One Chance Dance

Efua Taroré grew up in a little town in Nigeria, enjoyed a good life, moved when an adult to Germany, and started writing stories. Her 6 year-old daughter came home from school one day saying that she had learnt that children in Africa were hungry and suffering. Appalled at the misleading information that the class was getting, she asked her daughter to remember their happy holidays in Nigeria and to tell her classmates about them. Unable to find stories for children that showed a more positive side of Africa, she began writing, won a prize for a short story, and then produced Children of the Quicksands, also positively reviewed by this reader a couple of years ago.

This book shows contrasting sides of life in Nigeria. Jomi’s Mum has gone to find work in prosperous Lagos, and Jomi has to do household chores for his Aunt to earn his keep. Any happiness comes from his friendship with his cousin Tinuke, his school, and his skill at using and fixing the things he finds on the scrap hill just outside his village. When bulldozers come to clear the village and the forest, Jomi rescues a young bushbaby, and in the chaos he finds letters from his Mother that his Aunt had hidden from him. He confronts his Aunt, and his Uncle is horrified at her treatment of his sister’s child: there is a tremendous row, and Jomi takes the bushbaby and runs away. He manages to stow away and reach Lagos, but struggles to survive, until he meets a group of street children, who are being looked after by the kindly ‘Aunty Bisi’ in rooms in her employer’s house, earning money as best they can. The children are resourceful individuals, all with different skills, though the enmity of one of them has to be resolved, but they come up with a plan to find Jomi’s mother- they will dance on Lagos Let’s Dance, his Mum’s favourite programme, as it is open to anyone to audition. Jomi is able to fix a broken radio to enable them to find music to dance to, but things don’t quite go according to plan for ‘Destiny’s Crew’.  A word he learned at school: ‘Serendipity’ proves useful:  he does find his mother, extricates her, with the aid of the bushbaby, from the home of the tyrannical Madam for whom she works, and takes the bushbaby to a Conservation Centre where she will be happier and healthier.

It’s a great story, beautifully told, and we really get involved with the characters. Jomi’s mother, Wande, has always believed in the power of destiny, but it is clear in this book that they also have to help other people, and make the best of what life offers.