The Sun Will Soon Shine

by Sally Singhateh

For an intelligent, ambitious girl growing up in a Gambian village, life holds few tempting prospects. Marriage and motherhood, often forced, are the paths assigned to most. Nyima, too, is subject to this fate, as well as having to endure the health-endangering ongoing practice of genital mutilation. But ours is a heroine of immense courage, able to see beyond her situation, despite the bleakness of life. She makes it through her darkest hours, and emerges stronger on the other side, though permanently scarred by her ordeals. It is in education and work that Nyima finds her salvation, and begins to rebuild her life, and indeed be reborn. The question is, though, can she ever truly love or trust again? This is a moving and emphatic tale of a young woman's struggle to come to terms with her past and culture, and above all, the possibility of having a future to look forward to, no matter what the odds.

Genres: The Gambia, Africa, The World

104 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2004

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sun Will Soon Shine is a timely reminder to me that all kinds of issues are slipping under the radar during the pandemic. Sally Sadie Singateh is a writer from Gambia, but the issue she raises in this novella are widespread. It's the story of Nyima, born in a village, but keen to sidestep community expectations about the near universal fate of girls to become a wife and mother, serving a man who most likely has more than one wife. As part of this predestined journey, a girl is made to endure the practice of female circumcision a.k.a. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). But Nyima is an intelligent girl, who wants to become a teacher.

What prompts me to link this story with the pandemic is that (anywhere in the world) lockdown conditions in remote villages, even in the age of the mobile phone, limit exposure to more enlightened ideas. Nyima's father envisions a different future for her. He has travelled outside his village, and has rejected the community's expectations for his daughter. He wants Nyima to finish her education, and has encouraged her career ambitions. He has organised a different kind of initiation for her, in which she learns the cultural knowledge of her people but does not undergo FGM.

But when he dies, Nyima's mother is too weak to protect her daughter from tradition. Dependent on her brother-in-law for support, and hidebound by religion, she acquiesces to thirteen year-old Nyima's marriage to a grotesque old man called Pa Momat because Uncle Modou decrees it. Nyima is devastated:

When I voiced out my thoughts to my mother, she just shook her head sadly and told me to raise my hand and look at my fingers. 'You see, Nyima,' she said, 'even the fingers are not equal. My dear daughter, it is written in the Holy Book that men shall lead women into eternity. And so, my child, it will remain.'

Her words did not deter me. I believe that men should indeed lead women but they should not control them like puppets on strings. Women should be allowed to voice their thoughts, as in my case. I wanted to tell my uncle that I did not want to marry Pa Momat. I wanted to complete my education and become a teacher so that I could share my knowledge with others. I wanted to scream it all out, let loose all of my torments and frustration, but tradition and customs prevented that. A woman had to accept her destiny and mine was to marry Pa Momat. (P.15)

Worse is to come. Pa Momat rejects her and demands back the wedding expenses and the dowry (that has gone to Uncle Modou) because she is uncircumcised. And so she is physically forced to undergo this hideously painful mutilation, to make her acceptable to her angry husband. And then there is more trouble because she does not get pregnant, to give him the required son.

All this is happening while she is still in her teens, and her powerlessness makes it seem as if there is no hope. But the title of the book comes from her mother's saying, that even in the depths of despair, 'the sun will soon shine.'

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/06/20/t...

[Lise Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sally Singhateh has written a powerful book from the perspective of a young Gambian woman raised in her family village. Although her village experiences are very painful to read, it is so valuable to hear the authentic voices of Gambian women themselves. My only disappointment is that it was so short. I wanted to know more about the life of Nyima after she had been given the opportunity to begin her life anew through gaining education, employment and a happy marriage and family.

[Africa BookChallenge]

The latest entry for The Africa Book Challege, The Sun Will Soon Shine by Sally Sadie Singhateh for The Gambia has been posted.

Click on the URL on the profile page to learn more about the resilience of this protagonist who overcomes so much cruelty in order to gain control of her destiny.

[Sally906 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in modern day Gambia THE SUN WILL SOON SHINE is a small book but it packs a powerful punch. Nyima is a young girl who loves school and is studying hard so she can go to university and become a teacher. Her plans all fall apart just before her thirteenth birthday when she is told by her grandfather that she will be marrying the richest man in her village and become his number 4 wife. Her husband is as old as her grandfather and all the weeping and cajoling in the world cannot change her grandfather’s mind. On her wedding night Nyima’s new husband rejects her as she has not undergone female circumcision something that is quickly remedied by her grandfather. The operation is carried out by an elderly woman in a remote hut with no anaesthesia or modern medication at all, she is just left lying on a mat to heal. Nyima is starting the darkest days of her life, her grandmother tells Nyima that although things seem very bad the sun will soon shine and this is a phrase that the young girl clings to as she enters her husband’s compound. How the sun eventually shines for Nyima is the subject of the story – Nyima is proud to be Gambian, she just want to be in charge of her own body and destiny and the men in her life just don’t want to let her.

An amazing story - I had my heart in my mouth and wept with sheer frustration that this still happens to women in some cultures to this day. There is hope though as women across Africa and the world take up the call to cease the practice of female circumcision.

There are not a lot of books written about Gambia – I have read two one being Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster and the other ‘Our Grandmothers' Drums: A Portrait of Rural African Life & Culture’ by Mark Hudson – which I read before I had a blog. There are Gambian writers out there so will be keeping an eye out for more publications

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short book (just over 100 pages) but a really interesting topic.