SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF FLORA NWAPA ONE IS ENOUGH
One is Enough is a novel that tells the story of Amaka, the protagonist who is humiliated by her wicked mother in-law as well as her husband for not giving birth to a child after many years of marriage. She struggles for self-realization and self –fulfillment through hard-work as a teacher and a trader.
After many years of marriage without a child, her mother in-law send her out of her house supported by Obiora her husband who late marry another wife through the influence of his mother. As a result of betrayal of love, Amaka leaves for Lagos and starts a new life. This makes the author says: ‘for Amaka to become a successful business woman in Lagos, she gets involved in an affair with a Catholic Priest and bears twin children’’ (64). The author therefore writes to encourage African men and women to be faithful in their marriage.
On the other hand, Amaka is shown as a woman who is obsessed with barrenness, the heroine wishes to live a normal life like Nigeria married woman with children, but fate has driven her into a different course and against a new socio-economic and cultural background in modern Nigeria.
A pure case of this rash treatment is demonstrated when Amaka reminds Obiora of her contribution in buying him a car, supplementing food, money and other necessities at home, buying a plot of land for building a house as well as giving herself and her resources unreservedly to her husband. The author says, instead of Obiora being appreciative of his wife’s love and care, Obiora is rather rash. He says to Amaka:
You are being senseless. How many mouths were we feeling? You barren and senseless woman! You forget that you are childless. You would not raise your voice in this house if you were sensible. You should go above your business quietly and not offend anyone because if you do, one would be tempted to give you one or two home truths (19).
Despite this heavy blow on Amaka, Obiora does not feel for her, instead he goes further to threaten Amaka saying: But let me warn you that if you step out of this house in protest when my wife and my two sons arrive, you stay out forever. You must not comeback (20). In fact, Obiora’a sudden inconsiderate disposition towards Amaka, his harsh attitude to her as well as his infidelity to their matrimonial vows worsen Amaka’s agony. Amaka’s agony in marriage is not just because she is childless but her husband who is supposed to be her companion and consoler is now her chief tormentor. The author says:
He always finds reasons to beat her on inflict injuries on her. On one of the occasions, knowing that he is guilty of adultery and infidelity, Obiora shifts the blame on the poor woman saying, what you have been doing behind my back (26).
In the end, Amaka’s cares and efforts are turned down by Obiora’s mother because of childlessness. According to the author, she leaves to Lagos where she can have more time to run her business, especially so because she will be a way from her husband and the traditional obligations of her community. She met her friend Adobi, her sister Ayo and other persons who work in the related offices in Lagos.
As well, there is a wide world for her to establish relationships with men and make use of their influence and contacts to boost her business. To a great extent, Amaka seems to follow her mother’s teaching by making children and never mindwho the father is. Through this she can have children, secure her name, be satisfied as a woman and wins more contracts and deals for her business.
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF FLORA NWAPA ONE IS ENOUGH
Her beautiful and attractive figure is most suited for achieving her goals. She gets help from her sister, Ayo, the mistress of a Nigerian business man and a member of Madam Cash Club, where notable business women regularly meet in her house. Most of them are widows and some other women who are abandoned by their husbands. All of them are contractors who are experts in doing business. It goes without saying that they are financially independent women.
One of them is Onyei, a woman of great determination who prefers staying in Lagos than returning to her home Land. She becomes one of the notable business women at Lagos. Thus she is described: “So Madam Onyei went on making money. The joy of having grows by having. So she went on doing bigger deals. And, at one time, it was even said that she had organized the exportation of hemp to Europe” (49). The author underlines the importance of taking information from experts in the field of business which make women successful traders sine these experiences are related to businesses and the way it can best be run, the corrupted socio-economic situation in Lagos will be underlined.
Amaka, on the other hand, is motivated and encouraged by these speeches through which she can enhance her position as a new business woman, and win more contracts from the government officials. Therefore, the speeches of these business women are considered as a key door for Amaka to the world of business.
She receives advice from her friend Adaobi who describes the nature of successful business in Lagos by saying: “You know Lagos. No man can do anything for a woman, without asking her for her precious possession-herself. I must confess to you, I have slept with Alhaji” (68). The author portrays this to the women, in most cases and how they are forced to submit their bodies to men for different reasons before getting a job and that is the main problem that made Amaka to have sex with many men to enable her secure a promising future for herself.
This is revealed by the author, in Amaka’s speech with the priest she says: “I have not come to Lagos to be a whore. She has come to look for her identity, to start all over again. Nobody was going to miss up her life anymore” (45).Through her depiction of the character of Amaka, the author shows the wide spread of corruption in Nigeria in the early postcolonial era. Even the priest with whom she has sex with is awards with contract papers that are worth a large sum of money.
Such contract papers, as she comes to discover, are issued as a fraud procedure to get the equivalent payment of the contract. Adaobi, Amaka’s school friend, is attracted and tempted by Amaka’s rapid success. She discovers that Amaka who has arrived in Lagos has acquired a better position than her and her husband. She starts to consider establishing her own business like Amaka But her husband refuses the idea and tells her that Amaka is illegally involving with men. Adaobi react by saying to him: “You implied it and will answer you. If they give children, she will sleep with all of them one after the other. She will not even care who the father is, once she is pregnant… even a bagger from the street” (60).
In addition, she reminds him of the undeniable fact and tells him: “This house is not our own. The government owns it. One day the government could fire you and we would have nowhere to live” (46). Adaobi joins Amaka in her business as a partner, but in secrecy. When she has saved two sounds and naira, she is able to buy a house land in Ikeji town. Through her financial success, the author portrays how she manages to change her husband’s life based on the opinion of Amaka and there he begins to admire her endeavours. This change of attitude is made obvious by his warm welcome of Amaka when she visits them with her new car.
Adaobi’s ability to change her husband’s negative impression and attitude towards Amaka whom he receives as a successful business woman makes him regard Amaka as a really successful rich woman who has a house, a car, money, and membership of Madams Cash Club. She is considered to be better than other women who have started business at the same time. Her sister addresses the gathering of business women by saying to Amaka, “There are women like you who were here during the war and did such contract work, but they are still living in one room, a rented room, in Yaba and Ebuta Metta and even Ajegunle”(79).Amaka prove to her fellow women as financially independent woman who leads a life of her own, free and uncontrolled by a husband who beat and humiliate her.
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF FLORA NWAPA ONE IS ENOUGH
On the other hand, Amaka’s ultimate wish is to have a man who loves her, treat her queenly and not any man who oppress and afflict pains on her life. She is shown as a powerful woman who has made her own choice and is prepared to take the responsibility for her actions, regardless of whether they are accepted or rejected by others. She has gained her freedom from man through her realization of financial independency.
In the end, Amaka is married to Obiora and she remains childless for six years at which her marriage comes to an end (44).Nevertheless, her hopes and aspiration is to get pregnant immediately after marriage is thwarted as she waits for six years without any sign of conceiving. This situation of bareness raises a lot of anxiety in Obiora’s family and eventually shatters the lovely and peaceful atmosphere that exists between Obiora Amaka as well as the mother-in-law.
THEME IN THE TEXT
Female Self-Assertion in Flora Nwapa’s One Is Enough
In her literary text, Nwapa also calls on women to defend their physical integrity against masculine violence. Indeed, the lesson Amaka learned from the beating which she was subjected to be that never again would she let her husband or any other man beat her without retaliating. Therefore, to a newly married girl who was victim of physical violence by her husband, the heroine advised:
[…] be ready at all times to defend yourself. Never cry out when he is beating you, without finding something to retaliate. So I say fight back. Get a stick nearby. If he lands a blow on your face, get the stick and land a blow on his body. But I must warn you, never on his head or you might kill him. (27-28)
To show the girl that the advice she was giving her was a solution, Amaka went on to give her the example of the so called philosopher who repeatedly beat his wife until the latter could bear it no more and stood for herself one day :
This academic cum philosopher for no just cause beat up his wife so mercilessly that this senseless beauty learnt her lesson fast. A day came when there was another fight. Before he pounced on her like a bull-fighter, she had this heavy iron rod which she landed on the man‟s back. The man was on the floor and wept like a child. She called in an ambulance and the husband was taken to hospital. He was there for three months. Dare he beat his wife again? (28)
Once bitten twice shy, as the old saying goes. Yet, the fact that her husband beat her once has not mellowed Amaka. She is unable to keep quiet about the attitude of Obiora who has two sons by another woman and has married the latter without informing his first wife. So Amaka points an accusing finger at her husband, which can be taken as a warning as well : “You have changed a good deal my husband. I too could change, you know.” (1981 : 26). To Obiora who wanted to know what she meant, the heroine explained: “Meaning that I could do a lot behind your back without your ever finding out.” (1981 : 26). Through the exchange between husband and wife here, Nwapa reminds of the feminist struggle as “the challenging of gender inequalities in social systems and institutions.” 9 The challenging of gender inequality is more stressed further when Obiora, very angered by his first wife‟s answer, tells her : “I am a man” and Amaka replies : “I am a woman” (1981 : 26). This was the last straw for Obiora whose patience came to the breaking point. Therefore, he rushed to his wife in order to beat her.
By retaliating against her husband’s attack, Amaka backs her words with action. In fact, she has put into practice the suggestion she had made to the newly married girl, that is to fight back when her husband is beating her : “Amaka dodged as her husband came after her bare-handed. Then she sprang up quickly and landed a heavy blow on her husband’s chest with the hammer.
He simply sprawled down on the toilet floor, unable even to cry out.” (29). The point is Nwapa believes that “women have to stay strong…” 10 Again the Nigerian writer advocates this balance of power between husband and wife through the illiterate woman whose husband refused to give food money. When she got fed up with it all, she did not hesistate to hold his pocket in the street on his way to work and demanded what she rightly claimed. However, Nwapa has not failed to regret, via Amaka‟s mother’s words, the fact that educated women would have the complex to act like the woman because of their „education‟ :
“You must give me food money, this very day.” Passers-by collected as usual in Onitsha streets. The man was embarrassed. He fought, but the woman was resolute. “Soup money, no soup money, no work.” That woman did not go to school. If she had, do you think she would have had the face to fight on the street? Of course not,‟ she went on, „but she got what she wanted. Her husband was so ashamed that he wished the ground would open up and swallow him. That’s it. That’s what our men want these days. […]‟ ( 89)
Nwapa‟s call on women to defend their opinions and not accept to yield in order to satisfy other people is more pronounced through the heroine‟s refusal to get married with Father Mclaid (or Izu). Amaka makes it clear that she will not marry the priest though she enjoys being with him as her lover and has born him a set of twin boys. She “had told him that she was not going to change her mind. She cherished the relationship all right, but marriage, no. She was through with it.” (1981 : 135).
Izu has difficulty understanding Amaka‟s attitude in a society where women yearn to get married. Uchendu illustrates this reality when she contends that an Igbo woman’s “great objective in life is marriage ; that a woman’s glory is her children, and that to have children she must have a husband” and “That this is a chance she cannot afford to miss.” (1965 : 53).11 However, times were changing following the Nigerian Civil War and the independences and more and more women had new aspirations. For example, for many of them, the priority was to get educated, find an employment, therefore, acquire financial independence before turning to marriage.
With Amaka refusing Izu‟s marriage proposal, Nwapa questions and challenges the paramount importance that society gives to marriage for a woman. The Nigerian novelist does not incite women to reject matrimony but she indicates that women, from Amaka to her sister, Ayo, in addition to their mother, have begun to see marital union differently from the vast majority of the society.
It is noteworthy that Mclaid is young, handsome, has a high position in government and, therefore, is influential. These advantages, plus the fact that he is the father of Amaka‟s twin boys, should have pushed the heroine to accept his proposal without hesitating. Yet, she has not changed her mind. Even Izu‟s resort to Amaka‟s mother and her sister who is in favour of the marriage has not moved the heroine either. She tells Ayo : “As a wife, I am never free. I am a shadow of myself.
As a wife, I am almost impotent. I am in prison, unable to advance in body and soul.” (127). One can see here that a woman must not accept to be engaged in anything whatsoever against her will, she must not keep quiet when she has to express her opinion. In One is Enough, Flora Nwapa has also demonstrated that it is possible for a woman to find fulfillment outside marriage.
The Possibility for Women to Find Fulfilment outside Marriage
As early as the third chapter of One is Enough, Flora Nwapa makes the narrator pronounce the main message in the novel. As a matter of fact, referring to the heroine, the narrator announces : “She would find fulfulment, she would find pleasure, even happiness in being a single woman. The erroneous belief that without a husband a woman was nothing must be disproved.” (123-24). Still, concerning the message in her work, Nwapa herself, in an interview with Adeola James declares:
I think the message is, and it has always been, that whatever happens in a woman’s life … marriage is not the end of this world and childlessness is not the end of everything. You must survive one way or the other, and there are a hundred and one other things to make you happy apart from marriage and children.
The first courageous initiative which Amaka takes towards self-fulfilment is putting an end to her marriage in a society where a woman who leaves her husband is considered a bad woman and therefore submitted to psychological pressures. Nwapa makes sure the reader sees that this is not a light heart that the protagonist has taken this decision.
The point is Amaka has been pushed to leave her marital home by the unfair attitude of her husband and her mother-in-law. Her only wrong is that after six years of marriage, she was not able to have a child. To rebuild her life, Amaka went to settle in Lagos. In this town, she continued her activity as a contractor with the help of her brother-in-law (the husband of her sister Ayo) who put her in touch with an Aladji working at the Ministry. If the collaboration with this man has been very fruitful for the protagonist, it also marks a change process of the woman.
To begin with, the Aladji gave Amaka a contract for the supply of toilet rolls worth ten thousand naira from which she earned three thousand naira. Then, he helped “her secure more contracts and… in the execution of them.” (1981 : 66). Besides, whereas it usually took people two or even three years to make their company registered in Lagos, Amaka had hers registered in a matter of days thanks to the Aladji. Finally, with the help of this man, the heroine bought a site where she store timber and blocks and where she later built a house. Her friend, Adaobi, couldn‟t help expressing her admiration : “You have arrived. You are about to conquer Lagos.” ( 68)
However, Amaka who was playing the virtuous wife no longer cared about chastity. In return for the contracts and the other favours from the Aladji, she slept with him. In an interview with Marie Umeh, Flora Nwapa states : “I feel that every woman, married or single, must have economic independence.” (Umeh, 26). Therefore, Amaka is determined to be economically independent but the novelist points out the obstacles which women in Lagos often have to face in order to achieve financial autonomy. So the heroine confides in her friend, Adaobi : “You know Lagos. No man can do anything for a woman, even if the woman is the wife of a head of state, without asking her for her most precious possession – herself. I must confess to you. I have slept with the Aladji.” (67-68). On the other hand, in Lagos, Amaka has decided to abide by the advice of her mother.
The latter urged her daughter to follow the example of her elder sister, Ayo, who did not hesitate to use a man to achieve independence. In effect, Ayo left her husband when he “came up with his pranks, she… got herself „kept‟ by a Permanent Secretary whose wife went to the land of the white people to read books.” (33). In four years, not only did the Secretary give her four children but he also sent her to school to improve and she qualified as a teacher. When the man‟s wife came back in the fifth year, the man had bought a house for his concubine. So Ayo moved into her house with her children. Hence, Amaka‟s mother’s question to the protagonist : “In her position, what does she want from a man ?” (33).
It is Ayo who enabled her younger sister to make Father Mclaid‟s acquaintance. Amaka‟s relationship with this priest is even more profitable than the one with the Aladji. Mclaid first put her in touch with a Brigadier who gave her a contract worth half a million naira and twenty-five of the amount was hers, which enabled her to pay back the dowry to her former husband and validate their divorce.
Still, thanks to Izu, she bought a car and built a house in three months. In return for the favours which Izu does her, she also sleeps with him. At this stage, one can see an illustration of Katherine Frank‟s statement in “Women Without Men: The Feminist Novel in Africa” that “bottom power, sexual bargaining, prostitution are all woman’s tool towards economic independence and selfhood.” As far as Amaka is concerned; the reader cannot lose sight of her new socio-economic well-being which results from her relationships with the Aladji and Father Mclaid.
She has bought a house, a car and she has a driver. Hence, the compliment of one „Cash Madam‟: “Amaka, you are doing very well in Lagos. Congratulations.” (78). She also joins the „Cash Madam‟ club and the fact that she gives her subscription to this club by cheque is another illustation of her very good financial situation. Amaka has neither a husband nor a child and yet she is happy thanks to her work, her friends, her economic independence. To her mother who wants to know if she is happy in Lagos, she answers: “I am reasonably happy. I work hard and I have friends. Ayo is of course there, and she has introduced me to her circle of friends. So I am quite contented.” (85).
The protagonist’s position and her fortune have revealed her generosity. She helps her friend, Adaobi, in the execution of her contracts, enabling her this way to get enough money and build a house. Amaka‟s gesture is all the more important as she made it possible for Adaobi, her husband, Mike, and children to move into their own house when Mike was ejected from his official residence, following the military coup.
Actually, the heroine is useful to her community insofar as she shares her wealth with her friends and relatives: “And so relatives and friends poured in and she gave them money, raw cash.” (116). she makes no distinction though she is aware that among those who come to tell her their financial problems, she has enemies: “Those who say nasty things about you are the very people who come to you with their monetary problems.” (116).
Therefore, Amaka only confirms Mike when the latter, celebrating the car which the woman had just bought, declared: “Your sojourn in Lagos Has been a blessing To you and to your friends” (81) Amaka is now respected by the very people who unfairly treated her with disrespect, namely Obiora and his mother, because she could not give birth. Yet, her inability to have a child is still there. Their change of attitude towards the protagonist is justified by her new position which makes Obiora desire her helplessly: “…she has got a lawyer to start divorce proceedings.
I don‟t want that, Mother. I hear she is very wealthy now. She has built a house in Lagos, she owns a car and she moves in very high circles. She could be very useful to me. I want her, Mother. I am miserable without her.” (91-92). As for Obiora‟s mother who had labelled Amaka a prostitute and had opposed her son‟s will to reconcile with the heroine, she is simply seduced when she sees her former daughter-in-law again: “You look so well, my daughter. Lagos is kind to you.” (95)
Amaka‟s mother has also changed attitude towards her daughter. It is noteworthy here that the older woman had told the younger one, after the second year of her marriage, to leave Obiora or to go to other men in order to have children. The mother was not pleased by Amaka‟s refusal and was very pained when, four years later, her daughter came back home, pushed as she was to leave her marital home by her husband and mother-in-law.
Amaka‟s mother was merciless and blamed her daughter at length with harsh words. But now the older woman is respectful of the protagonist: “Her mother had changed quite a bit. She was no longer harsh, and there was some respect in her voice when she spoke to Amaka now.” (84). Amaka‟s mother’s respect towards her daughter grows into pride after the latter eventually gives birth : “She now had two lovely sons and wealth. What could be better than that ? She was very proud of her daughter and rightly.
Who wouldn’t be?” (117). the reader realizes that, in her quest for self-fulfilment, Amaka needed to procreate in a society where “motherhood defines womanhood.” (Boyce, 1 243) Despite the fact that she has given two sons to Izu, despite the latter’s high position in government, Amaka refused to marry him. She needs him as a lover but not as a husband. One marriage has been enough for her because : “As a wife, I am never free. I am a shadow of myself. As a wife, I am almost impotent. I am in prison, unable to advance in body and soul.” (127).
It is true that her experience in Obiora‟s home justifies her unwillingness to get married again. But it is also clear that Amaka is doing very well without a husband. As a matter of fact, she has got two assets which women are urged to achieve in the novel : financial independence and children. Amaka‟s mother even considers her daughter a lucky woman for having achieved both because, according their belief, a woman “either had children or…had money.” (116).
Through the heroine‟s refusal to yield to the will of her mother and sister and marry Mclaid, one can also see an illustration of Valerie Bryson‟s observation that: “Women should be free to follow the career of their choice, and should not be forced into marriage through economic necessity.” (56)
Childlessness in Nwapa’sOne Is Enough
Childlessness is a serious issue that attracts the attention of every society in the world today. One of the themes as portrayed by Nwapa in One Is Enough is childlessness. This theme of childlessness can be seen in the life of Amaka. For instance, Amaka is portrayed as a very industrious woman, well educated, very respectful, humble and a good wife to Obina; The author says:
Amaka has throughout her life designed and longed to marry and have children of her own who would call her mother, but unfortunately, she waited for six years without any child of her own (141)
Amaka’s plight at this point is not just a product of her childlessness alone but a pure proof of the stereotypical image painted of female characters in African literature. Here, Nwapa demonstrate that a woman is just a figure to be seen not to be heard. Amaka’s consent is not needed in basic decision making in the family even when the decision is to her detriment. This incidence justifies Helen’s claim on the theme of childlessness in Africa society that:
The female character in African fiction… is a facile lack-luster human being, the quite number of a house hold, content only to her children, unfulfilled if she does not, and Handicapped if she bears only daughter. In the home, she is not part of the decision-making both as a daughter, wife and mother even when the decisions affect her directly (131)
This notion supports Obi’s view that:
The position of a wife in her husband’s family remains shaky and unpredictable until she begets a child (1)
Another instance of the theme of childlessness as portrayed by the author is the humiliation of Amaka by Obiora. For instance, as Amaka lays her complaint to Obiora about his infidelity and harsh treatment to her lately, the later retorts by saying that he is a man. But when Amaka responds that she is also a woman, Obiora rushes with a great in dignation Amaka to give her a thorough beating
Amaka’s hiding in the toilet at this time when actually she has done nothing wrong is a mark of respect yet, Obiora does not see reasons to control his anger, instead he bangs at the door saying, open the door, you whore, you good for nothing woman, you prostitute. What have you been doing behind my back? Sleeping with other men? I am going to kill you today and take your corps to your mother and nobody will ask question. Open the door and I will tear you to pieces (28-29)
STYLE IN FLORA NWAPA’S ONE IS ENOUGH
First person point of view: This point of view narrates a story of an event using a first person point of view such as “I” and “we”.
Examples:
Amaka receives advice from her friend Adaobi who describes the nature of successful business in Lagos by saying: “You know Lagos. No man can do anything for a woman, without asking her for her precious possession-herself. ‘‘I must confess to you, ‘‘I’’ have slept with Alhaji” (68).
Simile: This is a comparison of essentially different objects, things, or group of things which are similar in meaning with the use of “as’’ and “like”.
Examples: While at Lagos, Amaka’s sister addresses a gathering of business women by saying to Amaka, “There are women ‘‘like’’ you who were here during the war and did such contract work, but they are still living in one room, a rented room, in Yaba and EbutaMetta and even Ajegunle”(79).
Metaphor: As a figure of speech, implies a comparison between two kinds of things of unequal class and states two dissimilar things of different class and characteristics. ‘Like’ and’ as’ are not used in metaphors. In other words, it is a direct comparison.
Example: “.
Personification: It is a figure or speechthat implies human attributes to inanimate object
Example: “
Hyperbole: It is a figure of speech with a deliberate exaggeration either for homour or for emphasis
Example: Oh
Oxymoron: This occurs when two seemingly contradictory words are placed side by side.
Example:
Litotes: It is figure of speech with a statement of fact that also uses a negative expression such as “not’’ “no”
Examples:
Adaobi react by saying to him: “You implied it and will answer you. If they give children, she will sleep with all of them one after the other. She will ‘‘not’’ even care who the father is, once she is pregnant… even a bagger from the street” (60).In addition, she reminds him of the undeniable fact and tells him: “This house is ‘‘not’’ our own. The government owns it. One day the government could fire you and we would have nowhere to live. We have ‘‘no’’ house at home either” (46).
CHARACTERIZATION IN NWAPA’SONE IS ENOUGH
Amaka: Is the major character in the novel. She is the wife of Obiora, but their marriage is befit of children after many years. Due to her childless condition, Obiora’s mother inflicted pain, trauma and abuses words on her. In the same vein, Amaka is abused by her very own husband, Obiora. Because of the maltreatment inflicted on her, she decided to flit her way to Lagos were she can find some green pasture.
After arriving in Lagos, she learns the conniving methods of achieving success as a business woman. She decides never to marry again even though she does have children. She concludes that women can be happy, fulfilled and successful without being married as long as they have their own money.
At Lagos, she met Alhaji, and they lived together. She gave him sex and gave her contracts. After leaving Alhaji, she met a Reverend Father, Izu whom they have sex and have two male twins. According to the author, despite the priest’s appeal in taking her Amaka as a wife, Amaka’s decision was that she was not going to be involved again in any marriage again because according to her, all men are the same therefore she does not want to marry again.
Obiora: Obiora is the husband of Amaka who after many years of marriage, they have no child. Obiora on the other hand is not comfortable because of the mother’s disturbances to quit Amaka and marry another woman.
There is an instance when Amaka lays her complaint to Obiora about her infidelity and harsh treatment by her mother that she is also a woman, Obiora rushes with a great in damnation given her a thorough beating. According to the author, Amaka ran and hide in the toilet at this time when actually she has done nothing wrong is a mark of respect yet, Obiora does not see reasons to control his anger, instead he bangs at the door saying, open the door, you whore, you good for nothing woman, you prostitute.
What have you been doing behind my back? Sleeping with other men? I am going to kill you today and take your corps to your mother and nobody will ask question. Due to this childless situation, Amaka decided to leave Obiora and the mother to Lagos. After many years, Obiora returned and pleaded Amaka forgiveness over the ill human treatment and all the abuses him and the mother imposes on her. In the same vein, asking Amaka to give him a chance
Mclaid (lzu): Mclaid (lzu) is a priest; he lives in Lagos that is where he met Amaka and those two falls in love. He got her pregnant and gave birth to two male twins. Despite the priest’s appeal and readiness to quit his priesthood, Amaka’s decision was that she was not going to be involved again with men. She had had enough.
She had not come to Lagos to be a whore. She had come to look for identity (45). According to the author, the priest loves Amaka so much that he promises Amaka that he is ready to quit his priesthood to marry her but when Amaka refuses, the author says the priest began to cry.
