Book: Butterflies of the Nile
Author: Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
Publisher: Cook Communications
Reviewed by Joshua Masinde
SHE writes poetry, short stories and plays. She is distinctly feminine, describing the African woman's beauty with a passion. Such is her description, "In the beginning, God populated the earth with black women and he made them a rich embellishing combination of all colours and shades. They were beautiful rainbow complexions of coffee, cocoa, ebony, chocolate…” she writes on and on, "and the Devil came along and created skin lighteners…"
Butterflies of the Nile by Jane Musoke-Nteyafas, is drawn from a poem by the same title. The poem is an artistic praise of African beauty. To all African women, I dedicate the poem.
Despite the beauty the African women are endowed with, it is strange but uncommon how the natives of Africa, especially the men who live in exotic lands, have alienated many things African and embellish themselves in exotic tastes. Muhwezi, in Prom Night, passes for one of such alienated blokes. He is a Ugandan born, Canadian bred chap who does not appreciate his Ugandan born Canadian girlfriend Aisha. Despite her breathtaking beauty, which is a wish for many men, Muhwezi does not appreciate such African beauty.
Aisha is authentically beautiful. She however, puts on make-up and uses lots of beauty enhancing elements to appease Muhwezi. The chap does not still appreciate. In his drunken stupor, he abuses her instead.
She writes of deep love and affection in Nakimera's Love. Nakimera and Rwomushana, both from Uganda but live abroad, meet in an online chatting site. Though, they live continent apart, they fall deep in love such that Nakimera does not object to his suggestion of going to England to stay with him. Nakimera's Love is a tender love story of the African love, which brings together Nakimera and Rwomushana. Through Nakimera, Rwomushana appreciates how beautiful women from his home country are.
Modernity has brought with it myriad make-ups, which most women use to appear 'beautiful'. The Face presents such a scenario. Katrice an African woman, though beautiful in her natural way, uses a lot of make up to fake artificial beauty, which unfortunately, she cannot attain. She had the body and features, which though she disliked, presented her as more beautiful than one would ever think. After adorning the make-ups, she appears quite ugly and is abandoned by her boyfriend.
However, her second boyfriend dissuades her, just like her mother did sometime back, to stop using make-ups as they exaggerate her looks and make her appear ugly. Once, when she decides to rid herself of all make-ups, her authentic African beauty stuns her boyfriend. He vows to keep by her side forever.
Jane Musoke-Nteyefas is potently feministic, championing the rights and place of women in the modern society. In her simplicity, she writes strongly and passionately of the beauty of African women, love and relationships. The themes run through the plays, poems and short stories, with a touch of biblical allusion, thrown in some stories. She writes to heal he distorted stereotypes and misconceptions attached to African beauty. It is powerfully written, passionately moving, truly sensitive and ecstatically moving.