Afra (Eva Demski)
Afra is a " novel in five pictures" by the author Eva Demski from 1992 and is one of her best-known works.
structure
Demski divides the book into five pictures. The pictures represent the respective locations, such as the Gäu at the beginning, later Munich in the 1960s and finally the flight to America.
First picture
One year after the end of the war, a black child was born in a Bavarian Gäu (arable landscape) near the Czech border. The village is very conservative and believes that the devil would have sent this child, because back then no one saw the black soldier who spent a night with Theres, the mother of the black child. They mock the mother and the black child, insult both of them again and again and are visibly outraged when this child is also baptized and given the name of a saint. Afra! Only Theres' grandmother, the mayor Rost and the midwife Aurelia support mother and child. The grandmother lovingly raises the little girl and makes sure that she gets enough love from the mother that the black child initially did not want. As the villagers 'ridicule was just subsiding, in 1950, after years of imprisonment, Theres' father and Afra's grandfather returned to the village, which had not yet seen much of civilization and industrialization. He is ashamed of his black grandchild, becomes aggressive and abuses him, even burns his hands. Little Afra learns through stories from her great-grandmother that her grandfather has always been aggressive, bossy and violent and that it was even worse before the war. Two years after his return home, to the grandfather's delight, the old great-grandmother dies, from whom Afra has always received the most affection, love and understanding.
Second picture
Afra comes to school. The teachers change constantly until nobody comes and the midwife Aurelia takes over the education and upbringing of the children; she wants to prepare her protégés well for the later life that Afra and a few other girls should spend in the city according to their wishes. And while Afra comes to communion, her mother Theres is also thinking about moving away from the Gäu and moving to Munich.
Third picture
Arrived in Munich, Theres notices that life in the city is not what she imagined and longs to go back to the Gäu. In order to come back there and because Afra was always a thorn in her side, she sold her daughter. Afra is allowed to live in the attic of the actor Fritz Rost, but has to clean with him. She finances her living as a cleaning lady in a hairdressing salon and in the hospital. But even in the big city, Afra remains an outsider. Without friends and people to look after her, she slips into the red light district, where she makes acquaintances with men, but no one gets in close contact with her. Trapped in the red light district, she becomes pregnant and flees home in Gäu, where she has not been for a long time because she almost completely cut off contact with her mother.
Fourth picture
There the grandfather lies dying, and only on his deathbed does he receive recognition and respect from an unexpected source, namely from his granddaughter Afra. After his death, Afra travels with the midwife to Augsburg, the city of her namesake, the "Holy Afra" or Afra of Augsburg . Visiting churches gives her a lot of strength. She gives birth to her daughter Nivea, who is very white in contrast to her and Afra does not breastfeed her for fear that she might still turn black. Afra goes to the theater and becomes an actress there and occasionally sings in clubs, but she cannot get away from the red light district, not even when several men turn out to be Afra's pimps and attack her. Nivea inherited her mother's talent for acting and singing and is also very early on the stage; But because she never feels completely safe with her mother, one day she escapes to the circus and becomes a singer there. There she is given the name "Nightingale" because she has a very mature voice for her age.
Fifth picture
But this is not enough for Nivea, and after some time in the circus, she fled to America overnight without saying goodbye to her mother or the circus. During the flight, she wonders whether it was right to leave and leave behind her mother Afra and especially her grandmother Theres, with whom she now has a close relationship. She wonders if she'll ever see either of them again. While she tries to fall asleep, she thinks for a long time about the Gäu, her mother and her associated childhood and also about Aurelia, who always helped her and became a good friend. Nevertheless, she is looking forward to her new life in America and is once again proving her independence. When Nivea gets off the plane, she thinks again of the black mother, grandmother Theres, who, if she is fine at this time, always takes a nap at this time and also of Aurelia and hopes to see everyone again someday. She leaves the plane with the sentence "I did it my way".
swell
- Eva Demski: Afra - a novel in five pictures . Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt 1992, ISBN 3-627100824 .