NOTES ON A COWRIE OF HOPE (BINWELL SINYANGWE)

 By Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

1)       THE BACKGROUND AND THE SETTINGS OF THE NOVEL 

A Cowrie of Hope is a novel written by Binwell Sinyangwe and published in the year 2000. It is set in the early nineties, a period that was, across the continent, marked by economic reforms and structural adjustments; changes in government or democratization; and the discovery and spread of the HIV/AIDS disease. To these add, and as part of the setting, drought. Thus, as the author puts it   ‘These were the nineties, the late nineties. They were lean years. They were the years of each person for himself and hope only under the shadow of the gods’ (Pg 14).

 These were the nineties becomes the singular refrain in this novel, an indication of the importance of such a decade. It is the turning point in the politico-economic structure of most African countries with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adding as a condition, political and economic reforms, to aid.

It is in this period that Nasula, widowed and her husband's family having captured his property after refusing to marry his younger brother, had to find the means to see her daughter, Sula, through school. Wobbling/trembling on the edge of poverty, either she falls into starvation and death or abandoned her single-mindedness of schooling her daughter - an idea that had almost become a disease; she did not hesitate but chose the former.

The main action of the text takes place in a period of great crisis in the life of the protagonist, Belita Bowa, who, according to African practice, is named Nasula ( meaning the mother of let things be) after the birth of her only child, a daughter, Sula (Let things be).

2)     RELEVANCE AND APPROPIATENESS OF THE TITLE: A COWRY OF HOPE

Even when things seem to be going the dark way with the death of her husband Winelo, her Cowry of hope for life, for Nasula not all is lost.
She continues in her hopefulness.  The optimism that she holds provide a fitting meaning to A Cowry of Hope because notwithstanding the fact everything seems lost, something is not lost (there is something to cling on).

Sula, her daughter remains the other Cowry of Hope. Nasula finds consolation in her daughter and she desires to do everything possible to see to it that Sula attains a liberative education from   depending on a man for existence (pg 5). This gives her reason to toil, sell her everything except her dignity for the future of her Cowry of Hope because “A child like this is a future not everyone is blessed”

Although it all turned out catastrophic, the journey to Mangano is A Cowry expected. Nasula had her hopes in the her would have been husband Isaki had it not been for his love for the taste of flesh and parting thighs in the dark that ultimately paid him to the grave. On her way, Nasula thought to herself, her in-laws should do something; the gods too must come to her rescue. She evokes them believing there was no other way “I know no other stand than to bury my heart in this heat without fire” (pg. 95). Unfortunately everything turned out catastrophic as the farm and Isaki lie in a sorry state awaiting the last breath and shortly after, he passed on. Once again, A Cowry lost.

As stated before, when things seems lost, something is not lost. To Nasula, her only bag of beans wipes away her tears of disappointment especially after fatefully failing to get something from Mangano. This becomes her last cowrie, her only hope left to attain her dream. Nalukwi, her celebrated friend, brightens this with her idea to sell the bag of beans in Lusaka to attain the one hundred thousand kwacha needed for her daughters schooling.

3)     GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL

Published in 2000. This brief text is a small gem /treasure of a novel. Written by (Binwell Sinyangwe) a male author (in English, occasionally interspersed with words in Mambwe - the local language of a Zambian community in the extreme north of that country) and evoking the thoughts, experiences and emotions of a poor rural woman, the writing is wonderfully evocative and the tale grippingly/captivatingly told.

The main action of the text takes place in just over a fortnight - a period of great crisis in the life of the protagonist, Belita Bowa, who, according to African practice, is named Nasula after the birth of her only child (a daughter), Sula. Sula is 15 and passed grade 9 at the local school as its most accomplished pupil, winning a place in a good secondary school (for grades 10 to 12), but her mother has not even a coin to contribute to the considerable expenses of the school fees and equipment.

The text opens on the mother's sleepless, tormented vigil as she takes the first of a series of difficult decisions fuelled by her determination to do everything possible to help her daughter obtain the education that she herself (as an illiterate person) never had the opportunity to acquire. The decision is an agonizing/painful one, because it involves Nasula's breaking an earlier resolve never to have further dealings with her heartless in-laws - a wealthy, powerful family who, when the death of her husband left her widowed at a young age and with a child to bring up, with brutal greed deprived her of the entirety of the small but vital inheritance which her otherwise ne`er-do-well/good for nothing and none too appreciative husband had expressly left to her.

 It is this experience, plus the memories of her married life to a loved but arrogantly manly spouse and of the years of rural hardship that followed in the village to which she had had to return with her daughter - that settled the woman's determination that her own child should never have to be dependent on a husband (or his family) for her livelihood. In Nasula's life it is her daughter Sula who represents to her "a cowry of hope" in the midst of her despair.

Sula is a quiet girl, but even though her character is lightly sketched, the author portrays her innate dignity, intelligence and good sense, and above all her empathy with her devoted and feisty/energetic/lively mother, with great precision and delicacy. The cover image very appropriately suggests two women in communion - both figures have the proud yet graceful bearing appropriate to the written evocations of both the mother and her daughter.

The small family's financial problem has been brought to a head because it is "the nineties" - the years of more efficient state control in Zambia, but also years of hardship brought on by a devastating drought. It is thus only because no other avenue is open to her to beg, borrow or earn the 100 000 kwacha needed to pay for her daughter's schooling that Nasula decides to brace herself for the humiliation of asking for a loan of this amount from a most unlikely source - her brutal but theoretically wealthy brother-in-law, Isaki.

She undertakes the day-long journey alone and on foot, with very little food to sustain her on the way - only to discover that the hoped-for source of funding has ignominiously/embarrassingly dried up. The once prosperous village estate is all but deserted of livestock, and poverty (even more acute than her and her daughter's, since here there is nothing to hope for, but only sickness and decay) rules the roost. The promiscuous Isaki, who had tried to force Nasula to marry him according to the custom of the "inherited" widow - but really to get hold of what his deceased brother had left her - lies dying of AIDS; two of his three wives are already dead from the disease, and the surviving one is visibly soon to follow. "It was the new, unmentionable disease of the world that came of the taste of flesh, the one that made you thin before taking you, the disease of today" (27).

Though she decently mourns the death, Nasula's feelings are a complex of "disappointment, fear and horror", as there is now no further hope of sending Sula to high school.

As they discuss their situation, Sula reveals that an old friend of her mother's (from Nasula's brief spell of married life in the city of Lusaka) has unexpectedly turned up in their local village, and that she will come to visit. Nalukwi, the friend, is somewhat older than Nasula. The mother of a large family living in one of the city slums, she is as poor as Nasula, but known for her warmth of heart and her intrepid spirit - "the woman of a woman" (44), as Nasula calls her.

To Nalukwi, Nasula can tell all her troubles. And true to form, a plan is hatched: Nalukwi knows that the small bean harvest Nasula happens to have stored will sell for a considerable price in the city in this time of drought - enough to cover the schooling costs as well as the expense of the bus journey to and from Lusaka! The beans are gathered and the women travel to the city together - there is still enough time before Sula has to report at the high school.

Yet the middle section of the text is ominously/unpromisingly/threateningly titled "What powers of darkness" - and for all her suspenseful care and utter dedication to the quest for the school fees, Nasula allows herself to be cheated out of the all-important bag of beans without receiving a single coin for it. When she confesses her grief-stricken horror at the crime to her friend, even Nalukwi is unable to contrive another plan beyond the predictably futile attempt to track down the polite city slicker who had conned Nasula out of the produce she had come to sell.

All they manage to establish, with the aid of a friendly stranger (a middle-aged countryman), is the name of the perpetrator (Pg 91). Shockingly, to these upright people, the name reveals that the thief is a native of the same region as Nasula. But he is known to be clever enough to cover his tracks or simply to intimidate poor victims, and those seeking to help them, by means of scare tactics. As Nalukwi says: "We are the carpet of the world. We can be stepped on without knowing who is doing the stepping" (92).

Nasula's gloom is slightly lifted by the unexpected kindness of the middle-aged stranger who, knowing that she does not even have the money to pay for her journey home to her daughter, gives her enough for this out of his own meager profits.

Part Three (which follows), the novel's final section, carries the motto, "I know no other stand than to bury my heart in this heat without fire." It is in this section that Nasula's motherly anguish and despair are described with fantastic (unbelievable) intensity/concentration: "Dangerous thoughts in the caverns of her being beat down upon her parched soul" (97), the narrator writes. She can hardly bear to board the large black bus home which seems both to represent the death of her dearest hope and to spell doom for her daughter's future. So intense are her feelings that "a whirlwind was born inside her, filling her with an unearthly power - a confusion of hate, love and passion" (107). Torn between hating and loving.

From within the very bleakness of her despair, a new sense of courage is aroused in her, however, as this poverty-stricken, powerless woman gets off the bus, negotiates the refunding of most of her fare, and returns to the city to find the man who robbed her of the chance of fulfilling her hopes for her daughter.

The first day's search is fruitless and discouraging - beyond her overhearing some of the thief's associates talking about him (but refusing to assist her in her search), Nasula is warned not to tackle so dangerous and ruthless a criminal. Since she is unable to locate Nalukwi's home in the sprawling city, she sleeps in the open at the main bus depot, as she will do day after day, hardly able to afford a bite to eat, and feeling herself to be "a lump of fatigue, sweating and dusty" (119). At times, "the acceptance of defeat beg[ins] to creep over her" - but this "fearless", lion-hearted woman still keeps going.

At last, and by chance, she finds him. Nasula goes up to the well-dressed thief and directly challenges him. For his part he (predictably) attempts to fob her off, laughing "a small, ugly laugh which seemed to her crooked, devilish, stupid, and repulsive" (125). They come to blows, but of course the frail and emaciated/thin Nasula is vanquished/defeated by the well-fed criminal. Still she does not surrender, and grabs on to his car as he attempts to drive off, recklessly risking her life. Yet by now, the commotion has attracted a (fortunately) dutiful young police officer, who insists that Nasula and the man she is accusing drive with him (in the thief's fancy car) to the Lusaka Central Police Station.

Once they are there, however, an officer senior in rank takes over and lets the criminal (evidently an old crony/pal) go, accepting a bribe in the process.

Yet again all seems lost, but Nasula's love-inspired determination spurs her on to her final, courageous act of risk as she sneaks up the stairs of the police station to find the station commander … "Blood ran to her head and cheeks. Everything lost existence. She heard nothing but the pulsation in her temples and the shrill, unearthly voice in the hollows of her skull. She made up her mind and took the plunge" (132).

And at last, Nasula finds a wellspring of integrity in the corruption-plagued city: someone "with the confidence of a stout-hearted man" (139). The station commander encourages her to tell all in a statement that will help to put behind bars the criminal he has long been pursuing - a statement that also exposes and causes the suspension of the corrupt police officer. And Nasula is paid what she is owed by the (now cowed) criminal, with extra money to compensate for her ordeal in tracking down the thief. Gratefully, "her heart quivering", she takes her leave of the fine commanding officer - "she was astounded by the power and heart of the man, and the world his office had opened up to her" (144), says the narrator. The reader may well feel that this man would have been as much - or more - impressed by Nasula herself.

Buying her daughter's school supplies with the now more than adequate money, Nasula by chance encounters her astonished friend Nalukwi, and can tell her of her quest and its successful outcome before returning home in time to send her daughter to school.

Charming as well as moving, this memorable text is no fairy/illusory tale, despite its happy-ever-after type ending. Nasula may have succeeded against the odds of her poverty, gender and illiteracy, and because of her unusual valor/courage/spirit, but the writer leaves us in no doubt about the many thousands - or rather millions - who are and remain trapped by those harsh fences throughout our continent and elsewhere. This story of Nasula (and Sula) is captivating/fascinating and inspiring, and his writing talent unmistakable. He makes it possible to see not so much the politics in the country, as the heroic and epic/impressive in the domestic and mundane/ordinary sphere of a devoted, widowed, poverty-stricken mother, a talented and tenderly loving daughter, and a robust/vigorous and faithful friend Nalukwi.

                                                CHAPTER SUMMARIES

PART ONE

There is no hope except under the shadow of the gods.

CHAPTER ONE (The ulcer is burning deep)

The text opens on the mother's (Nasula) sleepless, tormented vigil as she struggles to take the first of a series of difficult decisions fuelled by her determination to do everything possible to help her daughter obtain the education that she herself (as an illiterate person) never had the opportunity to acquire. Her only daughter, Sula, has completed grade nine at Senga Hill Basic School and has passed to proceed to grade ten at a distant boarding secondary school (St. Theresa Girls in Kasamo). The problem is that Nasula requires one hundred Kwacha to have her daughter placed at the school but as fate would have it, she is so poor to afford even a coin. As a result, she is troubled and has run short of ideas and that throws her into a dilemma.

Her husband, who by now is gone after losing his life to a policeman,

leaves her with property and some money but the in-laws take everything except the child with no provisions at all.

Nasula flashes back in time of her marriage to Winelo and her stay in the city where Winelo had shifted her, how she became a laughing stock, treated like a doll. She was treated maliciously, with low regard and with contempt. She recalls the voice of the woman who used to talk about the value of education and the need for women to emancipate themselves from male supremacy and lead autonomous lives (Pg 8).

The events that unfolded upon her husband’s death now flood her mind. She remembers Chiswebe, the father of the deceased and Isaki Chiswebe, the youth brother to the deceased. She recounts how the two men wanted her to be married to Isaki but she refused. The men then sold the latest house in kalingalinga meant to support Sula. They also took seven hundred and forty thousand Kwacha meant for Nasula and left her without except what she owned that moment (clothes on her). She had to spend nights at the bus station with the child before she found money for her travel and return to the village.

The weight of the thoughts in her mind breaks her down.  Her emotions rose higher and higher. She out- stretches her hands and weeps amidst silent whispers, asking father of Sula to help her because the child must go to school, least she should die of the pain since the ulcer of her poverty in burning deep (Pg 10).she did not however, want Sula, the soul at the heart of her worries to notice she had been weeping by turning and wiping away the tears from her face. She knows the Chiswebe family hates her for refusing to marry Isaki but resolves at once to meet head-on Isaki to ask for money for Sula’s school fees (Pg 13).

CHAPTER TWO (This is the way things end)

‘These were the nineties, the late nineties. They were lean years. They were the years of each person for himself and hope only under the shadow of the gods…’ (Pg 14). This is the opening statement in chapter two. As Nasula moves with a deep yawning of the soul to Mangano to meet Isaki for the issue of Sula`s fees.  She reflects upon the times that have completely changed; no rain as it used to be, no money, only hardships. The drought had hit hard. The opening statement “These were the nineties…” summarizes it all.

She reaches Mangano after a long journey. All is not well at the Chiswebe`s family; the once prosperous family is now poverty-stricken, with hardly anything that could, the farm has collapsed due to a bank loan that could not be paid on time, leading to confiscation of all resources of the farm. Above all, Isaki has lost two wives and he is too ill to understand what is going on. He eventually dies.

Nasula is back to square one. The journey has not yielded anything. She does not know what to do next. She wonders if this is the way things end. She is worried that the daughter`s schooling could just end like that (Pg 31).

CHAPTER THREE (When light streaks the sky, hope begins to burn)

The long tiresome, fruitless journey is at last ended. Nasula is back from Mangano and now takes it upon herself to narrate to her daughter the fateful death and burial of Isaki Chiswebe. She makes it obvious for the girl to realize that what killed Isaki is HIV. She advises her not to indulge in sexual intercourse until marriage. She tells her to be a house with a lock and warns Sula to always be with her legs crossed wherever she is.

Meanwhile, money for Sula`s school fees is nowhere to be found. Nasula cracks her head very hard to think of a solution, and resolves to resort to farming in order to raise the money. She borrows fertilizers and maize seeds from Pupila, one of the villagers, after agreeing to pay five and half bags of the maize upon harvesting. As fate would have it, the rains fail to be sufficient, and consequently, the yields are poor. She only gets six bags but must pay pupila his five and half bags and she remains with half a sack, which acted as the only source of meal for her and her daughter for a couple of months.

She tries to do manual work but nobody is willing to give her for money. The people she approaches for work are only willing to give an old yet all she needs is money. Her attempt to borrow yields no results because she is too poor to be trusted by anybody for ability to pay back.

The information that Sula relays to her mother about the presence of Nalukwi, her long time friend, in Swelini, fills Nasula with a sense of hope. Before long, Nalukwi arrives, causing excitement to Nasula. They recount the events shortly after Winelo`s death and the mistreatment of Nasula in Lusaka at that time.

The two women discuss the current state of the life, both in the city Lusaka and other towns, and in the village. Life is the same everywhere; poverty and hardship only. Nasula narrates to her friend her current predicament, and asks for a solution, and gets it. The solution is to go to Lusaka and sell the beans she has and raise the fees for Sula. The chapter ends on this optimistic note.

PART TWO

What powers of darkness

CHAPTER FOUR (Without lightning or thunder)

Arrival is the birth of new hope. Nasula finally reaches Kamwala market in Lusaka. She prays to the gods to protect her and let her business transaction successful so that her daughter can go to school. She is assailed with fear of being taken for a ride (Pg 61). 

She is helped by Nalukwi to settle for the night, waiting for business time the next day. She makes some inquiries about the prize of the beans and is told that the type she has will fetch her one hundred twenty kwacha. She is filled with elation/excitement. She even starts budgeting for the money; she is to buy a brand new blanket and bed sheets straight away from the factory.

CHAPTER FIVE (Black daylight)

Waking up several times during the night, she finally wakes up for good. A new day dawned on her. Yawning and stretching herself, she pushes her feet into her tropical sandals and stood up. It is the day she is to sell off her beans and raise money for her daughter`s schooling. Before daybreak, she ponders about her only daughter Sula, who is a Cowry of hope for her. She wants to give her all that is within her means to secure the girls future as a means of getting out of the biting poverty.

 She flashes back to the time when Sula had just started school as a brilliant young girl, very promising albeit extremely poor. The girls brilliance and discipline is what pushes her to the extremes of looking for money to educated her further until she is able to stand on her own, and in turn get her out of the poverty.

The trade begins with the seller and the buyer bargaining for the price (Pgs 79-80). The seller wants one hundred twenty kwacha but the buyer is willing to offer only eighty.

 Some more prospective buyer comes, one offering a hundred thousand kwacha but a better one comes with an offer of a hundred thirty and takes the beans. She waits for him to pay but in vain. It finally dawned on her that the man has cheated her of her beans. He has vanished without paying.

CHAPTER SIX (Echoes of darkness)

Nasula, robed of her now and only hope, (a bag of beans) without any payment, laments about her tragedy. Dazzled and baffled, she wallows in a state of confusion and fright with no clue of what next to do. The people at the market gather around her to find out exactly what has transpired. Others sympathized with her while others instead laugh and ask irritating questions like what her tribe is, whether she has a husband and children or whether she goes to  church   (Pg 85).

.Before long, Nalukwi comes. She finds Nasula in a very sorrowful mood. Upon learning what has happened, she tries to calm her friend down, consoles her to stop crying and think of what to do next.

Nalukwi comes up with the idea of going to ask a man from Solwizi in case he might have any idea about the conman. It is revealed that the conman is called Gode Silavwe, a man from Mbala where Nasula and Nalukwi comes from. It is also revealed that the man is known conman who reaps where he has not sown, and is very elusive. This generous man from Solwizi offers Nasula twenty thousand Kwacha for transport back to the village.

PART THREE

I know no other stand than to burry my heart in this heat without fire

CHAPTER SEVEN (A power from the heat of loss)

With the death of hope in sight, after losing her only hope to a smart stranger, it is time to go back home. Nasula sits in the bus immersed in thoughts. She imagines what to tell her daughter. A voice within her tells her that she is not the only unhappy woman around, and that she should not think that death is the solution to problems but rather facing the problem in the eye and getting a solution.

As she waits for the bus to fill up, she makes some observations about how things have changed in the nineties. Buses take long to fill up because of poverty. The life style of the townspeople is rather weird and she does not want to imagine her daughter leaving her in the village to come to town to adopt the kind of behavior she deems unacceptable.

The bus finally sets off and the conversations that the passengers engage in are the state of roads in Zambia. These conversations do not however interest Nasula at all. The thoughts of a man who stole her beans keep flooding her mind.

In the middle of the journey to Mbala, Senga Hill, where Nasula`s destination is, the bus stops at a road-block. It is from here that Nasula changes her mind and demands that her money be refunded, claiming that she cannot sit in the bus for all those hours yet not reaching. She is given back part of the money and she disembarks from the bus. What is out of the ordinary is the fact that she jumps onto a minibus going to Lusaka. She decides to go back to the city to search for the man who stole her only hope.

CHAPTER EIGHT (The bone and flesh of evil is a strong limb)

Never wanting to hope against hope, Nasula returns to Lusaka to hunt down the man who has added much to her misery. She alights from the minibus and heads straight for Kamwala market. She does not know where to start from but she walks around the market and peers at whatever yellow car she sees, just in case she lands on the man she is up for.

An old man notices her and recalls seeing her the previous day. She asks for any clues about the man who stole her beans and the old man mentions the sir name. Upon inquiring where the conman stays, Nasula is told to abandon anything to do with the conman and just go home. The mother of let-things-be refuses to let things be. She is determined to hunt for the man to the end of the world. She vows to look for him to her death.

Nasula walks from one corner to another. She finds herself standing before the taxi rank near three young men. Coincidentally, she hears them talk about Gode, the very man she is looking for. She approached them, asks to be shown where Gode stays but the young men refuse and tell her to go away.

She then finds another man who tells her to forget about Gode and do other things because the man she is looking for is simply dangerous. Everyone in Lusaka fears him, including the police; he has committed more heinous/terrible crimes before and nothing has happened to him. So nothing will happen to him again after stealing a bag of beans.

She continues with her search for another one week with no positive results. She has now become very thin, dirty, smelly and sticky with sweat. She has also become very weak; she cannot walk for a long distance without sitting down for a rest.

The search goes on until one Friday when she arrives at a shopping mall and sees a vehicle that resembles Gode`s before long, Gode appears and she confronts him. The confrontation turns out to be a scuffle between the two until a policeman intervenes. The two are led to a police station. At the police station, Gode is set free and he is seen giving the policeman some money, an indication that he has bribed the police to be set free. Nasula is left confused and totally abandoned.

CHAPTER NINE (Where there is a voice and a spirit, a little more will happen)

Earlier than this time, fate or luck had never brought Nasula to the police station. Now, while still at the police station, she climbs the stairs despite attempts to stop her and demands to meet the boss of everyone, the one at the top most. Luckily she meets the very boss she had wanted to meet. She narrates to him the events leading to her coming to the police station and the behavior of the police officers who handled the matter.

Samson Luhila, the police boss, acts in a manner expected of a professional officer. He listens to Nasula keenly for the facts of the matter. Samson implicated the police officer and reprimands him for the misconduct, and orders him to produce Gode immediately. Before long, Gode Silavwe is brought in, interrogated and found guilty. He is forced to pay one hundred fifty Kwacha, instead of one twenty for the beans. Gode pays the money and is immediately arrested and locked up at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

A statement is recorded from Nasula, and the officer who had mishandled the case is suspended forthwith. At last, Nasula gets justice. She leaves the police station a satisfied woman. She goes to Kamwala shopping centre and buys scholastic materials, other requirements and personal effects for her daughter.

At the shopping centre, Nasula meets Nalukwi who takes her to rest before traveling the following day. In the morning, Nasula travels to Swelini and reaches, to the excitement of Sula. All the school requirements have been bought. Sula eventually goes to school. All is well that ends well.

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISATION IN THE NOVEL

                                         A COWRIE OF HOPE

1)       Belita Bowa Nasula

Nasula (mother of Sula) is a young widow struggling to make ends meet for herself and her daughter. After the death of Winelo, her husband, she works so hard to have her daughter go to school single headedly.  Her daughter who recently passed her grade 9 exams has been accepted into an all girls secondary school but she lacks the money required for fees, supplies, and other things required for Sula to continue with her education. Though illiterate herself, Nasula, understands the need for her daughter to be educated and she feels the burden.

She is a loving and caring mother to Sula, her only daughter. She is in a state of abject poverty but tirelessly, struggles to see her daughter through school so that the girl can have a better future. She loves the child with such intensity that at times the feelings threaten to suffocate her.

Albeit so fateful and seems to be deserted by the gods, Nasula is so persistent, optimistic for the best and that is why she is not willing to stop at anything and watch things crumble. Even when waves of defeat keep oscillating from her mind to heart, she pays no attention because a  power she could not overcome, which was from a bleeding heart, tells  her not to listen to the whispers of discouragement and defeat, or give up when she had already suffered so much. She never gives up till the last minute of her predicament.

Nasula is a woman whose destiny lies solely on pitiable achievement. She is depicted as a strong willed woman. She understands her plight but does not just let things be neither does she resigns to fate. She confronts the situation head-on to find remedy for Sula. She confronts Isaki to give her money for Sula`s schooling.

She is a resilient/determined woman who withstands all forms of hardships to remain steadfast in search for her daughter’s school fees. “Days had injured her to many things and turned her into hard wood”. For Nasula, it is not over until it is over.

Nasula is a very hard working woman.  Despite the poor weather conditions characterized by long drought, she toils on her plot of land and also does piece-work to supplement the meager income from her crops. Sula is enrolled in school, where she excels, rising above the taunts/mocking and ridicule she experiences because of her poverty.

Nasula never gets discouraged or frustrated. Though many people, with excessive description of Gode's nefarious/evil behavior as regards ploy/strategy and arrogance, she is never discouraged to continue searching for him till he was arrested and detained by the inspector of police.

In a closely related way, the novel depicts Nasula as a furious woman who engages Gode in a physical confrontation, demanding that he returns her bag of beans or pays for it.  The fact that she does this to a man that everyone in Lusaka fears depicts her as a fierce woman who should be dealt with very carefully.

Nasula never loses focus to her mission until it is complete. Bearing in mind that to her it is not over until it is over; she sets out to look for fees for her daughter and does all that is within her ability to get it. The man at the market cons her beans but she just does not let the matter go. She pursues it to the very last.

Being do daring, she goes to the in-laws who hate her so much. As a matter of fact, she goes to ask for money from Isaki for her daughter`s schooling. She also dares to ask the bus conductor to refund her money without fear and contradiction and she cancel her journey to Swelini to go back to Lusaka to hunt down the man who stole her beans.

To her dear friend, who is there as her cowrie of hope, she is always thankful Nalukwi for her love and care in her time of need. She is now willing to offer her only chicken to Nalukwi as a way of expressing her gratitude.

Points in Summary

Ø  Mother to Sula

Ø  Responsible

Ø  Loving and caring

Ø  So persistent

Ø  Optimistic

Ø  Strong willed woman

Ø  Confronts situation head-on

Ø  Determined

Ø  Hard working

Ø  Never discouraged

Ø  Furious woman

Ø  Never loses hope

Ø  Daring

Ø  thankful

2)      Sula

She is the only daughter to the now dead Winelo (her father) and Belita Bowa (her mother) who in the African culture is named after her daughter Nasula meaning mother of Sula.

Albeit she does not actively participate much in the events that unfold and her character is slightly sketched, the story in the novel is about her. In fact she is the reason behind the events that take place in the book and without whom; the reader would have missed much.

She is a cowrie of hope to her mother and that is the reason the mother does everything within her power to see her through school.

She is not easily discouraged by the scorn and abuses she gets from fellow pupils in school because of her poverty (Pg 73).

Unlike other children in Swelini and the surrounding villages, Sula never complains about her poor state, she never demanded anything from the mother (pg 73).

She is known for being obedient to her mother’s instruction and advice on many occasions.

She understands situations and adjusts accordingly.

She is an intelligent girl. Soon after she had begun school, words started coming home that she was an intelligent, determined girl (pg 73).

She is hard working.

Points in summary

Ø  Daughter to Nasula Belita Bowa and the late Winelo

Ø  Her character slightly sketched

Ø  She is the reason behind the book

Ø  She is a cowry of hope to her mother

Ø  Not easily discouraged

Ø  Never complains

Ø  Obedient

Ø  Understanding

Ø  Intelligent

Ø  Hard working

3)     Nalukwi

Ø  She is Nasula`s other cowrie of hope  

Ø  A long time friend to Nasula.

Ø  Loving and caring

Ø  Dependable

Ø  Sympathetic

Ø  Hospitable

Ø  Reliable

Ø  Understanding

Ø  Trusted

                    DOMINANT AND MINOR THEMES AND IDEAS IN THE NOVEL

(A COWRIE OF HOPE)

I)                   Suffering

Nasula`s husband dies and leaves her some money and property but even before burial takes place, her in-laws raided the home and took everything out of her possession and left her alone with her daughter. Since then, she has known nothing else than poverty, misery and suffering.

Nasula goes through untold suffering during her marriage with Winelo. She is treated like a doll, like a plaything, always abused, tormented and dispossessed.

The novel depicts the numerous countless injustices that society places on women, causing them untold suffering. Nasula is unfairly blamed for the death of Winelo, a man shot dead by a policeman while he was trying to escape a crime scene.

The in-laws falsely accuse her of being a demanding woman, causing her husband to go and steal. This greatly torments her, causing mental.

Nasula is a suffering woman mistreated by her husband, then her in-laws, upon the death of her husband. She suffers with her daughter, looking for money for survival and school fees for the girl, yet no help is forthcoming from anybody.

She suffers with work-hard labor for very little pay, farming for little yields. When the little she has kept is taken to the market for sale, she is leeched/cheated by a seemingly rich man who takes her beans without paying. She feels the gods are against her; they have punished her beyond bearable limits.

After a long period of suffering, she overcomes all the torments. The man who stole her beans is apprehended and made to pay for them. She is then able to buy scholastic materials and some other personal effects for her daughter and take her to school.

This reveals that suffering is not the end of the world. In other words, tough times last but for a while and tough people last.

II)    Poverty

 ‘These were the nineties, the late nineties. They were lean years. They were the years of each person for himself and hope only under the shadow of the gods…’ (Pg 14).  This opening phrase in chapter two, suggest that the time of setting a lone are really hard times economically.

People can barely afford to make out a living. Respectable people in towns have now turned into cheats and outright thieves for survival. It is into such a world that Nasula, who is described as “poverty itself”, is thrown. Using flashbacks, the writer takes the reader to the happier years when Nasula’s husband – Winelo – lived, and juxtaposes it with the present woes.

 Binwell Sinyangwe, in “A Cowrie of Hope” (2000), explores how poverty imprisons the individual and robs him/her of any sense of dignity; reducing the impoverished to a threadbare see-through garment that anyone can take advantage of and toss around.
 

For the protagonist, she is evidently a poor woman, a widow, and an illiterate who cannot afford some basic needs for herself and her lovely cowry of hope, Sula. No means of livelihood, no dependable support for her. Like mother like daughter, the two characters sleep on empty sacks and bare reed mats and cover themselves with torn second-hand kitenge

On the day Nasula travels to go and meet Isaki, she reflects upon the current times, the present moment, the late nineties; the time of economic hardship leading to individualistic tendencies because of the state of poverty they live in.

III)   Women Emancipation

Nasula realizes that society is very harsh towards women. The only way out for her daughter is to be empowered through education for her to lead an independent life; that frees her from totally depending on a man for existence (Pg 5).

Nasula recalls the voices of young women of good education and good jobs in offices who used to come to Kalingalinga compound where she lived with Winelo to talk about the freedom of women. They used to talk about the importance of knowing how to read and read and write the rights of a woman and the need for a woman and the need for a woman to stand on her own. This is a call for emancipation (Pg 8).

Belita Bowan Nasula wants her daughter to go to school so that she can be able to stand on her own feet and not look to marriage or men for salvation. She tells the daughter that marriage and men are not salvation but the ruin of any woman who cannot stand on her feet. She therefore wants the daughter to go far with her education so that she can support herself, earn a good living and be free and independent in her life.

IV)   Change

 One undoubted truth is, change is a fact of life. There are numerous changes that occur in the novel. The reader of A Cowry of Hope will agree that even the time settings of the novel points to the fact of change. The single refrain that keeps coming up in the novel thus “These were the nineties” relates that in the sixties, seventies and eighties, things were not as in the nineties, suggesting that things have changed. Even Nasula tells Sula that these years are years of a new day, and that the world has swallowed a poisonous toad. This means that things have totally changed for the bad.

The Mangano of the late nineties is not the Mangano of the past. Things have changed; no more getting free things from the government, no more rain, only drought and hunger. Poverty is now the order of the day yet Mangano used to be a prosperous dwelling.

In the sixties, seventies and eighties, education was not paid for. It was free of charge and everything needed was provided freely. Now in the nineties, things are different; no more free things.

Nalukwi tells Nasula how things have completely changed these days. People in the past used to admire town life. They would do all possible things to go and settle in towns for work and search for prosperity. But now days, it is the opposite; everyone in the city now talks about wanting to leave the towns and come back to the village, due to extreme hardships there.

These days of the nineties have witnessed a lot of changes. In the past, people slept at the bus stations because the buses were not enough but these days people sleep at the bus stations   because the buses are more than enough; each bus has to only leave after it is full but there are no people to fill it due to poverty. People now limit their movement.

Other themes worth discussing

Ø  Education

Ø  Struggle to survive

Ø  HIV/Aids

Ø  Exploitation

Ø  Corruption

Of what relevance is the Novel: A Cowrie of Hope to the Modern society in Uganda?

It is generally true that most students know not how to answer the question of relevance. They ‘successfully’ confuse the question of relevance to that of lessons learnt. These are two different things and are both worth knowing.

In answering the question of relevance, a student is required to relate what happens in the book to what takes place in his/her society. Here beneath are some sample answers on how to answer the questions of relevance.

Ø  To be sure, the Novel has much relevance to the Ugandan society as seen here below: The novel opens on a mothers` sleepless vigil apparently troubled, thinking and worrying, asking herself  many rhetorical questions as she searches for solutions to her problem, her daughter`s schooling. Some mothers in Uganda today are relatedly involved in looking after their children and searching for solutions to their problems day and night especially mothers who have nobody else to look to for help (widows).

Ø  In the Novel, the suffering of Nasula is mostly generated by her in-laws who decide to mistreat her in many ways after the death of her husband Winelo. This reflects the difficulty and the suffering of many Ugandan women who are tortured by their in-laws. After the death of their husbands, their property is confiscated and they are left with children to look after with little or no means of livelihoods. This is common in the rural areas.

Ø  The corruption that takes place at the police station where Nasula and the con man Gode are taken, Gode bribes the office and he is unprofessionally set free though criminal while Nasula remains tormented, is synonymous to what goes on at the different police stations in Uganda today. Many criminals bribe the police in Uganda today and they are vindicated/set free, out of the House of Commons and they continue to terrorize people.

Ø  When Nasula embarked on hunting for Gode, to every group she would find herself, she is advised to live Gode alone because he is a man feared by everybody including the police. People fear to disclose the whereabouts of Gode because if he learns of it, Lusaka would be too small for them (pg 118). The same is true in Uganda today, there are those thugs who are feared by everybody and even if they are known, nobody dares to touch them.

The above given relevance are only illustration answers. The student can read the text and still find many other relevant points. Students are therefore advised not only to stick to the points given in this sample but to read the text extensively for more points.

What Lessons do we learn from the Novel, A Cowrie of Hope?

In answering the question of lessons learnt, the student must be sure to talk about practical teaching drawn from the book. Once again, a student must be careful not to confuse lessons learnt with relevance of the text. See the sample answer to the question of lessons learnt from the Novel below:

Ø  After reading the novel, we learn that determination pays. Nasula, although she is poverty and suffering metaphorically, she only remained determined at every level and never losing focus and that is why in the end, she succeeds in all her struggles.

Ø  One of the lessons we learn is that tough times do not last but tough people last. Nasula has seen tough times in her life throughout the Novel but because she seen as a tough woman, she manages to come out of the tough times.

Ø  The reader of the novel learns that you reap what you sow.  Gode sows trickery and theft and by the end of the novel, he is apprehended and locked up in the (CID). The police officer who accepts bribe from Gode is dismissed from his job for his gross misconduct. The eventualities that happens to these two characters brings a relief to the reader because they finally paid for their sins (they reaped what they had sown).

Ø  The old saying “A friend in need is a friend indeed” is one thing that the reader of A Cowrie of Hope draws from the Novel. Nalukwi is always there to comfort the suffering Nasula at the time of need. For instance, in Swelini as Nasula searches for solution to her problem of school fees, it is Nalukwi who finally hatches the plan for selling the only bag of beans. Even when from Lusaka she is conned, Nalukwi is there to comfort her.

Ø  One of the lessons we draw from the book is there is time for everything. (explain this in relation to Nasula`s struggle).

The above given lessons are only illustrations. The student can read the text and still find many other lessons to be learnt.  Once again, students are advised not only to stick to the points given in this sample but to read the text extensively for more points

NARATIVE TECHNIQUES IN THE NOVEL “A COWRIE OF HOPE”   

The narrative techniques also commonly referred to as language and style is a particular methodology or vehicle the writer employs to pass or convey his message to readers more effectively.

In A Cowrie of Hope, Binwell Sinyangwe has used a number of techniques and among which are: symbolism, Drama, dialogue, suspense, Irony, Metaphor, Flashbacks and others.

I)                   dialogue

A greater percentage of the novel is filled up with dialogue. For instance, there is dialogue between Nasula and Sula, Nasula and Nalukwi, Nasula and the police boss Samson Luhila, etc (ch 9).

II)                Irony

Talking about the con man Godie, Binwell employs the language of irony. He portrays Godie as a very smart man and nobody would suspect him for a thief but unfortunately, he is the very one who ends up conning the beans of Nasula. This is very ironical that the least expected thief is actually the most senior one. It is no wonder that the author calls him the smart con man (ch 5).

III)              Drama  

It is true that Binwell uses long passages of description.  Although so, we get relief a few times when he dramatizes the disagreements. The struggle between Nasula and the conman Godie in (chapter 8 pgs 124-128) makes this clear

IV)              Symbolism

As a symbol of the death of hope, Binwell uses the black bus that Nasula finds in the bus park. The bus was as black as the funeral bus. With this black bus, Binwell wants to show how the hopes of Nasula seems to be in ruins especially after the only bag of beans gas been conned by the smart man Godie that leaves Nasula with nothing to hope for but death (ch 7, pg 97).

These and many others unmentioned here are the techniques that Binwell Sinyangwe uses in his novel to pass on his message to the readers. Students are encouraged to read more and come out with more techniques used by the author of A Cowrie of Hope.

Some sample and guiding questions

1.      Of what relevance is the Novel: A Cowrie of Hope to the Modern society in Uganda?

2.      What Lessons do we learn from the Novel, A Cowrie of Hope?

3.      Why is Nasula an admirable character in the novel A Cowrie of Hope?

4.      Discuss the meaning and appropriateness of the title, A Cowrie of Hope to the novel.

5.      How has Nasula not lived up to her name (Mother of let things be)?

6.      What would the reader miss if the character of Sula did not exist in the novel, A Cowrie of Hope?

7.      With close reference to the novel A Cowrie of Hope, expound on the theme of struggle to survive.

8.      Who do you sympathize with most in A Cowrie of Hope and why?

9.      Describe any two themes and ideas Binwell Sinyangwe has brought out in his novel.

10.  “These were the nineties…” reflects the author of A Cowrie of Hope. In what ways has this period of setting affected the characters in the novel?