Veronica - Adewale Maja-Pearce

Veronica — Adewale Maja-Pearce

Context

Adewale Maja-Pearce lives in Lagos, Nigeria, where he runs Yemaja, an editorial services

agency. His latest book is Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and Other Essays. He is well-known

as someone who documents the problems and struggles of the Nigerian people.

Summary

The focus of the short story is the contrasting experiences of young Africans, one male and one

female, in the second half of the twentieth century in African society. The story focuses

especially on the constraints that confine Veronica to a life of poverty surrounded by violence

and brutality, comparing her lot (to an extent self-appointed, since she declines invitations to

escape from the village's squalor) to the life of opportunity accessible to Okeke through

education, travel and a taste of city life and luxury.

Language and ideas

The story is rich in imagery which explores both the contrasting lifestyles of city and

countryside and the imprisonment and resignation of Veronica's existence. Okeke is an

intelligent and partly sympathetic observer, drawn powerfully back, on an emotional level, to the

society he has left for better things, and aware that there is an eternal current flowing through

the villagers' lives.

The story benefits from an approach which draws students into its fabric