Cultural Anthropology or Story; Which is Alice Hellyer Dally’s The Twain Shall Meet

                                          Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy

Today, we are wandering into America to find love and bring a bride to Africa! The Twain shall Meet is a story about cross cultural relationships. However, I believe the writer could have invested more into building a strong story than making cultural observations.

Following a ten-year affair that led nowhere, Hester decides to dust up what is left of herself and take another chance at living life on her own terms. She decides to pursue a university degree. At university, she meets Kunle, a Nigerian student on scholarship in the United States. Both kickstart a love affair that eventually leads to marriage. The story is pretty much about Hester’s experience trying to come to terms with values and psychology of her African husband and society.

The aim of the story is to address the issue of racism, especially on the part of white Americans. Hester’s story is evidence that black and White (or two very disparate societies ) could have a smooth and cordial relationship. Indeed, Herster’s marriage to Kunle influences her white friends, Mary and Ken Frazer, to get married to Africans. It also helps the Frazers to accept their daughter weeding to an African and accept grand children who are not…ehm… exactly white.

The story wants its target audience (mainly white Americans) to eschew racism and be more accepting of people of other races (especially Africans as in this case).

However, I was uncomfortable with Herster’s willingness to enter into marriage  with Kunle as a second wife as she was well aware that Kunle was married before their relationship began. I suspect this is why the authoress had to cleverly remove the character of Ajoke (Kunle’s first wife) from the relationship by making her lose her marriage as a result of infidelity on her part. Yet, one could argue that not even Kunle is faithful to the wife he left behind in Nigeria while pursuing further studies in the US. He also got into a an ‘entanglement’ with Herster. We may argue, as Herster likely would, that the male was the dominating force in an African maririage contract and say that while the African society may not frown upon a man engaged in amorous affair, they do not take likely to a woman who is unfaithful to her husband. Still, it is injustice to punish only the woman for an immoral act perpetrated by both partners.

While a reader peeping into the African society from the outside might find the story enlightening, there is almost nothing novel for the African reader. The novel is an exposé of the cultural values  or lifestyle of the Nigerian society; which in fact is a microcosm of Africa.

As the focus is more on cultural anthropology, there is nothing much done to develop a strong conflict in the novel. Even the norms and cultural articles captured in the story are nearly bland, rather than being strongly enwrapped in  the story. You get the feeling that you are listening to a researcher making observations instead of a writer telling a story. This makes the novel read like a thesis in cultural anthropology.

For a reader seeking a straight forward story without complicated or covert undertones, this would be a good story to peruse. But for an avid reader seeking literary satiation, they may be disappointed.                   

Finally, although I did not enjoy the story as I would have wanted, I was enlightened by the aspects of cultural, Social, and psychological variance of Africans and Americans right down to even the diction peculiarities.

©️ Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 2026