She cries quietly, her shoulders heaving up and down, not the kind of loud sobbing that the women Chika knows do, the kind that screams Hold me and comfort me because I cannot deal with this alone. Th...
Papa said that the parish priest in Abba was not spiritual enough. That was the problem with our people, Papa told us, our priorities were wrong; we cared too much about huge church buildings and migh...
Never speak of marriage as an achievement.
Never apologize for working. You love what you do, and loving what you do is a great gift to give your child.
Military men would always overthrow one another, because they could, because they were all power drunk.
How was it possible to miss something you no longer wanted?
How can we resist exploitation if we don’t have the tools to understand exploitation?
Charming, was what one of the girls said later: Your boyfriend is so charming. And the thought occurred to Ifemelu that she did not like charm. Not Curt’s kind, with its need to dazzle, to perform. Sh...
But of course it makes sense because we are Third Worlders and Third Worlders are forward-looking, we like things to be new, because our best is still ahead, while in the West their best is already pa...
Be a full person. Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that.
If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not need limp gifts of fish but sturdy fishing rods and fair access to the pond. I wonder whe...
Man’s ugly body thrusting into his sister’s. It
Like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out.
Femelu could not understand this, her mother’s ability to tell herself stories about her reality that did not even resemble her reality
But what struck me was that whenever he changed the baby’s diaper, she said thank you to him.
We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man.
The Red Cross irritated Ugwu; the least they could do was ask Biafrans their preferred foods rather than sending so much bland flour.
She was too afraid to hope, now that it seemed possible.
People have crushes on priests all the time, you know. It’s exciting to have to deal with God as a rival.
Other men might respond by saying: Okay, this is interesting, but I don’t think like that. I don’t even think about gender. Maybe not. And that is part of the problem. That many men do not actively th...