Scrolling the pages of 'If She were Alive'

 By Caroline Uliwa

Photo courtsey of Lubacha Deus

You don’t appreciate the importance of representation until its implementation soothes your psyche. I am referring to witnessing characters in works of art from various parts of the world, not only from those in affluent societies. If She were Alive is a young adult novel by Lubacha Deus, going through it was endearing in the way it painted scenes of villages in Tanzania.

In this novel Lubacha has a good command of plot and conflict, as from the onset our main character Wema. A 12 year old Sukuma girl from a village in Mwanza, pulls your heart strings to keep on turning the pages quickly so you learn of her fate.

“I have no money mama. I didn’t intend to do this. Naomba nisamahe! Please forgive me.” “Forgive you? Will you buy them back?”…Wema was now crying. “You see? You can’t buy them back and you want me to forgive you? And why did you tell your father that I took the money? Today you’re not going to eat, I swear. Go and bring a cane. Now!” excerpt from If She were Alive by Lubacha Deus.

Wema goes through a lot for a girl her age beginning with the loss of her mother. Which leaves her at the hands of her step mother (the father had two wives) she is the one Wema is having a dialogue with above after Wema accidentally breaks some dishes.

Lubacha just about succeeds in ensuring this book isn’t a complete sob story by placing a careful balance. Between the conflicts which include heavy canning, jail time, homelessness, poverty with candid depictions of everyday life in the village. This is also supported by the way the description of the burdens facing the characters is done swiftly not dragged out for days.

“She went to sit under the nearby big tree nicknamed Gamboshi because it was equated to witches’ headquarters according to Sukuma tribal stories. This tree was unusually green throughout the year and its branches spread downward like the flying eagle.” From the novel If She were Alive.

This book makes for a good read particularly for those aged between 12 & 17 yrs, I finished it within a day. My only qualm with it is how its theme based on the importance of girl’s education and the perils of poverty. Was hammered a little too thick for a fiction read, take the ending for an example. This novel has one of those ambiguous endings but sadly instead of it passing as artistic license. It reeks of advocacy and so somewhere you’re quickly reminded this is a tale, instead of being truly immersed in the world of Wema at Kolomije village.

If She were Alive was sponsored by the CODE Burt Award for African Young Adult LIterature published in 2019 by Mkuki na Nyota. It’s available at TPH bookstores in Tanzania as well on order from these websites Mkuki na Nyota, Amazon  and the African Book Collective .

n.b. this article was first published in The East African newspaper on the 26th of March-1st April 2022 edition