Breaking Barriers starts off well right from the cover page design and good quality printing. The images on the cover tell the story of a love that shatters opposition and ends in marriage; hence the ringed male and female entangled fingers against the colourful strokes that seem to represent splinters of wall or other barricades.
The 349 paged book is sequenced into four parts:
PART ONE (growing up) introduces us to the characters that formed the foundation of our subject, Christine Vidal-Wachuku, and lays her formative days.
It contains four chapters. One introduces us to her father, baba, who, although only by going further into the book, we would understand why the author describes him as a no-nonsense father. In the chapter one, what we see is a focused, diligent and disciplined man who loves his children and works hard to train them.
Chapter two introduces us to mama, the professional nurse and enterprising mother who is foresighted enough to create multiple businesses at the time that such was not very common amongst her people.
Chapter three gives us a glimpse into the psychology of the author’s parents, who try to give their children a realistic perspective of life. While they are privileged children by all standards, the parents train them in a way that they can survive and thrive in every circumstance of life.
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Chapter four closes the part one of the book with the author’s educational journey into becoming a lawyer. This chapter also has a vital characteristic of her father: diligence, accountability, and attention to details. “Baba had a file for each of us where he kept all report cards and other necessary educational documents. Once we came of age, he handed it over. To date, I have mine with report cards from primary school, receipts, admission letters, and more.”
PART TWO (falling in love and the struggles) also has four chapters: the first chapter in this part narrates how and where the author meets her future husband, Vidal Wachuku. Chapter five narrates how they go about laying the foundation of their future home. Although the author elopes to be with her lover, they do not engage in premarital sex. In chapter seven, we meet the beginning of the conflict that is to challenge the lovers for over three years.
Chapter eight gives us some insights into the mind of her lover, Vidal. Here we are giving several letters that he writes in events that make up that part of their journey.
PART THREE (elopement and marriage) has the highest number of chapters, seven chapters. The first here, chapter nine, is subtitled mothers to the rescue. It leads us to chapter ten into the pressures that lead our subject into the dangerous flight to Aba, leaving all her family and friends to be with her lover.
Chapter eleven narrates the partially forbidden marriage. While Vidal’s parents are in full support of it, Christine’s parents are not. Despite such oppositions, the lovers go ahead with their marriage, possibly fuelled by the support of Vidal’s parents.
Chapters twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen recount their early married life. The first fruit of their marriage turns their joy into sadness in such a short time. But again, they see light, “we honoured our late daughter by falling back on the meaning of her Igbo name, Ogechikanma – God’s time is the best…”
PART FOUR comes with a profoundly inspiring quote from Napoleon Hill. “Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.” It brings this exciting true story to a conclusion in three chapters where we learn that it takes some pressures on Christine’s parents from “a few more courageous people” to finally shift their grounds first by welcoming them to Karu following their visit. We see baba, the tough guy, finally accepting his daughter’s decision and also giving permission for their traditional marriage rites.
Chapter seventeen (the traditional marriage) takes us into the scene of Gbagyi contemporary traditional marriage rites—a beautiful and dramatic ceremony that differs completely from the traditional marriage rites and ceremonies practiced by the Gbagyi ancestors back in the days. However, this ‘contemporary’ Gbagyi traditional wedding rites and ceremony is still unique to the Gbagyi people.
Chapter eighteen (Vidal: Doting father and husband) gives us a glimpse into the kind of husband and father Vidal is: an incredibly uncommon kind of man.
Breaking Barriers ends with an epilogue and then an afterword by the author’s husband. In his words, “It is essential to know what you want in life and go for it no matter the odds or obstacles on your path. This book teaches patience, fortitude, focus, determination, commitment, true friendship, and faith.”
Christine Vidal-Wachuku’s writing is authentic and so palpable I feel like I am seated right in front of her as she narrates this inspiring story, with her husband seated by the side and chipping in with some vital details here and there.
There is so much more to learn from Breaking Barriers than all I can paint here on my canvas. While it seems this book is all about marriage from the cover page design, its vital lessons apply to business relationships, spiritual journey, personal development, professional career, and much more.
One of my favourite metaphors from the book is on page 48, “… ‘Sukwo to shna zhnizhni n ya n’ one of Mama’s cousins observed, apparently fascinated by how electricity made night an outcast in the city.”
However, there are a few issues that should be checked for improvement in the subsequent editions. I’ll start from page 31, while telling us about Mama, the author says, “She started the program two months later and completed it in 1964. She then secured a job at General Hospital, Keffi, Nasarawa State.” This should have read, present Nasarawa State, since there was no Nasarawa state in 1964.
Going further to page 53 leading to page 54, I noticed the preposition ‘for’ missing in the sentence “your father has no money to leave for you when he dies…”
On page 56, the phrase the following day should have been used instead of, “… the next day, Ba-ba laughed.” When referring to the past, the following day is more appropriate.
I appreciate the detail in the book and have learned a lot from it, but I found some of them unnecessary. For instance on page 58, you find, “My cousins taught me how to draw water from the well, a 3-feet diameter pit with a depth of between 25 to 30 feet…” I am sure in those days, she didn’t go about finding out the size of the well when she was just being taught how to draw water from it. Narrating this part from the point of view of a child would have had a stronger emotional impact for me.
After earlier telling us that the Gbagyi people have no r in their pronunciations, and rightly so, we find an r slip up into a dialogue, “‘N ho to laka ha lo makaranta n…’” on page 63.
I find the earlier dialogues on page 131 a bit confusing because of the shift in point of view. While the narration is in first person point of view, I would expect every line from Vidal to come from a second person point of view and, or reported speech. For instance, “‘…but you know her parents are against your relationship ba?’” he asked me. It took a second read for me to understand it was Vidal talking. It should have read, he asked him, the dialogue tag notwithstanding.
Also, the earlier dialogue on that same page, ‘“sit down first, darling,” he said, then began’ should have continued with the remaining part of the dialogue, “When we got to your living room, your cousin Nasara was already seated, waiting for us.”’because it is the same Vidal talking. It should not have come down as another paragraph the way it is in the book.
On page 236, the dialogue “Is that so…” and the response to it are repeated, possibly during the laying out of the book.
Knowing that the author begins her marital journey as a lawyer in Nigeria, but is currently a nurse in the US, I think that a little part of the transition should have made part of the narration of this great journey of inspiring courage, hope and faith, but the author does not think so. And I respect that.
I would end my piece with one of the most profound lines I find in this book on page 193, an excerpt from Christine’s letter to her lover in the heat of their battle. ‘… The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering…’ This is a word in season for me, and there are many more things in Breaking Barriers that will inspire you as well.
