“They had an unspoken understanding not to press one another about the past and its pain, but to keep trying to live in the present, offering silent understanding and respect.” ‘They’ being the five members of the family at the center of Ishmael Beah’s novel, Little Family: a group of five young people from different backgrounds living on the margins of society in the carcass of an airplane crash in an unnamed African nation. The family includes Elimane, a bookish intellectual who lost his family and wealth in a catastrophe, Khoudiemata, a clever and compassionate young woman who wishes to be like other ‘normal’ teenagers, Ndevui, an athletic young man full of vigor, the thoughtful Kpindi, and Namsa, the resourceful child. The family of five survives by stealing food and clothing from the local market, and scheming corrupt business owners to put food on the table. Their everyday existence is an effort to survive, and they must rely on their wits and street smarts to keep themselves alive. But when Elimane begins working with the shady businessman dubbed William Handkerchief, and Khoudi secretly begins spending time with privileged children of government officials, the family’s bubble of safety and community threatens to burst.
In his sensitive but incisive novel, Beah tackles issues of colonialism, government corruption, and financial inequality. And as it turns out, these issues are actually inextricable from each other. Corrupt government officials who were put in power by allying themselves with wealthy European colonizers perpetuate economic inequality and cultural hegemony in their nations, stamping out local customs and replacing them with European ones. In this world, financial capital is closely allied with whiteness and a sort of anti-Africanism, and those who maintain their African names, heritage, and respect for their culture are deemed low class and unsophisticated for refusing to conform to Europe-centric cultural ideals. As Khoudi begins crossing the boundary into the realm of privilege, she notices how the children of government officials have completely rejected their African heritage, choosing to eat at fancy restaurants that serve European cuisine rather than local dishes.
Little Family is a searing indictment of the two-pronged colonialist and capitalist system that has made life a day-to-day struggle for many people living in formerly occupied nations. The little family at the center of this novel, each of whom are escaping a past existence, rely on their wits and survival skills in order to build a lives for themselves within the oppressive system they live in. Beah makes clear how superficial the division between the rich and poor is in this society: the characters easily cross into the world of privilege simply by altering their appearances. In their daily lives, Khoudi and the others experience society’s disdain of their poverty, and they are able to pull of many of their schemes due to their invisibility. This superficial division of society is made all the more frustrating by the astronomical degrees of inequality that it separates: with new hair and a change of clothes, Khoudi is able to shed her identity as a woman whose every day is a struggle against starvation or violence, to enter the world of people who do not even open their own car doors for themselves.
This novel is not only a moving social critique, but a fascinating character study. Khoudi, Elimane, Namsa, Ndevui, and Kpindi are a fascinating group of unique individuals bound together by their desire for community and their need to survive. This novel is a deceptively hopeful celebration of the human spirit and the ability to adapt and create bonds wherever one goes. As each of these characters grow into themselves, they begin to question their place in the world and challenge the systems that oppress them. A propulsive novel with a lot on its mind, Ishmael Beah’s first foray into fiction is extremely promising
Further Reading: Ishmael Beah’s debut memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, an account of his time as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.