Everything Good Will Come (2005)

Everything Good Will Come is a coming-of-age novel by Nigerian author Sefi Atta about a girl growing into a woman in postcolonial Nigeria and England. It was published by Interlink World Fiction in 2005, and won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.

Throughout the novel the main character, Enitan, is faced with various personal entanglements connected with family troubles, rape, cheating boyfriends, and imprisonment. The novel is also a biting commentary on post-independence governments in Nigeria and tensions between Igbo (Biafrans), Yoruba, and Hausa ethnic groups after the Biafran War.

Plot summary

Everything Good Will Come is a bildungsroman that tells the story of Enitan, a young Nigerian woman growing up in her native homeland coping with the demands of the patriarchal society that encompasses her. Enitan is raised in a divided home struggling to identify herself in the midst of her mother's strong religious beliefs and her father's manipulative political ways. Due to her being an only child and the death of her brother, her parents have strict demands that restrict her from having a normal childhood. Her rebellious nature is first seen when she defies her mother's wishes and leaves the house on Sundays to play with the girl next door, Sheri, who is considered "yellow" because her father is Nigerian and her mother is a white English woman. Sheri is a sassy young girl with a rebellious nature, constantly testing those around her, while craving the attention of any male. Their friendship builds as they continue to defy Enitan's mother by seeing each other.

The girls are soon forced to separate; Enitan is sent to a school outside Lagos. Her father, an educated lawyer, wants the best for her and hopes she will take over his firm once she has finished school and proves herself as a lawyer. Sheri and Enitan keep in touch, writing letters back and forth about school, boys, and when they will meet again. During a holiday visit home, Enitan and Sheri meet up and go to a party. Enitan, who doesn't feel comfortable in the situation, wants to leave. On her way out, she witnesses the three men pinning Sheri down, raping her and bruising her body; they also degrade her. The image of Sheri's rape affects Enitan's ability to allow herself to trust men. The aftermath of the rape leads to a partial termination of their friendship, and Sheri being sent to the hospital due to an attempt to give herself an abortion.

Years pass and Enitan returns to Lagos to stay with her father and work under him, thereby starting her career as a lawyer. She begins dating a struggling artist, Mike, and has an emotionally complex but short-lived relationship with him. Enitan runs into Sheri one afternoon and reconnects with her. Sheri is now a mistress to a Muslim brigadier, who pays for her living and gives Sheri a good life. She believes in playing the system rather than settling down with a man because she is aware of the lack of individualism a woman receives once she becomes married in their society.

Enitan gradually becomes close to a man called Niyi Franco, who is separated from his only child that was taken away by his ex-wife when they moved to Britain. This relationship quickly becomes a marriage. Enitan at first feels comfort and safety in Niyi's arms, but their relationship is soon tested when she refuses to submit to his demanding ways and struggles to conceive and carry a child. After she becomes pregnant, Niyi and Enitan's differences over each other's behavior and expectations build. In addition to the stress from her failing marriage, her father's political outspokenness and subsequent arrest force her into activism and result in a night in jail. Enitan joins a group of women in the fight against the government for women's rights during her pregnancy. Her drive for change is frowned upon by her husband, who wants her to stay at home and take on "women-like" tasks. Niyi's lack of support for his wife's beliefs, along with her unwillingness to concede to his requests, leads to their separation. Enitan continues to stand up for what she believes in: wanting women to have the ability to choose whether or not they will be submissive in society, with hopes for individuality.

Characters

Enitan

Enitan is the main female character that the story follows. The novel starts when she is a little girl and meets Sheri for the first time. It progresses along with Enitan's life. In the beginning, Enitan witnesses the rape of her friend Sheri, which causes her to withdraw from the latter. Throughout her life, Enitan's father, and later her husband Niyi, encourage her to stand up for herself. This causes her to always speak her mind when it comes to her rights, even in the face of adversity. The political changes in her country affect Enitan's life in many different ways. First, she comes home from college and has to go through military training and later she has to deal with gas shortages, being stopped on the roadside by soldiers, her father's and her own arrest. As she grows, she comes to realize that she has lived a privileged life even though she has had to deal with the stigma of being a woman in Nigeria. She also finds out that she has a brother while her father is in prison. Although they become friendly with each other, this just reinforces the fact that Enitan cannot trust any of the men in her life to treat a woman with respect or as an equal. Enitan is a strong female lead in the novel who fights the traditional male dominant culture that she lives in. She is the example of the Nigerian woman who is educated and fights for the nice life that she has lived. Her own time in jail shows Enitan the reality of how the people in her country, specifically the woman, are being treated by the people in power. At the end of the novel, she breaks tradition and leaves her husband to lead a group of women fighting for the release of political prisoners.