‘Gethsemane’, on one hand, revolves around two sisters and their close-knit bond, which becomes shaky when the elder girl gains a scholarship far from home. On the other hand, it is a story of a daughter breaking off from the expectations of her parents regarding her career path. She is the first daughter of a family of seven children, and when she takes up a ‘lowly’ course of study, her parents will not embrace the choice with a smile.
The story is an attempt at an investigation of siblinghood — how there can be a more delicate relationship between two or more siblings.
In most families I know of, there are always two siblings who seem to get along better than the other siblings. I also wanted to write about the internal quakes caused by migration in some African families, with this pandemic of young students leaving for the West to further their education.
‘Gethsemane’ is a way of looking at the tensions of a nuclear family, the way one’s choices affect the other, the way a parent’s decision determines the future of a child, and the way a sin could no longer count as sin if it were your sister committing it.
I have always loved these words by Virginia Woolf, “Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.” I believe that every piece of fiction attaches to a part of our lives.
In this maiden edition of Naira Stories, I can’t understate my gratitude and happiness for being part of those contributing to this body of fiction — work that would hold differently to a separate fragment of life, but which will together proclaim truths that run deep into the soul.
I’m grateful to be publishing an article in this magazine, alongside other tellers of stories. I hope to read from the magazine truths that cling so tenaciously to my life and characters that haunt me afterwards.
Daniel Echezonachi Maxwell grew up in Aba and studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Gemini Magazine, Brittle Paper, Chestnut Review, Isele Magazine, and elsewhere. He was the winner of the 2024 Ikenga Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the 2024 Brigitte Poirson Literature Prize. He is currently the Associate Prose Editor of The Muse Journal, UNN.
