Wake Up and Smell the Fufu - Book Review

Review by Dr. Chukwunyere Kamalu

The author of this posthumous publication, Christian Njoya Small, was one of the 52 people who lost their lives in the London bombings of 7/7. Inevitably, this gives his work certain significance. He was just 28 years of age.

Wake up and Smell the Fufu is a fascinating account of the author's travels through West Africa . Based in rural Ghana , where he worked on an IT and marketing project under the auspices of BUNAC, Njoya also took the opportunity to travel to Ivory Coast , and thereafter, Mali .

In the book one senses that in his travels he is in search of the real Africa – not the Africa for European consumption. In this he succeeds. Nor does he fail to vividly convey this to the reader. I had the feeling of travelling on this journey along with him, in which my attention was engaged throughout the 150 plus pages.

Njoya makes captivating observations of the places and the people that he comes across in his travels. His observations are both revealing and instructive: Like the one of the African centred scholar who despite living in Africa for 16 years spoke not a word of a local African language; or the description of the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan as a city which remains a neo-colonial and second class extension of France .

The reader is also given a true to life account of the pervasiveness of corruption and also of poverty; of resilience and determination to survive, but also the persistence of colonialism and Arab slavery.

Njoya is a refreshingly earnest and honest writer and recorder of his experiences. His account is not diverted by undue romanticism or sentimentality about Africa, which we might expect, but the reader also sense's an account by someone with a love of Africa and from the very rarely documented perspective of a diasporan African travelling through Africa for the first time. Furthermore, the pleasure of following Njoya's sojourn also lies in the reader quickly discovering that he is in the hands of a very capable writer. We are encouraged to stick with him and enjoy his wondrous journey relayed with an infectious style of humour throughout the book. Some passages, I must confess, caused me to guffaw out loud on public transport, to the quizzical look of fellow passengers.

We can excuse minor failings indicative of the author's continued search for learning and increased awareness. The reader should not be discouraged on finding colonial terms like “witchdoctor” and “tribe”, and the unintentionally implied notion in one instance that “being an African” equates with being basic (for instance using a bucket rather the more hygienic and environmentally friendly pit latrine found in a truly traditional Africa village). Or the equating of the role of Asian and other economic migrants with that of Europeans in exploiting African economies, in the reference made to the expulsion of Asian migrants in Uganda and European farmers in Rhodesia . Njoya is right in claiming, in passing, the Egyptian origins of Greek philosophy (pre-Socratic at least). Since Thales, the first Greek philosopher, learnt philosophy in Egypt , where he studied under Egyptian priests. Also much of the mathematical knowledge supposedly of Greek origin can be found in the Rhind mathematical Papyrus authored by Ahmes.

There is a tragic irony towards the end of Njoya's travels when he is gripped by post 9/11 paranoia and feels almost impelled to disembark from a plane back to Ghana because 3 middle-eastern men are on board. Three years later, he would become the victim of a terrorist attack; but this time boarding a London train with a suicide bomber who, like himself, is of Jamaican background (albeit, unlike Njoya, a Jamaican mentally colonised and enslaved by an aberrant form of an Arab religion).

Njoya's adventures and exemplary character in this book represent an enduring, inspiring example and role model for African and African-Caribbean youth in Britain and beyond; as well, as a rare insight into Africa and African peoples both influenced and “unadulterated”. I highly recommend every young African person (of continental or diasporan descent) to read it. The book also serves as a good guide for those about to embark on exploratory travels through these regions or who simply wish to have an insight into West African life from an African Diaspora pers.

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