Birds of a Feather

At the early stage of her marriage, Anjawo learns the craft of preparing illicit brew and supply of drugs, legally unacceptable but proves more lucrative. Viewing at life to blessings on her side and curses on others, she cushions her children against alcoholism and drug abuse but treats others otherwise. She employs her charming influence on under-age children to increase her clientele for bigger benefits. The entire village reels from the increasing number of children leaving school to join Anjawo’s club that admits young people and transforms them to wrecks. The adult population is not spared either, as women lose their husbands to her den of alcohol.
The unfolding events turn the gun to Anjawo’s side as her husband marries another woman and dumps her. Her sons develop sticky fingers that target her business and daughters engage in irresponsible sexual behaviour, bringing in unwanted children to the family. One of her sons, Roria, develops appetite for her products and gets submerged into drug and alcohol abuse as he grows to adulthood. Anjawo feels like sinking her head in sand as her home acquires a new name—‘The Home of Pregnant Girls’, the description used for giving explicit direction to any visitor looking for Anjawo’s home, a name derived from the jarring sight of two pregnant twin daughters that confront any visitor who enters the homestead.
The unbearable events worsen as Anjawo’s children are married to suitors from other tribes against her wish. She loses her daughter, Apiyo, to what is commonly believed to be punishment from a hermaphrodite who uses her superpowers to kill her after failing to win her for a romantic relationship. Just before dust settles on the death tragedy, another disaster creeps in as her last-born daughter, Atugo, falls in the trap of a hardcore criminal, the Black Gunman—Ruling Africa. The entire family reels in apprehension of anticipated assassination of their beloved daughter.
Anjawo’s behaviour blurs the distinction between a disciplinarian and the subject. Her effort to stop her children from drug and alcohol abuse is hampered by her own effort to influence other people’s children into the same. Her effort to stop her daughters from engaging in irresponsible sexual behaviour is constricted by her own narratives of her engagement at a school going age.
Birds of a Feather, a literary fiction, offers many lessons in a book: Drug and alcohol abuse, crime, stigmatisation, peer influence, responsible parenthood, culture, family lineage, good governance etc. The book is rich in tales that humorously keeps the reader turning pages.