X-raying Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘’Dream Count’’ and Today’s Issues among Women
by Temitope Oni
When Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (CNA) labelled herself a happy feminist, many people didn’t really get the drift. From her first offering, ‘’Purple Hibiscus’’ to ‘’Half of a Yellow Sun’’, she made her mark. And right now, she just upped the ante with her latest work, ‘’Deam Count’’.
Published on the 4TH of March 2025 in the U.S on the stable of Knopf, ‘’Dream Count’’ presents a poignant exploration of the complexities of womanhood, friendship, and identity, all of which are woven into the lives of four strong-willed women: Chiamaka (Chai), Zikora, Kadiatou, and Omelogor, who are trying to navigate a world that often overlooks their voices and stories. Through these characters, Adichie delves into the intersection of personal trauma, societal expectations, history, and contemporary struggles; creating a narrative that is as thought-provoking as it is emotionally resonant.
One of such is how Kadiatou’s rape trauma adds another layer of emotional depth to the narrative. After being raped twice: first in Guinea and the attendant shame and injustice she continually wrestles to numb her pain in silence following a repeat in America involving a popular figure (a real life story of Dominque Strauss-Kahn and his alleged rape of a Guinean hotel worker in 2011 Adichie draws on)---a clear indication of how the weight of the emotional burden women carry is often minimized or discarded to fit societal narratives. Just few days ago, Omotunde Lolo 1, a Lagos based broadcaster and actor, revealed that a colleague of hers raped her six years ago and couldn’t do anything about it because she was too ashamed to speak up. Painfully, the mores of this clime would question her ‘’why now’’ that the colleague is popular in the broadcasting industry. Another of this shade is Omelogor’s. We see how numb she becomes after witnessing her uncle’s violent death and the parading of his impaled head during a riot in northern Nigeria, a traumatic moment many would rather forget but experiences a release by breaking down when a stranger, Gideon Okeke, is killed in the same way.
Omelogor’s iconoclast’s persona is Adichie’s deliberate attempt to tackle the stereotypes. Her journey highlights the profound societal expectations placed on women, particularly the belief that a woman's worth is defined by marriage and children, and that her life is empty and sad. Instead, she rejects these conventional paths by choosing to define happiness on her own terms, choosing to study pornography for her postgraduate, challenging societal taboos surrounding sexual identity and relationships in African cultures.
The problem of men also seem to be a big deal among middle-aged women. As it appears, they long for the hard-to-parse ‘’Mrs’’ title. While some address this spiritually, others just rely on head knowledge and leave a trail of ‘’body counts’’ along the way like Chiamaka, a 44-year old only daughter of a wealthy Nigerian businessman whose hopes have been repeatedly dashed by thieves of time comprising a secretly married Englishman she met online in London, an academic and others.
In conclusion, ‘’Dream Count’’ is an exquisitely crafted novel that explores grief, identity, trauma, and societal expectations, providing a deep and multifaceted look at the complexities of womanhood. It also integrates personal struggles with broader historical and societal issues bordering on racism, shaming of Dutch women after World War II, the targeting of Igbo Christians during the northern riot in Nigeria and the historical erasure or look away of African contributions to inventions like modern toilets in Western narratives; using historical context to shape each character’s journey.
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