55 pages • 1 hour read
Natasha BowenSkin of the Sea
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Simi waits in the water beneath a ship, both yearning to slip above and feel the sun and sink down into the heavy darkness of the sea. A badly beaten woman is tossed from the ship, and Simi claims the body before the sharks can. The ship is an òyìnbó slave ship, and Simi is a Mami Wata, a Black mermaid who collects the souls of the dead to return them to the creator, Olodumare. As Simi guides the woman’s soul from her body, she sees glimpses of the woman’s life as a child, wife, and mother, feeling the joy of that time. Mimi stores the soul in her sapphire necklace and releases the body, and as she retreats, her “tears join the salt of the sea” (5).
Simi is one of seven Mami Wata created by Yemoja, orisa of the sea, and Simi travels toward Yemoja’s island so the goddess can help bless the soul. She cannot summon Yemoja for another day, but she wishes to go early so she can transform into her human self, bask in the sun, and remember her life before becoming a Mami Wata. On the way, she encounters Folasade, another Mami Wata. Folasade advises Simi not to relive her past life, as it only makes their present existence more difficult. Simi knows this, but her dedication to the duty of the Mami Wata is not as steadfast as Folasade’s because she misses who she was before.
On the island, Simi’s tale splits into legs, and her pink-and-gold fins reform into a fabric wrapper to clothe her. She dreams of her human life and her home city with its concentric circles and spicy aromas. It is night, and Simi’s mother, the city’s principal storyteller, tells a tale of Olodumare. Simi realizes the woman from the sea earlier reminds her of her mother, and she tucks the memory away, hoping that “the sea will not erase this, even though it always does” (10).
Chapter 2 Summary
The next day, Simi summons Yemoja by releasing seven banana blossoms into the sea and repeating a prayer to Yemoja for each flower. The sea withdraws from the land and returns in a large wave, bringing Yemoja. Yemoja notices Simi’s distress and reminds Simi why she created the Mami Wata—to give those who are taken a way for their souls to return home.
Simi angrily wonders why they don’t destroy the people and ships responsible for the pain, and Yemoja repeats the story, insisting that Simi understand their only purpose is to guide souls home. Simi agrees. Together, she and Yemoja send the woman’s soul back to Olodumare, Simi thinking of the woman’s memories the entire time. When they are done, Yemoja leaves, and managing to keep the memory of her mother’s eyes, Simi reenters the water to join “the salty currents and the creatures I now belong with” (18).
Chapter 3 Summary
One night, Simi rises from the water to find the air thick with a coming storm. Simi spots an òyìnbó ship and stays alongside it as the storm batters the vessel. A young man in chains is thrown from the ship, and Simi goes to collect him, only to find he is still alive. The man’s wide-set brown eyes call to Simi’s memories of her mother, and though it goes against everything she is made to do, Simi drags him from the water. Hungry sharks follow, drawn by the blood seeping from the man’s wounds. Simi bids them be gone, which usually holds them off for a time, but now panic claims her as she realizes “the sharks are not listening” (23).
Chapter 4 Summary
With the sharks closing in, the only land Simi can make it to in time is Yemoja’s island. As she drags the man onto the sand, the weight of what she’s done sinks in. She should have let him die and claimed his soul, but her own memory of drowning after being thrown from a slave ship makes her realize that “[she] couldn’t watch him die” (25). On land, she discovers deep lash marks on his back, and as she reaches to tend them, her tail turns to legs, and the man pulls away, adopting a defensive pose. While he rests, Simi collects food and water and tends to his wounds. As she works, she resolves to make sure he recovers and gets to the mainland, where he’ll have a chance to find his way home.
The man’s name is Adekola (Kola for short). Simi explains she was in the sea to collect the souls of the dead, and Kola recognizes Yemoja’s purpose, surprising Simi. He begs her to summon Yemoja to help him get home, adding that if he doesn’t, “you may as well have left me in the sea to die” (35).
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
These chapters introduce the main characters and conflicts of the novel, as well as the historical and mythological context of West Africa in the 1400s. Skin of the Sea is a fantasy story backdropped by the Portuguese abducting West Africans from their homes to sell them as slaves. Both Simi and Kola’s pasts rely upon this historical element, but their struggles throughout the novel call little to their abductions, rather focusing on the culture and beliefs of their people. Bowen combines Yoruba myth, specifically the Ifá spiritual system, with elements from Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. The Ifá spiritual system is one of many in the Yoruba religion, which Bowen acknowledges later in the book.
Simi’s memories play a large role in her character development. In her Mami Wata form, Simi loses most of her memories from her life before being remade by Yemoja, showing the strong and varied powers embodied by the sea. In human form, Simi can recall details of her past life, but they are scattered and make her feel as if she is missing part of herself. The woman’s soul in Chapter 1 foreshadows a few things. First, it foreshadows the memory Simi recalls of her mother at the end of the chapter. Connected to this, these memories are why she rescues Kola in Chapter 3, and Kola also triggers Simi’s memories of being taken by traders, which become important to Simi finding her inner strength later on. Second, it shows that Simi can hold on to the different parts of herself, even in Mami Wata form. At the end of the book, Simi dives down to fulfill her promise to Olokun and live in the realm of the dead, but the growing strength of her memories suggests that she will not lose her memories of Kola or her life before being remade.
In Chapter 2, Simi summons Yemoja by releasing seven banana blossoms and repeating a prayer seven times. In Yoruba myth, the number seven represents the seven powers of the orisa, and specifically for Yemoja, it calls to her ownership of the seven seas. In Skin of the Sea, Yemoja is bound by a decree from Olodumare to only help the souls of the dead, but in myth, this was only one of many roles she might have played. Simi wonders why the Mami Wata do not do more, which refers to stories of how Yemoja destroyed slave ships or brought comfort to those imprisoned.
Chapter 3 calls to The Little Mermaid, borrowing the storm and the boy (ultimately Simi’s love interest) thrown overboard. Bowen integrates Yoruba myth by having Simi deny her Mami Wata purpose to save Kola’s life, and the proximity of the sharks forces Simi to bring Kola to Yemoja’s island, which jumpstarts the main conflict of the book. As a Mami Wata, Simi has power over the creatures of the sea, which she shows in Chapter 1 by bidding the sharks stay away until she has completed her work. In Chapter 3, her power is limited, suggesting either that her own uncertainty does not put enough strength behind her commands or that the animals are more difficult to control when nature is in a disruptive state (such as a storm).
Simi’s name means “follow me home,” which is also her purpose as a Mami Wata. When she rescues Kola, she vows to make sure he gets home, showing how this purpose extends beyond what she was made to do. Besides her memory loss, Simi seems to have not changed from who she was before Yemoja remade her, suggesting that she would have done the same for Kola as a human. If this is true, it supports the book’s main theme of The Choices and Consequences of Duty and Responsibility and shows how we do not need a given purpose to feel a sense of responsibility to help others.
