The sun will soon shine by Sally Sadie Singhateh

Ok so I read the book The sun will soon shine. It´s a short book about a young girl growing up in the Gambia in between two totally different worlds with two different set of rules.
The book describes her way from adolescence until adulthood, from the village life to a life that she her self has chosen and fought for to have.

Some parts of the book touched me. It is simple and straightforward and it tells a story about a community where female voices have no power and where traditions rule. Traditions that are cruel and cause lifelong suffering to many girls and women around the world.

And it brought about a lot of questions. Like – why is it so important to get married in the Gambia? Is it because of traditions and if so, is it because of the tradition of Islam or the traditions which were more common before Islam came to West Africa?
Or is it because of poverty? That without the community, and without the family, you will simply not survive?

In the book we find that even though the protagonist fights her way through all the obstacles, and achieves things that many in her position never would be able to achieve, its like she still hasn´t “made it” until she gets married and has children. Like motherhood is her primary role no matter what dreams she her self has.

But it´s also a story about hope and about finding love. A story about to be able to both love and be loved even though the past has set you up for fearing relationships.

I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.

For more book reviews go to the Book log page

And here is also a link to a book review in The Standard newspaper in the Gambia