Great African Reads discussion

SPOILERs
This thread is for discussions of our Mar/Apr 2020 read of The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell - Notice that there may be SPOILERS (Find the no-spoiler thread here)
- Feel free to discuss anything you like about the book here: Here's a few questions to get you started:
How did you like the characters? The plot? The style? The portrayal of characters and their surroundings?

I'm not quite finished, currently at 80% through, but will post some impressions.
Characters: Really the greatest strength of this novel I think, very vivid and interesting characters, and lots of them- be sure to refer to the family tree on the page facing the Contents page. Most of the main characters are women, but there are a few strong male characters as well,, esp Lionel/Lee, Joseph and Jacob (I wished those 2 names were less alike, as they are contemporaries who interact a lot).
Plot: There are many subplots, and of course some are more interesting than others. The sections discussing the youth/young adulthood of Agnes, Matha, and Sibilla were particularly good stories I thought.
I think the interaction between western culture (and tech) with African more-traditional culture was excellent, with characters who go to Britain and return or sometimes not. How about the couple from Italy who find after becoming expats in Africa that they need to learn English?

I have finished yesterday. It is fairly long, so some tenacity helps.
I rated it four stars. About half to 2/3 of the way through I was thinking maybe five stars, but I thought the ending was not great.

The story, in many parts, evokes a sense of being in Zambia extremely well I thought.
There are a great many characters, I thought perhaps a few too many; by the last part of the book it was difficult to remember the parents and grandparents of the younger characters.
I did like the scifi elements towards the end with the "beads" and "Moskitoze". Maybe using the moskitoze to do the crowd vaccinations was going a little overboard? It also has a little magical realism in the beginning with Sibilla, the woman whose hair grew all over her body very rapidly.

I think Serpell is a very creative and lucid writer and I hope she writes another novel as good (or better).
There are some good reviews/ comments by members of this group who've read it previously here https://www.goodreads.com/group/show_...

I finished the book yesterday and did enjoy reading it. Parts of it are truly wonderful, but to me they remain too fragmented: the book is meandering a bit too much between protagonists and generations.

As George, I did like the magic realism in the first parts and the sci-fi ending with 'beads' and micro-drones turning into mosquitoes. The middle part was a bit too long I think: it was an effort to get through it.

The book did a good job at describing my country ( Zambia ). Some parts of the book were stories I've heard of as a child! That was extremely interesting for me! When the book talked about Lenshina and Nkoloso I just smiled!

Some characters were quite boring though! For example Sabilla's story for the most part was not interesting. But other characters I could relate with, I loved Agness and Matha! They both seem like the typical 21st century girl. Naila seems like the typical 21st century idealist! I think I didn't like her as much because I don't think she really knew what she was rebelling against!.

The story had interesting themes! Pan africanism is what I picked up on the most! I liked how different people in different generations and of different races showed their pan africanism! Sabilla stood with the Tongas, Agness tried to fight on the side of the lecturers at UNZA, Matha and them fought for Zambia's independence, Joseph, Jacob and Naila with their SOTP!


Simply put, it was a good book!

Thank you for your comments Chikumbi. Glad to hear that The Old Drift describes Zambia very well.
I agree with you that Sabilla's story was a bit too long. And yes, pan-africanism and the peoples' struggle indeed are a central theme to the book. I think that was what I liked most about the story lines.

I finally finished it today - it's a bit of a tome, but I enjoyed it overall. It's quite a challenge to keep track of all the characters and I found the genealogical chart in the front of the book very useful.

My full review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It's really interesting how she blended historical fact and fiction. I only realised afterwards how closely the story about the Zambian space programme sticks to reality with Matha based on an actual person. Her article on it is here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...

Great, happy you enjoyed it. And thanks for sharing this article. I had no idea Nkoloso and the space program were really part of Zambia's history!

PS, Carolien, here is the correct link to your review.

Thanks Wim, for picking the link up. I fixed it, I hope.

I found it fascinating to read some of the interviews.

Her 2015 short story that won the Caine Prize is actually an epilogue to this one - it tells the story of Joseph and Jacob in their old age. Link here (I hope) https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...

Thought some of you may be interested in this expansive interview:
https://longreads.com/2019/03/28/namw...

Thank you for sharing this Carolien! Fascinating.

Carolien wrote: "Thought some of you may be interested in this expansive interview:
https://longreads.com/2019/03/28/namw..."

Thanks for sharing! Longreads was unknown to me and The Old Drift is still on my audio-reads tbr shelf!

Carolien wrote: "Her 2015 short story that won the Caine Prize is actually an epilogue to this one - it tells the story of Joseph and Jacob in their old age."

I reread this short story yesterday, having read it a first time before reading The Old Drift. It really is some kind of epilogue and gets an extra dimension when linked to her novel.

Orgeluse wrote: "Carolien wrote: "Thought some of you may be interested in this expansive interview:
https://longreads.com/2019/03/28/namw..."

..."

The weekly Longreads newsletter is one of my favorites as it often contains very interesting pieces that I would never notice otherwise.