On The Rug : On Black Sisters’ Street

This is one of the most heart wrenching books I have ever read, and to be honest it’s because I feel myself to some extent mirrored in it.

It’s a story about girls who leave Nigeria for the promise of a better life for them and their families abroad.

It’s a story we all can identify with somehow- in some way most of us have left something familiar and comfortable for something  unknown in the hope of finding better.

The girls in this book leave for the Netherlands, under the ‘care’ of a rich ‘benefactor’ who promises they will have work and in no time return to Nigeria with enough money to buy many cars and build many houses. He turns out to be a pimp, who makes his wealth off a commission these girls pay him when they work. They’re basically enslaved to a madam who seizes their passports until they can pay her a pre determined amount of money.

I don’t want to let out any spoilers but one if them dies and it forces the others to find some sense of comraderie. They share their stories and realize how much they have in common even in their differences, the main cord joining them being their disillusionment with ‘abroad’ and every connotation of success the word had for them when they were home.

It’s a story not told enough I think, that leaving is difficult, and being away doesn’t automatically make your life better. There are days during the school year or just being away from my mother when I have really questioned if it was worth it at all. I am very grateful for the life I have now and I know it’s worth it especially because I’m here for school, but ‘abrokyire’ isn’t always the answer to everything. Again, life is what you make it.

The book also treats the idea of the hyper sexual black female, and the exoticization (I think I made that word up) of black women.

However, that’s a topic I want to really get into in a later post I’m planning, so fingers crossed for that.

But, I just really wanted to suggest this book as a summer read for you all.

It’s a really good read and really gets you thinking about life in general as well.
Also, I’m thinking about doing a video to talk about what you should know being an international student in an American college….just what I learned over the year, what to buy, so let me know in the comments if you’d like that. I know there are some people who will be leaving home for uni in August; and just for first year in general even if you’re not doing the whole leaving thing.

Peace,love, and funk,

Amoafoa.