How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

This is a Leonberger blog but sometimes I post about books that are not about Leonbergers but that are books that I love and want to promote. This is another one of those. I recently read “How Beautiful We Were” by Imbolo Mbue an author from Cameroon. It is a novel about Africans who had their land taken away by a dictatorial regime and given to a petroleum company called Pexton. They are being poisoned and oppressed and then massacred when they protest. It is a dark but hopeful tale. I read the hardcover version of the book.

It is fiction; however, the story is inspired by the author’s own experiences. The story is especially influenced by the struggle of the Ogoni people in Nigeria who had their land impacted and exploited for oil by Shell and the Nigerian government. They protested peacefully but were met with violence. I did not mention this information in my Amazon review. Based on my experience I am pretty sure Amazon would not have accepted a review for a novel that mentioned names of real corporations and people. However, I can say it here.

A black African holding a sign that says, “We condemn the killing of our people for oil.”
Protest in Washington, D.C. against the killing of Saro-Wiwa and others, November 1995. Elvert Barnes from Silver Spring MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons.
  • Hardcover–  Publisher : Random House (March 9, 2021), ISBN-10 : 0593132424, ISBN-13 : 978-0593132425, 384 pages, Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds, dimensions ‏ 6.3x 1.2 x 9.5 inches, it cost $11.95 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Paperback –  Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks (February 1, 2022), ISBN-10 : 0593132440, ISBN-13 : 978-0593132449, 384 pages, Item Weight : ‎ 2.31 pounds, dimensions 5.1 x 0.82 x 7.98 inches, it cost $10.10 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle – Publisher : Random House (March 9, 2021), ASIN : B07XN8W4BC, ISBN-13 : 978-0593132432, 364 pages. It is currently 8.99 on Amazon.com. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Audibook – Publisher : Random House (March 9, 2021), ASIN : B081K5518W, Listening Length : 14 hours and 7 minutes. It is currently 0.99 on Amazon.com with membership. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
The title and author name and an illustration featuring two injured arms holding hands.
Front cover of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. Click here or the picture to visit the Amazon.com page for the hardcover version of the book.

Amazon’s description of the book

A fearless young woman from a small African village starts a revolution against an American oil company in this sweeping, inspiring novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers.

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, People • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, The Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Ms. magazine, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews

“Mbue reaches for the moon and, by the novel’s end, has it firmly held in her hand.”—NPR

We should have known the end was near. So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells of a people living in fear amid environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of cleanup and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interests. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle will last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

This is my five-star review for How Beautiful We Were

Bitter Tears Arising from Oil Exploitation

This book is the story of the traditional animists people of Kosawa a fictional village in Africa. Their land has been given to an American oil company called Pexton by His Excellency, the cruel dictator of the unnamed country where they live. They continue living on their land, but oil spills, chemical spills, and accidents ruin the soil, kill their crops, and kills their children. They suffer terribly but at first, they just try to plead with Pexton but as things get worse, they begin protesting and eventually they take more forceful action. His Excellencies soldiers respond with extreme cruelty and massacres. News reports in western media about the situation are called fake news by His Excellency and his government. Their situation seems hopeless but Thula the daughter of Sahel who is an educated woman organize an uprising.

Over 2-3 generations we follow the lives of the villagers of whom several act as narrators for the story including Bongo, Sahel, Thula, Yaya, Juba and the children. We see the events through their eyes. There are also letters from some of them which carry the narrative. You really get to know the main characters well and you empathize and care for them. I felt like I knew them, their good sides and their weaknesses. In other words, the character development was excellent. The villagers were often superstitious. However, not only did that element add authenticity, there are a lot of superstitions here in the west that’s widely accepted, such as astrology and homeopathy.

Imbolo Imbue is a great author and she is a great storyteller who writes beautiful lyrical prose filled with emotion. Even though this is a fictional story it is inspired by real events that the author witnessed in her native country. It became obvious to me that much of what she was writing about was experienced. The book was sad, many people died, often cruel deaths, and there were torture, rapes, and children dying. On the other hand, the book was also hopeful, and the action was fast paced and suspenseful. It was a mesmerizing and perhaps a shocking story.

In summary, this book is captivating, emotive and beautifully written. It tells a gripping and authentic story despite being fiction. It feels real and it opens your eyes to the struggles of victims of oil exploitation. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.

Advanced praise and short reviews for the book How Beautiful We Were.
Back cover of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue. Click here or the picture to visit the Amazon.com page for the paperback version of the book.
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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

38 thoughts on “How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue”

  2. Thomas, thank you so much for your powerful and insightful review. ‘How Beautiful We Were’ sounds like an incredible book and how inspired by the writer to create a piece of fiction around the actual harrowing events. This was the author gains a scope of freedom and ability to use their gifted artistic abilities. Definitely a book I want to read.

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          1. I’ll likely enjoy it if she’s as brave as I am. I like memoirs about risk takers since mine is about that too! Thank you so much for buying & I hope you enjoy it! I’m excited to hear your thoughts on it.

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  4. Lulu: “Our Dada says this reminds him of a documentary they watched once called Darwin’s Nightmare which was about how they introduced the Nile perch to Lake Victoria in the hopes of creating a fishery and instead it destroyed the economy and livelihood of everyone around the lake when the perch ate all the other fish that lived in it. And now they export cheap fish to other countries and nobody around the lake has any fish of their own to catch anymore …”

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  6. Thank you for reviewing this book, Thomas. It sounds compelling. As I read a fictional tale like this one, I always wonder how much of it is influenced by the author’s own experiences. As soon as I finish typing this, I’m going to look it up and consider buying it.

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    1. Thank you Pete. I think that she did not directly experience this but that she was around people and situations where similar things happened. It felt like she experienced it when you read it. The characters in the book appeared to be the kind of people she must have grown up with.

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  7. this sounds like a devastating experience for the country, the land, and especially, the people. it sounds wonderfully written and a compelling read, certainly a story that needs to be told.

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    1. Thank you Beth. Yes this was one of the most captivating reads I’ve read. It felt self-experienced, especially with respect to the culture and how they lived, believed and talked. She may not have experienced the actual events herself but she knew about similar events where she grew up.

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    1. Yes I have a feeling that what you are saying is true. I am starting to learn about it. This book was my first introduction to the problem. I should say that in the book the real bad guys was His Excellency and his government as Pexton quietly took advantage of the situation. It was also a few decades in the past.

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  11. Thank you for reviewing what is clearly a powerful and important book. “News reports in western media about the situation are called fake news by His Excellency and his government,” sounds familiar. I hope they make a movie from it this book. I’m not sure I can bear to read it as my empathy is more easily overwhelmed than when I was younger and my body has become more sensitive to reading detailed descriptions of cruelty. But I appreciate learning about the situation here. I’m curious about when these events happened and realize they are probably still happening.

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    1. Googling implies that she was largely basing the book on the oppression and killing of the Ogoni people and their leader (Saro-Wiwa) / (Thula in the book). In 1993 2,000 Ogoni people were attacked and killed after 2,976 oil spills (1976 to 1991) and Benzene (a carcinogen) contamination 900 times above the allowed levels (according to WHO). I took that from Wikipedia BTW.

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  12. This sounds like a fascinating book! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review! From what I’ve read, petroleum is a huge part of the Nigerian economy. It doesn’t surprise me that there have been abuses against ordinary people.

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    1. Thank you so much Dawn. Yes if you don’t have a democracy and not good government it is easy for companies to take advantage of the situation. We can’t expect them to take the moral highground. It must start with good government. I read that reality was even worse than the fictional story in the book. 2,000 people were killed.

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