Book Review: Cell One

“The police are your friend.” Growing up, I often heard this phrase and when we were in elementary school, some of us genuinely and innocently wanted to choose that as a career. Whenever our teachers asked us what we wanted to become, a few of my classmates would raise their hands and with bright smiles, they would yell, “A police officer.” Years later, I came to realize that the police were not only not my friend but often an enemy to be avoided. I began to see that, year after year, the system keeps getting more and more rotten. Corruption and injustice have become the order of the day and now the question is; if the police are really our friends, why do they keep threatening us and doing things that make us want to run away from them? This is exactly what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses in her literary piece, CELL ONE.

Cell One is the first work in Chimamanda Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck. After reading it, I figured out why she opened the collection with this particular piece. If you publish a collection of literary pieces, I’m sure you’d also want to do exactly what Ngozi Adichie did; put one of the best first. Cell One explores the theme of corruption and Injustice, exposing Nigeria’s broken justice system.

Cell one is told from the perspective of an unnamed character. The unnamed character has a brother (Nnamabia) who is… well, who is a wolf amongst a flock of sheep. The story begins at the university of Nsukka when a group of notorious cultists attack a lecturer’s home. The narrator’s brother is arrested for being a part of the cult and is taken to Cell One, a section of the community’s prison known for housing hardened-hearted criminals.

In Cell One, Nnamabia witnesses a life-changing experience. Many people in Cell One are there not because of what they did, but because the system is rotten and they chose not to do something corrupt in their own lives. In 2020, a Nigerian man was brutalized because he refused to give a bribe to police officers. This is exactly the kind of people in Cell One. In Cell One, police officers drag prisoners out, beat them for money and accuse them falsely just to extort their families. Innocent people are treated like criminals while the real criminals are treated with favor. Of course, because they have the money to pay for comfort.

Among the prisoners in Cell One is a quiet old man. This man is not a criminal. He is innocent. How does an innocent man find himself amongst hardened criminals? He was arrested simply because his son ran away after being accused of a crime. When the police were unable to find the son, they arrested him instead. As if that is not enough, the officers accuse him of hiding contraband. Something struck Nnamabia and he stands up for him, saying the old man is innocent. As expected, Nnamabia is dragged out and brutalized for defending him. At that moment, something changed in Nnamabia. He realized that the system is messed up beyond repair.
When he is finally released, he becomes a changed person. From a cult member to a quiet and responsible person.

BEAUTIFUL ENDING

I love the ending of this literary work. I love that Nnamabia’s prison experience transformed him from the person he was to a new being. A calm, quiet and responsible person. Before he was arrested, Nnamabia was a criminal. He even stole his mother’s jewelry. He was a thief. His transformation made me ask myself a question; if teenagers who are “upcoming criminals” see how prisoners are treated, would they also change their ways just like Nnamabia did?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses Cell One to expose the corrupt nature of the justice system in her country. The police are not your friend and for many years to come, they never will.
I enjoyed reading this literary piece and I recommend it to all book lovers.

Thanks for reading.

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