Review: Sam A. Adewoye's " The Betrayer"

 The Pacesetters series (an imprint of Macmillian Publishers) was a series of books written by various African writers, targeted at young readers, ranging from romance to drama, mystery to thrillers.

They are rather dated now, but that is what makes them classics, just like the titles under the African Writers Series. However, unlike the latter, the Pacesetters series never got into the school curriculum, but they were a trend among youngsters many years back, along with the Nancy Drew mystery books and Mills & Boon romance. These days, unlike the time when one can stroll into any bookshop and find them on the shelves, finding them nowadays is hard unless you know where to look. 

Sam A. Adewoye's "The Betrayer", released in 1979,  is a contemporary tale of bearing the consequences of one's actions and how it could affect others.  Olayemi Odegbemi is a unique character as he's both the protagonist and antagonist of the story. From his birth, he is the centre of his parents' world, being the only child, and does all they can to cater to his needs. His mother especially is protective of him and anxious to see him married. Olayemi eventually presents them with Bimpe Ayodeji, who is from a wealthy family, the archetype 'good girl'; loving, faithful and quite studious and both families agree. 

However, the readers immediately see through Olayemi; thanks to the writer's 'telling, not showing' technique of writing. We will excuse him as it was a common practice (except for some exceptions) in the series, probably not to make it too bulky for the young readers. Bimpe served a different purpose to Olayemi, as it turned out, and he was able to get money to fund his trip to England to pursue a University degree from HER parents. From then on, he cut loose, now that his parents were not around to tell him what to do and even sent them a 'fuck you' letter, telling them he wasn't marrying Bimpe after all, as he has found someone else....

"Bimpe is not the only girl in the world through whom I could have children." 

The people at home are left in shock, but while Bimpe painfully moves on with her life, Mr and Mrs Odegbemi are seriously affected by their son's deceit, all the more painful as they thought they had raised a responsible son the whole time. Their heartbreak is agonising to read, and later on, via letters, Olayinka receives word of the results of his actions, but his repentance (if one can call it that) comes too late, as he blames God for punishing him as though he didn't deserve it. Worse still, the other woman is not who he thought she was, leading to more problems for him. A humiliating incident at his job as a janitor leads him to a solution, which fortunately puts him back on track. However, the past keeps hitting him on the head, after he returns to Nigeria.

In retrospect, "The Betrayer" is rather predictable, yet sad. All the same, it's an absorbing read because you simply wish to know how things would turn out for Olayemi, who in the end learnt this lesson the hard way: 

"A man must always be concerned about the way he treats people he meets as he climbs up for, more likely than not, he will meet them again when he crashes down."