Read Online Praise Song For The Butterflies Written By Bernice L. McFadden Paperback

of the things I enjoy most about following the sitelinkWomens Prize for Fiction each year is that it always brings to my attention a number of books I might not have come across otherwise and almost certainly wouldnt have read.
Bernice L. McFadden is an American writer who has published several well regarded novels and a number of romance novels under the name Geneva Holliday, but she hasnt been widely reviewed in the UK and this is the first of her novels that Ive read.
“Praise Song for the Butterflies” is the story of Abeo Kata who is raised in the fictional West African location of Port Masi, Ukemby.
She lives in a comfortable middle class home with her doting parents Wasik who works for the treasury department and Ismae who is a former model.
Her conservative old grandmother comes to live with them and shortly after this her father Wasik is falsely accused of embezzling money from the government and allegations of political corruption.
With the grandmothers encouragement Wasik comes to believe hes been cursed and the only way to alleviate this condition is to “sacrifice” his seven year old daughter by leaving her at a rural Temple where shes subjected to the most brutal treatment and forced into slave labour under the guise of spiritual servitude.
The novel follows Abeos harrowing journey from being cast aside to a point where she can determine her own future.
Its a captivating, skilfully written tale which touches upon a number of pertinent and meaningful issues,

Read my full sitelinkreview of Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L, McFadden on LonesomeReader Moving, engrossing and horrifying, Well worth the read. The novel is about a little girl, Abeo Kata, who is uprooted from a nice suburban life in West Africa and essentially sold into slavery by her stepfather.
How this transpired in the novel seemed a bit contrived but I didnt see that as a major flaw in the novel.
The practice is “trokosi” which is described below it is from Wikipedia and there is a great deal more information at that site for the interested reader sitelink conservapedia. com/Trokosi. The novel is about Abeos life before, during, and after trokosi, This book seemed like a YAstyle bookits just the impression I got from reading it, The chapters were short, aboutpages, It was a quick read,

“Trokosi Ewe spelling troxovi, also called ritual servitude is a form of sexual slavery involving mainly women and girls.
It is based on cultural traditions of West Africa involving the requirement of a young virgin girl in consideration of the services of the priests in certain shrines of African Traditional Religion, particularly in areas of Ghana, Togo and Benin The word trokosi comes from the tribal Ewe language of Ghana and Togo, and means "wives of the gods".
The girls are considered to be wives of the idol god who is venerated and served at the shrine.
In practical terms they are concubines and slaves of the priests of those shrines, They must obey his command under pain of severe punishment if they refuse, they work his fields, produce items for sale by the shrine, and serve him sexually.
In turn they receive no compensation, no affection, and no human interaction, The term "trokosi" refers both to the practice or institution and to the slaves themselves, ”

I was trying to find out how prevalent the horrific practice is, Its been officially outlawed in Ghana sincebut apparently it is still going on today, I got this from a BBC website that was dated Junesitelink bbc. com/news/worldafrica : Although the practice has officially been banned in Ghana, it's still happening there and in other parts of West Africa on a small scale.


Here are two reviews:
sitelink org/article/a
sitelink nyjournalofbooks. com/book
Let me be completely honest, I went into this book completely blind, I had no idea what it was about, Once I discovered the subject matter, I went directly to google, I was completely unaware and this book forced me to educate myself on a topic that I was not familiar with, Trokosi.
The setting is a fictional West African country and we meet Abeo Kata, ayearold girl who is ripped from her privileged lifestyle when her father forces her to become a slave in a religious sect.


This was a haunting and heartbreaking read for me, The story stayed with me weeks after I finished the book,
But herein lies the beauty of Ms, McFaddens writing. She makes me feel, think and believe, I feel the emotion exuding from her stories and characters, I believe in the authenticity of her characters and boy do I THINK! In typical fashion, she always leaves me wanting more.

But what about
What happened to
How did
Ok, there has to be a sequel

Ms.
McFadden never quite wraps up a story with a big red perfectly tied bow, She leaves the reader the power to think and explore within their own realm, Gosh I love her writing!
Ive said this before and Ill say it again, if you havent read any of her books youre missing out on something magical!

Just when I think her writing cant get any better, it does! Interested in the inspiration for writing a novel, this one intrigued me Bernice McFadden visited Ghana inand while she was there met two women who told her about a rehabilitation centre and a tradition referred to as trokosi, which they explained and suggested she write a book about, an idea she initially laughed at, but after researching the practice, a story began to emerge that she eventually pursued.


The novel is set in a fictional nation of Ukemby avoiding comparison with the geography and customs of a specific African country, the first two pages provide a brief history of this fictional land, with its recent colonialist history, new schools, a period of outlawing African God worship or speaking local languages and their subsequent independence, freeing people to openly practice older customs and traditions.


Shrine slavery was one of the traditions that ascended from the darkness back into the light.


A slimpage chapter entitled AFTER New York City, sets the reader on edge wondering what happened to lead to that collision of events, as the first provocative sentence opens with:

On the morning of the day she killed him, the sun sat high and white in a sky washed clean of clouds by an earlymorning downpour.

From there we move into BEFORE, Port Masi, Ukemby, The novel gripped me from its opening pages and made me not want to do anything but stay with young Abeo as if to hasten her escape from the wretched situation superstition put her in.


We know from the blurb that she is going to be sacrificed by her father, under pressure from his mother, to atone for a curse believed to have been passed down from their ancestors.
Until that moment, it seems impossible, given the early success and education of her parents, I read those initial pages, wondering what it could be that changed the good fortune of this happy family.


When Aunt Serafine comes to visit from New York, the family take a trip across the border to Ghana, and visit the slave castle.
After debating whether or not it is appropriate to take young Abeo, her mother relents and she joins them.
A sense of foreboding lurks as they descend into the dark interior of the castle, her imagination running rife.

What struck fear into her young heart was the history that lay beyond the wooden panels and brass hardware.
Morris had revived history and little Abeo was finding it hard to distinguish between the now and what had been.
Morris reached for the door handle and Abeos breath caught in her throat, She ordered her eyes to close, but they refused, and so she braced herself for the vision of the ship bobbing on the ocean, its deck teeming with shackled cargo.

Its when things go wrong, when the familys luck changes and the son comes under the undue influence of his mother I recall this similarly in Ayobami Adebayos excellent Stay With Me that relationships get tested, families risk disintegrating and wives become disempowered.


When Abeos family falls on hard times, her father, in his desperation begins to doubt himself and the system that should bring justice.
Instead he is lead to follow the old ways, thinking it will bring him peace of mind, In an impulsive moment, seized by and giving in to terror, he does the unthinkable, delivering his daughter to a religious shrine.

It wasAbeo was nine years, seven months and three days old,

I worried the story was going to depict brutality, especially after recently reading sitelinkHouse of Stone, where Novuyo Rosa Tshuma exposes the reader to the graphic horror of Gukurahundi, in newly independent Zimbabwe, however I was relieved to discover that McFadden spares us the terror if not the cruelty, we imagine what happened, though thankfully theres no visceral portrayal.
One reader asked why she chose to spare readers this, suggesting her method was more like leading a reader by the hand to the truth rather than holding them by the head to something too awful to take in.

In my earlier works I was much more graphic with my descriptions of horrific events, I think pulling back from that had much to do with me seeing so much violence against Black people on the news and social media platforms.
Subjecting my character, myself or the reader didnt seem to serve anyone involved,

Interested in the title, I looked up Praise Song and learned it is one of the most widely used poetic forms in African literature described as a series of laudatory epithets applied to gods, men, animals, plants, and towns that capture the essence of the object being praised.


It becomes a form of metaphor, the butterfly a symbol of transformation and rebirth in the novel Duma, the oldest of the priests sons rips a newspaper to shreds, intending to ignore what has been read inside it, the pieces are picked up by a gust of wind, catching the girls eyes, seen as butterflies.
Though an illusion, it signifies a turning point, a sign of hope, of liberation, they are experiencing life in one form and soon will transform.

Duma folded the newspaper and looked directly into his fathers milky eyes, “It means the government has outlawed what we do here, It means no more trokosi,

Abeo glanced up and for one fleeting moment her spirit soared, Indeed, at that distance, the bits of newspaper did appear to be a cluster

of white butterflies, Abeo watched until the air went still and the false butterflies dropped out of sight,

It wasand Abeo was twentytwo years old, eight months and seventeen days old,

The characters are well depicted, the surroundings set the readers imagination alight, were taken on a journey, introduced to a terrifying ritual that morphs into another form of traditional domination, however there are shining lights, hope has been gifted a role to play and Abeo has been permitted to interact with it.


I loved the natural, gifted storytelling of this novel, the historical exploration and psychological insight and in particular that she was able to create a scenario that showed us what a healing transformation might look like in the form of resilience.

This is a story of survival and triumph, I want people to understand that their circumstances dont always, and shouldnt always, define their entire lives,

.