𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐤𝐨

I saw the WhatsApp status of One of our distinguished gentlemen in The Men’s Book Breakfast, Victor Mailu from Atlas Copco. He shared a photo he had taken in the book. I got interested in the book, and I promised to campaign to men to purchase the book and read it.

When I first saw the title of this book, it got my attention and I first laughed because I was a culprit of telling my fellow men “Let Me Call You Back” and most time I forgot to call back.

Well, until I picked it up. This book is a masterpiece work of Biko's best work, yet.

Biko has this thing with writing. It's like words come to him begging to be put together and he knows what to do with them. He then throws in the humor. It's a book to read in one sitting, but I did it in 10 days because it's therapy. It was speaking to me. I had a lot of mixed reactions and feelings as I read each page.

The first thing that Biko brings out is how much we tie our dignity and humanity to what we do in terms of professional careers, rather than who we are. Most of us explain what we do to answer the question of who we are.

When Samora loses his engineering job, he loses his dignity and identity. As the ghost of unemployment strips, him naked, it takes away what he also thought he was and what he had: friendships, relationships, family, and marriage.

In the words of Professor Bitange Ndemo "When you lose your job, your phone literally stops ringing".

Secondly, the key thing is therapy. And especially men and therapy. Our definitions of friendships too as men. When life changes, we get angry and start asking questions. We get angry with ourselves and suddenly, everything and everyone is irritating to you.

Because of his ego, Samora deems it fit to live a lie for months rather than lose his dignity as a "man" and ask for help. A female friend is brutally honest with him, but a male friend is better off taking him out for drinks, rather than talking about anything but the elephant in the room. It takes real courage, especially for a man, to take up therapy. We all need therapy.

𝐀𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐧, 𝐝𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 “𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬” 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧?

Lies catch up. It's easier and less costly to tell the truth, even your truth. It's always good to remember that rock bottom has a basement.

The story of Samora truly got under your skin and crawled deep into my nerves. He unbelievably failed and somehow kept on falling. Oh, how livid he made me. He lived in deceit, covered himself in lies, and lived in those lies until he buried himself in them.

But at some point, I related to Samora's fear of shame. You know, when you hit rock bottom, mortification is a cloth that brands your inner being, the foundation of who you are as a human being is rocked!

'𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤' will not give you the happy ending that we all desire in books, it gives you an ending that leaves you contemplating, the question, 'What the heck is this life?’. oscillating your belief system, relationships, friendships, and values that have informed your existence. This book will make you laugh, it will make you empathize (not mostly with Samora) but with the reality it seeps.

"You keep worrying about these things and they make you sick with worry; they invade your body like a disease. But when all of these worries come to pass, you are struck by how disappointing it is that all these things you worry about don't kill you."

𝐈 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 6-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.

Thank you to Nuria Bookstore, for the book 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤