expression BOOKS
A WOMAN OF MANY CULTURES
Author Faith Eidse finds great value in listening by STEVE BORNHOFT
R
ather out of nowhere, a mention of the Emerald Coast Zoo in Crestview occurs in Faith Eidse’s stirring, coming-of-age memoir about her childhood spent in Canada and the African nation formerly known as Congo. Eidse was 8 years old when young militants Last year, Tallahassee-based called Jeunesse began terrorizing the countryside author Faith Eidse published Deeper than African Soil, a comingin Congo. They were not satisfied that promises of-age memoir about suppression, made when their homeland gained independence subjugation, submission and from Belgium in 1960 had been fulfilled, finding “healers of the soul.” instead that the country was still effectively ruled by colonialists. As white people, Eidse, her three sisters and her The Eidse family would escape Mennonite missionary parents were vulnerable to harm by the Jeunesse, whose attack and made preparations to flee their home rebellion was defeated. But Eidse in Kamayala. would sustain physical, emotional Before they departed, Eidse “heard a familiar and psychological abuse at the trumpeting from the savanna” and wondered, Mennonite hostelry/school in “Were those elephants guarding us?” Leopoldville that she attended Decades later, Eidse, a Tallahassee resident since as a child and teen. There, a 1992, heard the same trumpeting again, this time at school parent, “Uncle Hector,” a wedding that took place at the zoo in Crestview. attempted to thwart every natural “It rose, a deep whoo-ooo from the lion’s cage inclination of students to just as the groom spoke his achieve an identity and vows,” Eidse writes in Deeper She grew up express themselves. than African Soil (Masthof Press, unaware of some Deeper than African Soil 2023). “Those had never been of the dangers in is a book about suppreselephants encircling us, but lions sion, subjugation, submisher midst. And, the all along.” sion and people whom The passage points to two greatest threats Eidse refers to as “healers realities about Eidse’s childhood. to her safety and of the soul.” She grew up unaware of some of existence were Her parents enforced the dangers in her midst. And, the posed not by the strict rules regarding skirt greatest threats to her safety and natural world, but lengths, books, music and existence were posed not by the boys in raising Eidse and natural world, but by humans. by humans.
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her three sisters, Hope, Charity and Grace. Eidse was more inclined to challenge them than her siblings but found at school an environment that was even less relaxed. Informed by Uncle Hector that he wanted to see her, Eidse racked her brain, trying to figure out the offense she may have committed. “Let’s start with the way you dress,” Hector said as the meeting began. “You wear those jeans so tight, you turn men on when you walk. You do it on purpose. You’re a whore, a slut, a prick tease.” When Eidse missed supper at her dorm for having (platonically) visited a boy at a nearby school, Uncle Hector notified her parents. Her father arrived and whipped her with his belt, at least in part, one suspects, to impress the school parent. photography by THE WORKMANS