I Do Not Come to You by Chance Reading Group Notes
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 1
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 2
1/11/10 2:38 PM
In Brief
T
he village experts said that women did not need to know too much ‘book’. It was therefore a waste of time sending Augustina to secondary school. Reverend Sister Xavier felt so strongly about this that she came all the way to sit opposite Augustina’s father and tell him he was wrong. She told him that all across the world women were achieving great things, and that Augustina should be given the chance to join them. He was so unused to women telling him what to do, Augustina’s father agreed. Changing the world was not to be Augustina’s destiny, however, and after she completed school she was apprenticed to her father’s sister, who was a tailor. Her exemplary marks at school made no difference, there was to be no further education for Augustina. All this was swept from Augustina’s mind when she first saw Engineer. He was on leave from his government job, and Augustina loved him from the moment he stepped from his Peugeot 403. He had studied in the United Kingdom, and he behaved like a white man.
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 3
1/11/10 2:38 PM
He was also handsome, and when he began to take an interest in Augustina she couldn’t have been happier. Engineer encouraged Augustina to continue her studies and even helped with her fees, promising to marry her when she graduated. Engineer was sure that their children would be everything he dreamed: doctors, scientists, lawyers . . .
The soup should have been thick, rich and delicious. But it was thin, weak and depressing. It was a good indication of how bad times were. Kingsley knew things had not always been like this. After his parents had married they had gone to England and gained Masters degrees. His father had returned to a good job in the Ministry of Works and Transport, and his mother had taken on a good size tailoring shop. But the years of rising inflation had eaten up his father’s stagnant salary, and when his ill health proved to be diabetes, the cost of the treatment had caused their descent to this present precarious position. Kingsley’s life had been tailored to one goal. He would study to the exclusion of all else, and he would get a good job in a big company as a chemical engineer. This was not open to discussion. The plan had gone well so
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 4
1/11/10 2:38 PM
far, but Kingsley was struggling at the last hurdle. He could get interviews, but no one was offering him a position. It was getting rather worrying. After receiving the latest rejection letter Kingsley had gone in search of his one shining light in this murky darkness: his beloved Ola. Even she had seemed less pleased to see him than usual, and there had been something different about her room. It had taken Kingsley a while to work out what it was, but alarm bells certainly rang when he realised that the pictures of him had gone from her bedside. Things were going from bad to worse. Kingsley’s life would change when his father became seriously ill. They needed money quickly so a hospital would treat him, and there was only one place to go. So Kingsley set out to ask the favour of his uncle, Boniface. Cash Daddy, as his uncle Boniface was known, was just the sort of person Kingsley’s father would not want Kingsley to grow into. Making his enormous fortune from email scamming, Cash Daddy had money to burn, and would surely help. As Kingsley approached the guarded offices, he was uncertain what he would find. What he found changed his life. Kingsley just wasn’t sure if it was for the better. . .
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 5
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 6
1/11/10 2:38 PM
About the Author
A
daobi Tricia Nwaubani grew up in the eastern part of Nigeria, among the Igbo-speaking people, whom many believe to be the major culprits of 419 scams. She won her first writing competition aged 13. She now lives in Abuja, Nigeria. I Do Not Come to You by Chance is her first novel.
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 7
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 8
1/11/10 2:38 PM
For Discussion
u
Is the benefit of education the ability ‘to change the world to suit’, as Engineer thinks?
u
How is the changing culture of Nigeria reflected in the novel?
u
‘The past is constraining but the future has no limits.’ Is this true?
u
‘Perhaps it was natural to find all sorts of silly things funny when you had a pocketful of cash.’ Is it?
u
‘My father had no quarrel with the white man.’ What is Kingsley’s relationship with the white man? Does it differ from Cash Daddy’s?
u
‘In his own special way, my uncle was an honest man.’ Is Kingsley right? Is there an honesty about Cash Daddy?
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 9
1/11/10 2:38 PM
u
How does the author feel about 419ers?
u
What does the novel say about education?
u
‘Kissing may be the language of love, but it’s money that does the talking.’ Is this true, do you think? What does this tell us about Cash Daddy?
u
‘Besides, the petty enmities that exist between one man and another suddenly disintegrate when they are linked with the bond of affliction.’ How far is the novel about financial insecurity?
u
‘Every human being deserved at least one person to laugh at his jokes, no matter how dry.’ What does Kingsley want?
u
‘After all, 419er or no, was I not still Kingsley?’ What do we learn of Kingsley from this thought?
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 10
1/11/10 2:38 PM
Suggested Further Reading
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe This House Has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis by Karl Maier The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dandarembga Graceland by Christopher Abani
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 11
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 12
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 13
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 14
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 15
1/11/10 2:38 PM
I Do,Not...RGN.indd 16
1/11/10 2:38 PM
