Book: The Other Winfrey: Life In The Shadow of O
Author: Shakeeta Winfrey
Publisher: Winfrey Enterprises, Inc.
Year Published: 2007
Reviewer:Kunle Binuyo
There are not many books on stands with less than 200 pages, easy to read for the lazy reader, yet loaded with inspiring
information that would make one exhale in satisfaction at the flip of the last page. The Other Winfrey: Life In The Shadow of O is
an autobiography of Shakeeta Winfrey, the charming cousin of Oprah Winfrey. It is a chronicle of her tumultuous but gradual rise to
stardom, with over half of her life spent living in a world of illusion while trying to keep up with the Joneses. Shakeeta talks about
social issues that keep family members further from one another.
The Other Winfrey’s theme is hinged on multiple subjects of
illusion, reality, identity crisis, finding love, betrayal, and being plunged in a myriad of financial problems but triumphing in
spite of all odds. The writing style used in the book is of simple language and it is very possible for the average Joe to complete
the 163 page book in a few hours without even consulting the dictionary, save for page 22 where she used a word ‘discombobulated’,
which some readers might have to look up in a dictionary or thesaurus. Simpler and synonymous words like ‘disconcerted’ or ‘confused’
would have been more appropriate without discombobulating the reader’s mind.
Though it does not compare to Living History of
Hillary Clinton on the same level of writing, Shakeeta’s choice of simple yet lucid description of events in the book keeps the reader
anticipating what the next page holds. If you are the type that loves prying into people’s lives, you need not exert much effort in
doing so as the author’s desire to share experiences garnered from her transformation from girlhood into adulthood is served in paper
print and electronic format.
In Meet the Winfreys, the first chapter of the book, Shakeeta takes readers on a reverse journey
into the extended family of the Winfreys and explains her blood ties with Oprah, her cousin, and how Vernon, Oprah’s dad was one of
the few male influences she had while growing up. This part of the book sets the ball rolling for the illustration of the power that
lies behind a name and how it can be a magnet that pulls people towards you, yet a curse that spins one into projecting the wrong
impression and identity to people in order to gain societal acceptance. As described in the book, Shakeeta was born in a middle-classed
family, but the Winfrey name which she shared with Oprah coupled with the absence of biological parenting set her on the path of prioritizing
material possessions in a bid to buy friends who would accept her into their fold.
The 15 chapter book is a presentation of how
Shakeeta’s life is a definition of the proverbial rose that grew from concrete. But the several hardships she encountered in life
were cushioned by a solid upbringing she received from her grandparents thus ensuring that she was able to keep her head up and get
back on course in spite of losing track at several points while searching for a tangible meaning to life.
The book evokes a feeling
of empathy in the reader, particularly in the way the author painted the picture of what the average black woman goes through while
searching for love and a lifelong partner; the narration to this subject is provided in Chapter 7: ‘Til Death Do Us Part (At Least
That’s What I Thought). Being a motivational book that resonates with hope in spite of having the decks stacked against one, messages
of resilience and redemption are also threaded in every chapter of the book.
Being married to a Nigerian living in the United
States at a point in her life, Shakeeta’s description of Lagos couldn’t be more apt in Out of Africa, the ninth chapter. She shares
her experiences from her first contact with Nigeria. It is quite agreeable when she pointed out that Nigerian police do not rush to
a crime scene or help a slain or injured victim. She, nevertheless, pointed out that Nigerians still had their morals intact when
compared with their American counterparts – these aspects she observed about Nigerian life during her visit to Lagos in 2004. She
marveled at the fact that young women stayed with their parents up till the time they got married which was not the norm in America.
Her
writing is quite descriptive for the reader to construct a mental picture of events and places that were mentioned throughout the
book. For instance, her first encounter with Lagos was crystallized in her description of the Obafemi Awolowo statue holding up the
peace sign at the popular Allen Junction where Aromire avenue, Awolowo road and Allen Avenue meet. She marveled at the great number
of people in Lagos, the sight of people hawking wares in traffic, and destitute persons and infants begging for alms.
She also
drew strong comparisons between the Nigerian life and the American life, particularly with regard to education. She concludes that
Nigerians are tenacious in their drive towards getting a university degree which does not come easily whereas the John Doe in America
took such for granted due to the abundance of scholarships and college grants.
She also compared aspects that even though seem
less important, still typify the way the Nigerian society functions. She mentions this in her observation that bottles of purchased
beverage drinks were returned to the seller for reuse instead of the takeaway recyclable plastics that Americans are accustomed to.
Far
from a tell-all book about Oprah or the Winfreys for that matter, as some critics have assailed the writer, this book is rather Shakeeta’s
medium of using an exposé on her own life and personal experiences to leverage social education for young girls. But beyond that,
it fortifies the blooming female folk with a non-fictitious story that will support home training and help ward-off negative peer
pressures.
Shakeeta’s autobiography will serve well as a manual for girls in their teens, at risk youths, and women in their
early adult life as it will prepare them for the challenges the average woman will face in the outside world where ravenous wolves
in sheep’s wool wander in their droves. Though it is incomparable to biographies of Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice, it, nevertheless,
measures up in content value being a book that helps a woman through her late formative years and the period of transformation from
girlhood to womanhood.