Perhaps the most important and relatable aspect of the book for young readers at the brink of exploring their sexuality is the fact that both Ijeoma and Amina are early teens when they meet and fall in love. They defy the narrative that homosexuality is a learned habit, and with each other they discover their attraction. There is no hesitation in this thought, no questioning of whether this is organic or not. They simply let their feelings for each other consume them. It is only when the Bible scriptures are brought to their attention – only when they feel the external and disapproving gaze of those that judge them – that, like Adam and Eve, they feel shame in the ‘nakedness’. Their innocent attraction to each other provides a silent lesson on what love truly is, and what it means to accept those we love. By contrast, external gazes on their relationship provide an explanation of where shame comes from, how we learn it, and the damaging consequences it may have. The bunker These other forms of marginalization form nucleuses of power that, by the end of the book, show a larger, sinister web of oppression than what is directly facing queer Nigerians. Sinister, because it’s impossible to reinforce oppression on one end without subjecting your own freedoms to oppressive conditions. Yet, different groups of people are being eagerly offered up by governments seeking to expand power and control by any means.

Ijeoma was not an out spoken rebel type....( who would be given her circumstances?), fighting for gay rights...but she did spend a lot of time deeply thinking about God and the bible During the start of Nigeria's civil war and after her father's death, 11-year old Ijeoma is sent to live with family friends. There she befriends and eventually falls in love with a girl. In a country with some of the strictest laws against homosexuality, there is no acceptance of their relationship. When their relationship is discovered, Ijeoma's mother takes her away from the family friends and pushes her towards a "normal" life. The biggest part of that - marrying a man and having children.And the love affair between Ijeoma and Ndidi was heady for me. I did like how things turned out for two of them. The book is written in a very accessible, deceptively simple style. it's emotionally moving - but you'll also come away from the book feeling like you've truly gained an insight as to what it was like to live in 1960-1970's Nigeria. t]he female protagonists who did grow as selves were generally halted and defeated before they reached transcendent selfhood. They committed suicide or died; they compromised by marrying and devoting themselves to sympathetic men; they went mad or into some kind of retreat and seclusion from the world. (184, emphasis added) Ijeoma's marriage and relationship altogether with Chibundu eventually takes a turn for the worse when he finds some love letters Ijeoma had intended to send to Ndidi, and confronts her over this. The two end up fighting, Ijeoma eventually realises, through critically reinterpreting the very Bible that Adaora has used to preach homophobia, that if God truly loves everyone, then that includes people of any sexual orientation, such as herself as well. Ijeoma then decides to leave the marriage with a man she ultimately never loved or was attracted to. The novel ends on a hopeful and more positive note, with Adaora also being able to critically reinterpret the very same Bible that preached homosexuality was wrong, and ultimately concludes that God accepts Ijeoma for who she is, ending the tension that plagued the mother-daughter relationship throughout the novel. However, she sometimes realises that this resistance is utopian: “That night, I saw the foolishness of my resistance in his [her husband’s] words. Just let me know when you feel ready. I knew in my mind that I might never feel ready. There was no sense prolonging my resistance. Anyway, better to have one person miserable rather than two” (238). The sense of sacrifice for Chibundu’s happiness is clear in this passage.

Suleiman, Susan. Authoritarian Fictions. The Ideological Novel as a Literary Genre. New York: Princeton UP, 1983.

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The novel draws on several themes relating to war, family, mother-daughter relationships, homosexuality, religion and Bildungsroman. Hirsch, Marianne. “The Novel of Formation as Genre: Between Great Expectations and Lost Illusions.” Genre 12.3 (Fall 1979): 293-311.