Independent lovend over ‘On Black Sisters’ Street’
door de redactie · 8 juli 2009
Onlangs verscheen de roman ‘Fata Morgana’ van Chika Unigwe in het Engels bij uitgeverij Jonathan Cape. De titel werd vertaald tot ‘On Black Sisters’ Street’, het boek vertelt het verhaal van vier Afrikaanse vrouwen die in Antwerpen in de prostitutie belanden.
Schrijfster Bernardine Evaristo recenseerde het voor de Britse krant The Indepenedent en is alvast lovend: “Not many novelists would wander around the seedy red-light district of Antwerp in a mini-skirt and thigh-high boots to carry out research. But this is what Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe did for her novel about the lives of African sex workers in the Belgian city. She also spent time persuading these women to share their stories.”
Dat leverde volgens Evaristo dus een goed boek op: “On Black Sisters’ Street is a probing and unsettling exploration of the many factors that lead African women into prostitution in Europe, and it pulls no punches about the sordid nature of the job. (…) This is an important and accomplished novel that leaves a strong aftertaste. Unigwe gives voice to those who are voiceless, fleshes out the stories of those who offer themselves as meat for sale, and bestows dignity on those who are stripped off it.”
