stops the legalization of the second relationship.
That is why Vera pushes for her marriage, to be legal wife, fully married. This is for her to gain access to privileges of health insurance to deliver her child in comfort like a married woman. Society frowns upon women that get give birth to children without being legally married. This is evident in the comment that the receptionist at Paragon hospital makes when Vera admits to not being married to Eric. She asks if Vera is Eric’s Malaya which literally means a prostitute.
When Eric opposes Vera’s impending move to Dakar for a job, she questions the double standards, “What if it was him promoted to Dakar?” As career women, to what extend are we supposed to sacrifice, do we drop everything we have worked for because we are married, how do we know that this is not a man that is going to suppress us, or burry our light from shining?
Vera is encouraged by her boss to take up the chance, reminding her that she is smart and confident and you would make an excellent Senior Product Manager. Eric’s interpretation of the situation is archetypical of a patriarchal mindset. He reasons, “You mean you’re planning to move to Senegal? And abandon your family? We should be consolidating our marriage, Vera. We’ve gone through a lot this year…” Such statements raise important questions: how much freedom should our partners be allowed to continue living their life, even if they are married to us?
The theme of ethnicity in marriage comes to play in the novel. In my own society, young people are encouraged to marry from their own ethnic groups. We have examples of relationships or marriages collapsing because narrow minded families wanted men or women from their ethnic groups for their men or women. Vera is a victim of this subtle discrimination. She notes “Eric’s mother, Mrs T did not like me. she was just biased against me. Because of my ethnicity”
Goretti cleverly crafts politics into the narrative in Whispers from Vera. The theme of politics shows how most of our young men in their end of youth life struggle to enter politics, attaching themselves to older men who have access to power, struggling to stand for elections, withdrawing money from their accounts to buy votes in the village, or to win the attention of their villagers in the hope to win parliamentary elections which will pave a way for ministerial appointments.
The novel also shows how politics is capable of disorganizing marriages. For example, Samson, a business man marries Sheila, Vera’s best friend. Later on, Samson abruptly joins politics, leaving Sheila in distress and confusion. Sheila is exasperated by the ‘new’ husband that she now has. She vents to Vera, “What happened to the man I married?’ See what he’s subjecting me and the kids to! Vera, you should come to my house one evening and see for yourself. Every weekend, we’re in the village; for a burial, a wedding, a fundraising for the Church, or any other ceremony those idle villagers are wont to engage in!”
The theme of family politics in a patriarchal society is addressed in Whispers from Vera. Vera is outraged that her mother is willing to involve Vera’s uncles in her marriage ceremony. Despite abandoning Vera’s mother when she needed their help, the shameless so-called uncles jam the house when the daughter they never cared to know what she was going through all these years, has turned out useful, getting married and working fine jobs. She tries to reason with her mother, saying, “Mummy, those people have never been involved in our lives. Why do you want to bring them into the picture now?” Vera painfully remembers how her mother worried about her daughters; “she puts herself under a lot of pressure for her daughters to turn out right.” Vera appreciates her mother for the efforts of raising and loving them.
There is a display of filial affection between Vera and her sister Jacinta. This filial love between sisters plays an important role in the life of Vera. Jacinta is concerned when Vera moved in with Eric. Her concerns are legitimate. Jacinta doesn’t want her sister to relive her mistake. She berates and reasons with her sister “How can you marry yourself to a man? He will never respect you. He will treat you like a cheap piece of clothing. He did not sweat to get you. No bride prices! You just appeared, free of charge.”
I am happy to end it here by saying that Whispers from Vera ends well. I am thankful to Goretti for her wonderful work of creativity. I want more of the book. I am curious about what happens next. I can’t wait to dive in.
Where to find the book:
The book is available at Tubaze African Books, Mahiri Books and Aristoc Booklex.
About the reviewer:
Alith Cyer Mayar is a writer from South Sudan. She is the founder of Writers Writing Felllowship and she is also a co-founder of the Nobel Orb Media.
