Ethrayum Priyappettavalkku - Oru Feminist Manifesto
Malayalam translation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2017 book,
“Dear Ijeawele, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”.
Translated from English by Dr. Divya S. Iyer IAS
Category - Book Review/Entertainment
This text was written on the 10th of March 2020
Readers from Nigeria - please start from the 6th paragraph
I happened to attend a book release ceremony on the nudiustertian evening at Mascot Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram. The function was presided by Mr. T.P. Srinivasan IFS (Retd.). The book that was released was the one I mentioned above. Mrs. R. Sreelekha IPS (Retd.) presented the first copy to Mr. Benny Daniel (aka, Benyamin), the ace Malayalam writer.
I reached the venue just after the start and sat quietly listening to the speeches by the eminent personalities and to the reply by Dr. Divya.
For someone who has listened to only boring, repetitive medical CMEs and lectures and taradiddle for sixteen long years, this event was a magnificent throwback to my pre-medical childhood. I was a better reader of literature during my school days in Christ Nagar English High School, Thiruvananthapuram. The School had a decent library where I spent time. Moreover, I used to read everything that my mother brought me from the AG’s Office Library – mostly mythological stuff and analyses of the Mahabharata. My extensive reading plummeted after I joined the MBBS course in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College in 1998. It was only after many years of confusions and stress that I could revive lost (good) habits.
The humility and simplicity of the people who attended the function were worth noting - despite most of them being celebrities of a high profile.
I felt honoured that I could meet Mr. Benyamin for the first time in person, after the many interactions over phone since October last year. We clicked a picture as well.
As I started reading the Feminist Manifesto, I noticed that the concept was quite interesting - someone asking the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, on how to bring up her newborn female child as a feminist and the author suggesting fifteen guidelines which she sent across as a letter. In her words, “this book is a version of that letter with some details changed”.
I chose to read the original book before I read the translation. Hence, I called for one, from Amazon India. The original book was so cute and crisp in its contents that the entire content of the book ran just 66 pages.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the ulotrichous beauty, born in 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria, is a Nigerian-American writer and an active feminist. She has spoken a lot about the feminist principles that she follows and how she came to believe them. Her speeches are trending on YouTube and are a joy to watch. She has many a time illustrated how a “single story” would lead to unidirectional prejudiced reasoning. She is a winner of the McArthur Fellowship in 2008.
The book starts off by describing cute Chizalum Adaora who was just a week old then. The entire book is worded as Adichie speaking to her friend, the mother of the baby on how to raise her child, a feminist. From the very next chapter, the book shifts to real business where Adichie gives fifteen suggestions to her friend, Chazalum’s mom.
In short, those suggestions were focused on: -
1. Working simultaneously and not just be a mother to Chazalum.
2. Bringing up the child together with her husband and sharing responsibilities.
3. The importance of ignoring gender roles.
4. To be cautious of the theory of Feminism Lite.
5. The importance of cultivating the habit of reading in the growing up child.
6. The importance of questioning the language.
7. The insignificance of marriage as an achievement.
8. The importance of evading likeability in everything said or done.
9. Giving the little girl a sense of identity
10. Encouraging and promoting her appearance.
11. The importance of selective use of biology to rationalize societal norms.
12. The importance of timely sex-education.
13. Dealing with the romantic life the girl might have later in life.
14. Tackling oppression.
15. Tackling the differences that one sees around.
I was fascinated by how Adichie compiled everyday sayings, conversations and discussions around each one of us into a purposeful written text that is just a little more in length than a thesis work. Moreover I was also surprised on how the book written on a Nigerian cultural perspective relates so well to us in India.
Her intuitions, her views and sentiments are well portrayed in unequivocal neutral tone with no razor-sharp edges. The conversational manner of writing makes the book a delight to read. It is evident reading this text that she has accosted the topic of feminism with extreme pride. She has bravely called upon her readers to desist following the existing lores regarding women and their individuality. Her view points might rile up a few men with orthodox thinking, but she just can't help it. She has transcended the existing concepts of feminism with little or no trepidations.
I am more than happy to declare that I have become an admirer of Adichie and wish to read her other notable works as well, soon.
The Malayalam translation of this fantastic work is good in many aspects – but I felt that the angelic crispness that the English language provides cannot be recreated in Malayalam. However, Dr. Divya Iyer has done an incredible job amidst her umpteen official and family responsibilities in equipping us with a clean translation that is, in my terms, 95% true to the original. It has only helped bolster Adichie's intenciones primarias in writing this text.
During the book launch ceremony, each one of the speakers extolled Dr. Divya’s translator’s note in the book – which stretches 19 pages (21%) in the just 90-page booklet. Reading it, I could only say that they mowed their expressions, for her text was so lucid and more importantly honest and forthright, two virtues I very rarely encounter in my profession. She depicts her views on feminism through incidents in her own life and through the many important lives, hers crossed till date. Her reply speech at the ceremony was also an honest one made in her mellifluous voice with super clear diction.
Finally let me wind up quoting an observation made by Benyamin during his speech at the function– that this is a work not just for females – but also for responsible males to read, understand and implement on how to treat and respect a woman.
My rating for the original work - 8/10
My rating for the translation – 7.5/10
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