“Reading Frenzy” - Part I
Besides reading LOVING WHAT IS this
Christmas, I’ve been catching up on a lot of other reading in my days
off. Books have a kind of magic for me: I walk into a bookstore and
wonder what book I will find that day that will change my life. (I
wonder: Does that happen for other people too?)
For
the holidays, I picked up a novel just before I went away on vacation
about the attempted seccession of the state of Biafra from Nigeria in
1967 and the civil war that ensued, called HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I grew up aware of the struggling nation and the horrible starvation,
as Biafra was always on the news. As a young teenager we collected
money for the cause by going door to door and hosting bakesales. It was
a big part of my childhood and a time where we really believed we could
change the world. Even though back then I’d always been aware of the
troubled state of Biafra, I had forgotten much about it. This strangely
beautiful book opened my eyes again to this baffling tragedy. Not only
was the new country being starved out of existance, but rape was a
constant use of warfare on both sides of this religious civil war. The
book made me ask again why men see women, not only as objects of sex,
but as objects of violence? Are we just property to be damaged as pawns
in the games between men? I began to ponder the tragic role women and
sex often play in times of violence. As naive as I feel saying this, it
is something I want to think more about, and join forces with others
around the world to find a way to stop. (If anyone out there know more
about this subject of rape as a tool of warfare or feels there is any
group in the world that is having a sucessful effect against this,
please write in and share your knowledge.)
