Black Sunday

Most of the siblings’ stories are spent illustrating how they tried to survive without their parents and what the effect of each parent’s departure had on their development. Thus, this struggle for survival forms a major theme. Andrew’s identity is defined by the absence of his parents. He is particularly plagued by the poor father figures in his life.

In Part 2, Bibike literally steps into her mother’s clothes by wearing her mother’s pants. In this section of the book, both Bibike and Ariyike use their bodies to get money to provide for their family. During one encounter with Aminat’s father, he says to Bibike that she is “too beautiful to be walking around in her mother’s jeans” (92). He says this because he is giving her money, thinking he is providing a way for her to buy new clothes. However, this is deeply symbolic of the fact Bibike should not have to step into a mother-like role, though her circumstances have required her to do so.

Ariyike struggles, taking on the identity of “Keke” in her audition for Chill FM. However, even once she gets a job, she still always thinks about how her position affects her brothers. When the station cancels her show and she goes to see Pastor David, part of the reason she stays through his calls is because she imagines having to tell her brothers about what losing her income means for them—especially now that she would be unable to help Andrew pay for school at the University of Lagos. She thinks about how his acceptance made it seem like finally “good things were happening to us. We were lifting off, ascending, and we were doing it together as a team” (177). After this, she begins “to think up a plan” (177) for how she will make sure her family keeps on their positive trajectory. This decision culminates in Pastor David telling her he will find a position for her at the TV station, their sleeping together, and their ultimate engagement.

Peter, too, wrestles with his identity as an orphan. In “How to Be the Teacher’s Pet,” he details how he used to wait on his grandmother’s porch for his parents to return. He overheard her say that “[s]adness inverts the old person’s head, what won’t it do to a little boy?” (134). When he hears this, he starts to wonder if he is sick, feeling so heartbroken by his parents’ departure and the uncertainty of his future. 

Grandmother’s tradition of storytelling passes down through her family, and Bibike, in particular, feels connected to them. Stories become a lens through which the children are able to view the world, and as the narrative progresses, certain stories return to be reinterpreted as the children age and gain life experience.

This trend begins when Peter references the story of the chicken and the hen Bibike told in the first chapter. He returns to it when he is at the market with his mother, thinking:

I always thought the king who asked the hen to go free but to give the woman one of the chicks was a wicked king. Now I realize that the king was kinder, fairer that I could ever be, was also very wise. No matter what your mother does, this is Lagos. Society will never let you cast her away. Especially when she wants you back (203).

Peter’s perspective shifts because of his mother’s departure. He understands now, like Andrew, that his mother has returned, and he has little choice but to accept that fact.

Even though she is far more skeptical about her grandmother’s stories, Ariyike also discusses how her view of a story changed as an adult. She thinks of the story of Olokun, saying:

Because I was a child, I heard this story about a village full of mothers and the great loss they suffered and assumed it was a story about the pain of a child. Now, as a woman, I know the story is not about lost children. Children move from this plane to the next every day […] It is a story about a lost goddess. What they lost was a god who looked like them. What they lost was the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent female spirit. Now look at this: all of us are condemned to serving these male gods and their rapacious servants (266).

Like Peter, Ariyike’s perspective shifts because of how her life has changed, and that she understands what it means to live in a patriarchal society. She understands this depth of loss, seeing the male leaders at the head of her own church.

Bibike records her grandmother telling stories, and it is in Bibike’s life said stories have played the most prominent role as she references different ones in each of her narrations. However, by the end of the novel, she also sees that there are limits to the stories’ applicability, leading to her decision to “create my own values” (223). Like Peter and Ariyike, she reflects on stories, but Bibike also recognizes that each sibling must find their own path.