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 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Kola tells Simi to save herself. She refuses, suddenly remembering the day she was taken from her home in vivid detail. The òyìnbó ship closes the distance to their boat, and Simi and Kola are surprised to find people with dark skin like theirs looking down at them. They board the ship, which was taken from a port, and the people aboard are on a mission to “take back those stolen from us” (76). Kola makes up a story to explain their presence in the middle of the sea. The captain gives them supplies for their journey and vows to go after the ship that took Kola next. Suddenly, a clap of thunder rips through the cloudless sky, and above, Sango, one of the orisa, appears, looking angry.
Chapter 10 Summary
Oya, Sango’s wife, appears beside him, the two orisa crackling with energy. Sango shoots a bolt of lightning at the ship before the crew make it known they aren’t slave traders. The orisas cease their attack and land on the ship, where the people on board bow before them. Sango and Oya have been seeking out slave ships and destroying all they come across because they refuse to “leave the pleas of our people unanswered” (89). They are willing to face Olodumare if it comes to that, and they do not fear Esu.
While Sango converses with the captain about journeying with the ship, Oya notices Simi’s Mami Wata necklace and asks why she is above the sea. Hesitantly, Simi tells the orisa about the rings and her mission to summon Olodumare to ask for forgiveness. Oya leaves Simi with the warning that Esu also seeks the rings and is “closer than ever before to obtaining them” (92).
As Simi and Kola prepare to set out on their own, Oya feels Esu’s approach and creates a wind to push their small boat away. Only when the ship is out of sight and night has fallen do they relax. Simi asks Kola how he was taken from his home. The òyìnbó sewed tension between Kola’s village and one upriver, and when Kola tried to make peace, the village leaders sold him to the òyìnbó. Simi reveals her own capture and how Yemoja made her and six others into Mami Wata. A heavy silence falls as Simi and Kola lock gazes, and his knee brushes hers, her “skin crackling at the barest brush of flesh” (97).
Simi pulls away to watch the sea. Kola starts to tell her about his family but is cut off by the arrival of a sudden storm. Simi and Kola cling to one another as lightning strikes, destroying the boat and sending them into the water. Simi’s tail forms as a giant wave bears down on them.
Chapter 11 Summary
Simi wakes half on the beach with her tail still intact and Kola nowhere to be found. She finds a torn piece of his wrapper at the mouth of a river and follows the water through a path between trees, until she comes upon an abada, a mythical creature with giant horns that can supposedly cure any malady. The creature leads her down the river and into the trees to a glade where little silver-haired yumboes (fairies) dance around Kola’s unconscious form that is laid out “as if ready for his last prayers” (106). Simi stumbles toward the glade, trips, and draws the attention of all the yumboes.
Chapter 12 Summary
Kola is alive but weak, and the yumboes are dancing for his speedy recovery. Simi sits at his side until he wakes, overjoyed and relieved that he’s alive. She tells herself she only cares because his death would make her earlier sacrifice worthless, but the idea of Kola dying “makes [her] heart beat hard against the cage of [her] chest” (109).
The yumboes invite Simi and Kola to dine with them, and platters of food are brought by creatures that are invisible except for their hands and feet. Kola explains the invisible creatures are conjured by the yumboes to help with great tasks, revealing that he’s always had a strong interest in the stories told by the elders. His favorite stories were those of the orisa Ogun, a hunter and blacksmith, and Simi realizes both she and Kola are protectors, if in different ways.
They ask the yumboes for directions to Kola’s village, but before they can respond, a vision of a village full of dead people overtakes Simi. Something has broken, and Kola worries it has to do with his twin siblings Taiwo and Kehinde, the embodiments of the Yoruba Ibeji orisas. Kola hopes the disturbance was the confirmation of his siblings’ power, but the yumboes doubt it because they felt a severing.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
Bowen dives deeper into Yoruba myth and mythical creatures in these chapters. Taiwo and Kehinde are the Ibeji orisas embodied. In Yoruba myth, twins were believed to be a single soul that resided in two bodies and had mystical abilities to keep their land and people flourishing. The Ibeji is both a set of twin orisas and the term given to all twins born within the Yoruba people. It was considered bad luck if one twin were to die, and upon the death of a twin, a figure was constructed and taken care of as if alive. Taiwo and Kehinde are of great importance to both their family and village, and their capture shows how unconcerned Esu is with anything but his own power.
Sango is the orisa of thunder and lightning, among other potentially destructive forces. Oya’s name means “she who tore,” and she holds power over storms and wind. In some version of Yoruba myth, Oya was the third of Sango’s three wives (after Oba and Osun). Oba was Sango’s favorite because she was the best cook, and Osun was jealous. When Osun asked Oba for her secret, Oba lied and told Osun she once cooked a meal that included a piece of her ear. Wanting to outdo Oba, Osun put her entire ear in her next meal, which angered Sango, who brought down thunder. Oba and Osun ran and tripped, becoming the Oba and Osun Rivers, respectively. It is unknown what became of Oya, and it may be that Bowen chose to have Oya at Sango’s side in Skin of the Sea because she was the only wife who did not become water.
Sango and Oya also go against Olodumare’s decree to stay out of the affairs of mortals. They do so because those who are taken pray for help, and neither Sango nor Oya are willing to let those prayers go unanswered. Like Yemoja, they do what they believe is right, resolving to deal with Olodumare if and when the creator confronts them. Yemoja, Sango, and Oya represent the power of gods to help when they feel it is justified. Prior to the òyìnbó abducting people from the Yoruba region, it is likely the orisas rarely betrayed Olodumare’s decree and offered assistance only in indirect ways. With the arrival of the òyìnbó, the orisas believe the need of the people outweighs Olodumare’s decree.
Sango and Oya’s actions also highlight Esu’s fickleness. Esu marred Yemoja because he was jealous of her abilities and that she got away with defying Olodumare. Rather than take out a similar wrath on Sango and Oya for directly destroying ships, Esu uses them either with or without their knowledge. Later, Esu reveals he knew about Simi ever since she and Kola boarded the ship in Chapter 9. Since Oya warns Simi about Esu and sends her away before Esu arrives on the ship, it seems that Oya is trying to protect Simi from Esu. Oya is the orisa of storms, which means she likely sent the storm that destroys Simi and Kola’s boat in Chapter 12. Either Oya was tricking Simi, which seems unlikely, or Esu somehow forced Oya to send the storm. If Esu did force Oya, it shows the power Esu holds, even though he is simply Olodumare’s messenger. Olodumare’s word has power, and Esu has found ways to use that power to his advantage. He may have manipulated Oya into sending the storm, possibly threatening to draw attention to her and Sango’s actions if she didn’t do as he said. The manipulation among the orisas mirrors how the òyìnbó manipulate Yoruba villages to turn against one another, showing that orisas are just as susceptible to trickery as humans.
In Chapters 11 and 12, Simi and Kola interact with other creatures from Yoruba myth. The abada is a horse-like creature with horns that possesses healing properties, similar to that of a unicorn. The abada appear to those who are lost or will often show themselves to other mythical creatures. As such a creature, Simi attracts the abada, and since she is also lost, the abada helps her find what she seeks (Kola). Yumboes are small fairylike creatures who are drawn to fertility in the land. They are also known as the Bakhna Rakhna, which translates as “good people.” In the myths, the yumboes are the spirits of the dead, something Bowen strayed from in Skin of the Sea. The bodiless servants Bowen describes are taken from the myth, and Simi’s discomfort with the disembodied hands and feet show how even parts of our own beliefs can make us uncomfortable. She understands that the servants are there to help and won’t harm her, but this doesn’t keep her from being glad when they’re gone.
