They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died (Emezi 2020, 9). I don’t mind anymore. I see how things work now, from this side. I was born and I died. I will come back. Somewhere, you see, in the river of time, I am already alive (Emezi 2020, 154).
Above is the first and last sentence of the text, The Death of Vivek Oji. The opening chapter leaves us with an image of a market burning, Fire. Archetypically, fire is a symbol representing, life, spiritual energy, regeneration and the ability to transform.
The mythical Phoenix ability to be reborn is preceded by it’s eruption, it burns itself to death and rises from its ashes. From the beginning of the text, there is a foreshadow of a pattern, one of death and rebirth. The last sentence of the text confirms the transcendence of death by the character, Vivek. This process is only possible through reincarnation.
Reincarnation can be defined as the transportation of elements from the realm of the dead back to a form of existence. It is a broad term that shelters both resurrection and rebirth. It is myth as old as old as man as it’s manifestation can be found in the very foundation of nature.
This can be seen in the observation of seasonal changes and its implication on the blossoming and withering of plants. In it’s most usual usage, reincarnation refers to state where an imperishable conscious beings are supplied with physical bodies appropriate to their stage of growth, and through which they can come in contact with the lessons of physical life.
Reincarnation is an archetype that is primarily universal and hence it’s reflection in the works of Akweke Emezi is of no surprise. In the text, The Death of Vivek Oji, we see a kind of reincarnation that permeates a new being so strongly that it results in a tragic ending. This trajectory of reincarnation is not so in all of it expression because archetypes can not taken the same form in every culture through the course of history.
In the words of Stevens, the archetypes may be “common to all humanity” but “they are nevertheless manifested in every individual in a manner peculiar to him or her”. This is so because the conscious mind of the individual that processes a certain archetype from the collective unconscious does so within the grounds of specific cultural, social, political consciousness. This results in an archetypal image tainted by a societal ethos.
Reincarnation myth is essential to this text because the character that pulls the plot together, Vivek Oji is a boy of both Indian and African lineage as represented by his parents, Kavita and Chika. Reincarnation holds a dignified status in both Indian and African metaphysical world. The most significant character of the Hindu religion, Buddah is said to have gone through this process of reincarnation.
The cycle of reincarnation within their belief system is referred to as, Samsara. It’s a concept closely knitted with Karma. A being is made to go through different existence, experiencing either good or bad circumstances based on the life he led previously. Amongst the Nigerians, the Abiku and Ogbanje are children figures that are synonymous with the myth of rebirth.
They’re children that are reincarnated over and over again in an effort to torment their earthly mother. The deeply shared respect for the cyclical nature of the world between the Indians and Nigerians is the driving force of this text. The form of rebirth that is evident in this text is one that is referred to as metempsychosis by Jung. The third form of rebirth identified by Jung is metempsychosis, a “transmigration of souls”.
This type of rebirth, Jung explains, is when “life is prolonged in time by passing through different bodily existences”. One is born again several times and these births are part of the continuous existence of the individual. According to Jung, in this form of rebirth is evident biologically as the person is born again. It is a complete rebirth in a new body; there is no continuity of appearance.
In addition, Jung states that there is no assurance that the individual who experiences metempsychosis will retain his whole identity in the process of his rebirth, whether he will have a “continuity of personality” or not. In the Death of Vivek Oji, Vivek is portrayed as a reincarnation of his grandmother. This reincarnation despite the lack of acknowledgment on his parents part played a big role in the maturity of the character.
….On the day Vivek was born, Chika had held the baby in his arms and stared at that scar. He’d seen it before—Kavita always commented on its shape whenever she rubbed Ahunna’s feet.
…Ahunna had died the day before, her heart seizing at the threshold of her house, her body slumping into her compound, the earth receiving her slack face. He should have known, Chika told himself as Kavita screamed in grief, Vivek clutched to her chest. He did know.
How else could that scar have entered the world on flesh if it had not left in the first place? A thing cannot be in two places at once. But still, he denied this for many years, for as long as he could. Superstition, he said. It was a coincidence, the marks on their feet—and besides, Vivek was a boy and not a girl, so how can?
Vivek is born on the day Ahunna died and a symbol is used to foster recognition, “a limp starfish’. Recgnition can come about by seeing a scar or birthmark. An extremely famous example of the scar motif is in Book XIX of the Odyssey, when Odysseus returns home after twenty years”.
Despite this his parents decided to ignore the presence of an older existence within Vivek. In so many cultures, there are certain rituals carried out to show an acknowledgement the presence of an older and deceased family member in the being of a new born, it was not the case for Vivek.
This could be seen as one of the reason for his restlessness all through the text. In a society pervaded by stringent gender divide, the manifestation of the reincarnation archetype is on the altar of turmoil.