Nigerian boy’s tale in America wins this year’s Caine Prize

By JENIFFER MUCHIRI

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin has won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing with his short story Miracle, which came top from the shortlist of Elnathan John’s Bayan Layi, Pede Hollist’s Foreign Aid, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s The Whispering Trees, and Chinelo Okparanta’s America. Apart from Pede Hollist, from Sierra Leone, the rest are Nigerians. 

Set in Texas, USA, Miracle is the story of a young boy from Nigeria whose family has migrated to America in search of a better life. Indeed, they are grateful for the miracle of living in poverty in America, an opportunity their relatives in Nigeria would gladly give their lives for.

The boy narrates his experience in an all-Nigerian church in Texas where Nigerians meet to seek the help of an old blind prophet from Nigeria who is believed to perform miracles of all kinds. However, although the story is about Nigerians, their experiences can be read as the experiences of Africans who move from their home countries in search of better lives in the West.

Prayer in the story

The story begins with a prayer, which the pastor offers at the beginning of the service. The content of the prayer is a clear indication of these Nigerians’ needs while in America. The pastor’s words are a reflection of the thoughts of the congregation where each and every one of them needs to succeed in this foreign land because there are many people back home who depend on them. This is Folarin’s way of capturing the situation Africans in America and other developed countries find themselves in as they not only have to provide for themselves but for relatives in Africa as well.

As the narrator aptly puts it, these people have a great burden on their shoulders and therefore, failure is not an option. The pastor’s prayers, which the young narrator describes as insistent and sincere and which the pastor offers while sweating and shaking communicate to the worshippers a sense of prophesy. They need prophesies of hope and religion offers just that.  For the congregation to believe in the ‘power’ of the pastor’s prayers the prayers need to be fervent and this explains the shaking and sweating.

According to the narrator, the old blind prophet performs miracles that were previously only possible ‘in the pages of their Bibles.’ In other words, for these African immigrants, their American dream is just beginning to unfold because miracles happen in America just like in the Bible – something that would never happen back home in Africa! Clearly, being in America is only a few steps away from being with God. They therefore have every reason to believe in the prophet and more so have hope that they will surely realise the dream that brought them to America. In the presence of the famous prophet, it is no longer an issue of if but when their dreams would come true.

Why do these Nigerians congregate in large numbers to listen to the prophet? Well, they have seen him ‘command the infirm to be well, the crippled to walk, and the poor to become wealthy.’ How can they not believe in him? How can they not have hope that they too can, and will, receive their miracles?

After all, they have his books, tapes, anointing oil, and holy water. Anyone who has watched ‘televangelists’ will identify with the issue of ‘anointing oil’ and ‘holy water’ which the men and women of God often ask their followers to purchase (giving to the work of the Lord) to aid in the processing and delivery of their miracles.

Processing of miracles

In Kenya, the processing of miracles has become swifter with the introduction of M-Pesa lines, which miracle-seekers can use to sow a seed and later reap the benefits. The weight of one’s miracle, of course, is commensurate with the size of the seed sown.

The prophet in the story definitely knows the kind of miracles that the Nigerians in America need – jobs, good grades, green cards, new kidneys, new lungs, new limbs and new hearts. These displaced Africans are also in a cultural and identity crisis that they need resolved – they need their parents to understand that they are American and their children to understand that they (the children) are Nigerian.

 For the Nigerians back home, their relatives in America are no longer the old selves – they have acquired a new identity primarily because they now live in a different world. The Nigerian children in America, however, need to learn to appreciate and uphold their African heritage because it is important for one to be proud of their roots! This conflict of identity mirrors the condition of many Africans in America who are at crossroads trying to determine which character to embrace or express in different circumstances.  These people do need miracles.

The mention of various body parts that the worshippers need is symbolic of the fact that they have to have a complete overhaul of their lives for them to fit in the American society.

The congregation is so immersed in their belief in the power of the prophet that they see the irony of his blindness as part of God’s will and a confirmation of the man’s power. According to them, the blindness is the burden he bears on their behalf and the physical darkness he endures is necessary for the sharpening of his spiritual vision.

The blind prophet is really symbolic of the blindness of religious leaders who know not the way they purport to lead their followers along. This prophet, with all his powers, cannot grant himself the miracle of sight. How can he grant his followers the miracles they so need?

All these preachers who bombard us daily with the gospel of prosperity – how come they are not prosperous? The ‘discordant melody’ that the prophet hums is metaphorical of the discordance that characterizes his life – perhaps more than those of the miracle seekers he tries to comfort.

Folarin satirises the ridiculous hope that people put in religion and religious leaders. The prophet has only been in America for two months and the Nigerians in his flock believe that he understands their needs so well that he will deliver their miracle. They cannot see through the deception of this prophet who is on a tour of the states of America claiming to pray for the needs of Nigerians across all America. He goes to the extent of telling them that his spirit feels that ‘the most powerful blessings will happen here.’

This must be what he tells every congregation he meets! He has to justify his presence and therefore, the seed that the people have to sow to get their miracles. There is a condition to the miracles though – they can only be received by those who believe. In his words, ‘belief comes before dollars.’

Learning the hard way

The narrator learns the hard way that preachers/prophets have to be aided to perform their miracles. When he walks to the prophet to receive his miracle of clear vision, he realises that he has to pretend to fall due to the power of the Holy Spirit and remain on the floor until the prophet commands him to rise.

Never mind that the prophet has to press his temples really hard and force him to the ground with the aid of his assistants.

In addition, he has to lie about his restored vision for all to hear and believe in the power of prayers, especially those offered by the prophet. He gets to shed his nerdy glasses for a night but by the following morning he knows that ‘a community is made up of truths and lies and both must be cultivated for the community to survive.’ That is why he fakes his miracle – to give hope to the less fortunate.

Folarin’s story is a commentary of the vanity of human beings and a condemnation of ‘miracle-seekers’ whose belief in the American Dream is stupefying and religious leaders who take advantage of desperate situations. Tope Folarin is a Nigerian writer in the Diaspora. Last year, the winner was also a Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde with the story Bombay’s Republic.

This week, the US-based Folarin  was announced the winner by Chair of judges Gus Casely-Hayford at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK. 

“Folarin’s ‘Miracle’ is another superb Caine Prize winner – a delightful and beautifully paced narrative, that is exquisitely observed and utterly compelling,” Casely-Hayford says.

Dr Muchiri teaches literature at the University of Nairobi.

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