SRB: A Bougainvillian gives Mr Pip the thumbs-up

Lloyd Jones’s award winning Mr Pip has been celebrated from London to New York but until now a Bougainvillian voice has been absent from those praising it.

The Scoop Review of Books recently asked the President of the Autonomous Government of Bougainville, Joseph Kabui, whether he had had the chance to read the Mr Pip. “No, I haven’t heard of it,” was his succinct reply.

After hearing it was set in Bougainville and was doing well around the world he said he would keen to read it but would have to wait until his next trip out of Bougainville to buy a copy, as there’s no bookshops in Bougainville.

In fact there are a few copies available for borrowing around the island. Last year the SRB in collaboration with Volunteer Service Abroad and Penguin Books organised for six copies of the book to be donated to Bougainville’s one public library and five secondary school libraries.

Possibly the first Bougainvillian to read Mr Pip was human rights campaigner Agnes Titus. Titus spent the nine-year crisis on the Bougainvillian island of Nissan and – like the mothers portrayed in the novel - was instrumental in keeping her children’s school running throughout the civil war.

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Agnes Titus

Titus says the book was so realistic it was painful to read. “It was a bit dry at first but once I got to the tale about what happened during the crisis. I didn’t want to put it down. By the third day I had finished it.

“It actually brought memories back. Because it seemed too true it was quite painful. It was like reliving the situation again.”

She says the scene in the book where the women went to the school to tell stories was a realistic example of how the mothers, in particular, tried to maintain a sense of normality during the crisis in an attempt to protect their children from the suffering of war.

Titus would like to see the book taught in Bougainvillian schools. “There are no books about the crisis… it would be good for our children to be able to read this book.”

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Sadly, Bougainville’s one public library at Arawa was recently burnt to the ground: rumour has it by a disgruntled student who didn’t do well in his exams.

Anyone wanting to know a bit more about the background of the Bougainville crisis should take a look at this extract from New Zealand Abroad: The History of VSA in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. It provides some factual background to the conflict.

Additional Links:
• The Independent
• The Guardian
• Sydney Morning Herald

Jeremy Rose is the editor of the Scoop Review of Books and a Wellington journalist.

jeremy [at] scoop.co.nz

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