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Beautiful Feathers
From the back cover:
'However famous a man is outside, if he is not respected inside his own home, he is like a bid with beautiful feathers, wonderful on the outside but ordinary within.' So runs the Ibo proverb which provides the theme for Cyprian Ekwensi's novel. Wilson Iyari, the leader of the Nigerian movement for African and Malagasy Solidarity, commands the respect of the masses. with the leadres of African thought, his name has significance. But inside his home he has no authority. He is disregarded, then deserted by his own wife. While he pursues his desire for African and Malagasy solidarity, his home life is crumbling and he cannot concentrate on running his business: the Independence Pharmacy. Wilson does not come to terms with himself until he discovers that the unity is a complex of the judicious and proper, the overlooked and forgotten, the tolerated and rejected."
'However famous a man is outside, if he is not respected inside his own home, he is like a bid with beautiful feathers, wonderful on the outside but ordinary within.' So runs the Ibo proverb which provides the theme for Cyprian Ekwensi's novel. Wilson Iyari, the leader of the Nigerian movement for African and Malagasy Solidarity, commands the respect of the masses. with the leadres of African thought, his name has significance. But inside his home he has no authority. He is disregarded, then deserted by his own wife. While he pursues his desire for African and Malagasy solidarity, his home life is crumbling and he cannot concentrate on running his business: the Independence Pharmacy. Wilson does not come to terms with himself until he discovers that the unity is a complex of the judicious and proper, the overlooked and forgotten, the tolerated and rejected."
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Cyprian Ekwensi
56 books147 followersCyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi was a novelist famous for his Jaguar Nana series and many others. He wrote for children under the name C.O.D. Ekwensi.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 14, 2008
Ekwensi was a prolific author, churning out nearly a book each year around the time that "Beautiful Feathers" was published. He was also something of an establishment figure, judging by the fact that he was the Director of Information in the Federal Ministry of Information (creepy). It doesn't matter which period of Nigerian history you look at; that ministry was a government mouthpiece and Ekwensi's more progressive contemporaries would be in serious trouble for articulating viewpoints that opposed its proclamations.
His success, prominence and productivity may be behind the benign, jogging trot of "Beautiful Feathers." It feels like Ekwensi neither labored over the language of this book nor over its construction. Instead, he seems to rely upon autobiographical material and a pedantic proverbs-come-true brand of we-told-you-so inevitability. I didn't understand how anyone could write a book about Lagos that would be so toothless and without color until I looked into Ekwensi's professional history and I may not be judging him fairly--after all, I was fairly charitable towards "Burning Grass." But that novel was set in the countryside, shed light on an alluring group of nomads and had no reason to engage with politics.
"Beautiful Feathers" is ostensibly about politics and Lagos; but it is not substantively about either thing. It is just about a man who balances his family and professional lives poorly. Various figures give him advice and understand him better than he understands himself and nothing really happens. In all, there aren't many reasons to read this book.
His success, prominence and productivity may be behind the benign, jogging trot of "Beautiful Feathers." It feels like Ekwensi neither labored over the language of this book nor over its construction. Instead, he seems to rely upon autobiographical material and a pedantic proverbs-come-true brand of we-told-you-so inevitability. I didn't understand how anyone could write a book about Lagos that would be so toothless and without color until I looked into Ekwensi's professional history and I may not be judging him fairly--after all, I was fairly charitable towards "Burning Grass." But that novel was set in the countryside, shed light on an alluring group of nomads and had no reason to engage with politics.
"Beautiful Feathers" is ostensibly about politics and Lagos; but it is not substantively about either thing. It is just about a man who balances his family and professional lives poorly. Various figures give him advice and understand him better than he understands himself and nothing really happens. In all, there aren't many reasons to read this book.
April 12, 2020
If it was Easter Day on lock-down and this was the only book in the house it would pass a few hours, but if you have a second book, for God’s sake read that. This one is a car-crash.
Our hero is a chap called Wilson. He takes pride running his business, the Independence Pharmacy, but neglects Yaniya, his wife. Will Yaniya leave him? Will Wilson have to learn to cook for himself?
The political metaphor is delivered with such sledge-hammer subtlety that even I grasped it. Wilson is the Nigerian state and Yaniya is the people. We’d be heading into allegorical territory were the fabric of it not torn. You see, Wilson is also a politician, so we have a situation where the character is both a metaphor and the thing itself. You can’t have it both ways, but the whole novel is full of forced situations, unbelievable coincidences and factual inconsistencies. Yaniya too sits uncomfortably in her assigned metaphor. Take chapter 4 and the conversation between she and her boyfriend. Who talks like that? I actually wondered if Ekwensi had ever had a conversation with another human being.
I’m going to struggle to convey to you just how bad it is. I just wanted to shut Ekwensi up for his own good, but he just went on and on, making it worse for himself. Incompetence is one thing, but he also betrays some rather unpleasant social attitudes along the way. The whole thing reads like it was written by a randy 15 year old boy, every woman repeatedly described in sexual terms. You think I’m exagerating? Here’s one of the best:
“The roots of her breasts – sapling stems of sucklement- buried their thickness in two hefty ridges. Her bosom seemed to be divided into those two roots and nothing more, tossing up the lower edge of her blowse so that the midriff stood revealed.”
See? “Sapling stems of sucklement”, folks. I’ve taken one for the team reading this.
Our hero is a chap called Wilson. He takes pride running his business, the Independence Pharmacy, but neglects Yaniya, his wife. Will Yaniya leave him? Will Wilson have to learn to cook for himself?
The political metaphor is delivered with such sledge-hammer subtlety that even I grasped it. Wilson is the Nigerian state and Yaniya is the people. We’d be heading into allegorical territory were the fabric of it not torn. You see, Wilson is also a politician, so we have a situation where the character is both a metaphor and the thing itself. You can’t have it both ways, but the whole novel is full of forced situations, unbelievable coincidences and factual inconsistencies. Yaniya too sits uncomfortably in her assigned metaphor. Take chapter 4 and the conversation between she and her boyfriend. Who talks like that? I actually wondered if Ekwensi had ever had a conversation with another human being.
I’m going to struggle to convey to you just how bad it is. I just wanted to shut Ekwensi up for his own good, but he just went on and on, making it worse for himself. Incompetence is one thing, but he also betrays some rather unpleasant social attitudes along the way. The whole thing reads like it was written by a randy 15 year old boy, every woman repeatedly described in sexual terms. You think I’m exagerating? Here’s one of the best:
“The roots of her breasts – sapling stems of sucklement- buried their thickness in two hefty ridges. Her bosom seemed to be divided into those two roots and nothing more, tossing up the lower edge of her blowse so that the midriff stood revealed.”
See? “Sapling stems of sucklement”, folks. I’ve taken one for the team reading this.
March 26, 2021
Beautiful Feathers is a didactic novel built around an Ibo proverb about the meaninglessness of glory and fame if a person does not have a happy family life. Although traditional in its critique of the interactions between men and women and family relations in post-independence Nigeria, the novel touches upon many contemporary concerns and insights such as work-life balance, the importance of careers to both men and women, and political disillusionment. One entertaining and insightful fable within the novel has European guides taking African politicians hunting and then running off with the trophy while the African politicians fight about who shot it. There is an interesting contrast between the peace and quiet of traditional life in the forest outside of Benin City and the hustle and bustle and turmoil of life in post-independence Lagos. This is a somewhat dated, sentimental but, nonetheless, meaningful story.
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November 30, 2025The marital woes of a political agitator.
February 24, 2026
It was an easy read - a basic Cyprian Ekwensi !
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews