Black Sunday

“I think everything is a story unless you live in it. I like the idea of a god who knows what it’s like to be a twin. To have no memory of ever being alone. To be happy you are different from your twin but also to be sad about it. To know almost everything about your twin and sometimes want to stop knowing so much. To know you were born with everything you will ever need for love but to be afraid that this one person is too important. Or that this person will never be enough. To pray to a god like that, all I would ever have to say is help me.” 

Bibike introduces several major themes in her first chapter. Part of this is the struggle for survival, and for Bibike and Ariyike, their dependence and independence as twins is a symbol for how they struggle to survive after their parents leave—especially in a patriarchal society. This excerpt nods to the roles of religion and storytelling as it occurs after Bibike recounts the story her grandmother told her about the god of twin births. She appreciates the idea that a deity might be able to understand her, and while Christianity does not appeal to her, her reliance on her grandmother’s Yoruba tradition is a large part of her story. 

“Then she put her arms around me and cried with me, and this was how I knew that she felt all the things that I felt, and we did not sleep at all that night because we were the same sad the same angry the same afraid.”

In this moment, Bibike and Ariyike share a bond as twins. They begin Black Sunday as dependent on one another and end the novel wholly independent, which Ariyike recognizes as the cost of the choices she made to survive. They began their journey to this independence understanding that their lives were going to change when they first learn that their mother lost her job. 

“I hoped that God could tell that my heart wanted him more than it wanted worldly music, or anything else. I could sense that the world was changing, that big things were about to happen. Of course, I could not say for certain that it was the end of the world, the Rapture or the Second Coming or anything like Pastor David—Bibike’s mocking made it hard for me to believe everything he said—but I felt something.”

This part of the novel foreshadows that the siblings’ world is about to shift. In the next chapter, Andrew begins to detail life at their grandmother’s house. Additionally, readers start to see Ariyike and Bibike’s different views on Christianity: It moves Ariyike and Bibike makes fun of it. This is the second chapter and already they have started to diverge because of their separate beliefs. This is repeated at the end of the novel when Bibike mourns their grandmother, but Ariyike admits finding her intolerable.

“On some days, right after I said my night prayer, when I focused hard enough, I could hear the voice of God in the evening breeze. It sounded like an old man speaking softly in the distance. I did not know, in the way Pastor David apparently did, how to decipher what the voice was saying. But I believed that someday I, too, would understand His voice. I think I love Pastor David.” 

As Ariyike thinks about her faith, her narration foreshadows her leadership in the New Church later in the novel. Additionally, this excerpt highlights her lived experience of religion. Christianity, to her, appears in all parts of her life—not just when she is in church. Furthermore, it foreshadows her marriage to Pastor David. However, by the time this happens, she is no longer in love with him; rather, she knows their marriage will provide for her. She still connects with the faith of the New Church.

“In the end, our mother was just the first to leave. My family unraveled rapidly, in messy loose knots, hastening away from one another, shamefaced and lonesome, injured solitary animals in a happy world.” 

As a twin, Ariyike thinks often of independence and being separate from Bibike. In this excerpt, however, she retrospectively considers how her family came apart, which foreshadows how Andrew and Peter are both in the U.S. while she and Bibike haven’t spoken in three years. More immediately, it foreshadows the fact that their father will leave and the siblings will wrestle with what being orphaned means for their lives. 

“When you are the youngest child in a Lagos family, you are the custodian of the most precious unacknowledged hopes. Every sentence to you is a prayer, every sentence about you is an expression of possibility, everything you hear is love. I did not know this at first. Around the time I was learning to use my left hand to draw superheroes, I learned to listen for those hopes like words from a new language.” 

Peter’s explanation reiterates the “how-to” motif. This helps to form an important part of the survival theme as he discusses the expectations of being the youngest. He holds his family’s deepest hope for the future. For Peter, this is important for when his mother returns and she hopes he will go with her to the United States. It is part of why she chooses to tell her story only to Peter rather than with one of his siblings. 

“Beauty was a gift, but what was I to do with it? It was fortunate to be beautiful and desired. It made people smile at me. I was used to strangers wishing me well. But what is a girl’s beauty, but a man’s promise of reward? What was my beauty but a proclamation of potential, an illusion of choice? All women are owned by someone, some are owned by many; a beautiful girl’s only advantage is that she may get to choose her owner. If beauty was a girl, it was not a gift to me, I could not eat my own beauty, I could not improve my life by beauty alone. I was born beautiful, I was a beautiful baby. It did not change my life. I was a beautiful girl. Still, my life was ordinary. But a beautiful woman was another type of thing. I had waiting too long to choose my owner, dillydallying in my ignorance, and so someone chose me. What was I to do about that?” 

Bibike touches on the theme of living in a patriarchal society in this excerpt. However, the motif of control also returns as she asks, “What was I to do about that?” Aminat’s father touched her, and she would soon begin to use their affair to provide for her family. For Bibike, this moment is one where she begins to shed her naivete about the world and, in some ways, to use society’s views of women to her advantage. 

“I was realizing for the first time my tendency to think always in terms of ‘us’ instead of ‘me.’ The shoes I wore were ours, the clothes ours, the parents who left without saying goodbye, ours.” 

Ariyike touches on the twin motif that appears throughout the novel as she and her sister gradually grow further apart. This moment comes as she is about to get a job at the radio station—a crucial step in her path to fame and, more than that, her ability to provide for her family. However, this thought is the first time in which she begins to understand her need for independence. 

“The dancing fathers stared me down, and the angrier I was, the better they danced. I shooed them away with my hands, but they did not leave. They danced and laughed and danced some more and no matter what I did, no matter how angry I got, the fathers did not stop dancing and I could not bring my mouth to say the words, ‘Go away, fathers.’” 

The presence and absence of parents in Black Sunday has a huge impact on the four siblings. Andrew is particularly tormented by the absence of his father, and each father he encounters or hears about is a negative influence. His father left him. His school father orders him around and punishes him. Nadia’s father would be furious if he knew about Andrew. In seeing the various “father figures” in his dream just after witnessing Nadia’s rape (and leaving her despite her calls for help), Andrew experiences a unique sense of torture and helplessness in not having a positive father in his life

“There was nothing lazy about wanting free, unregulated time in a Lagos boarding school. Every single moment of your waking life was regulated by the bell—which was technically just a rusty wheel from an abandoned lorry—hanging in the center of your school. At six a.m. and every thirty minutes after until your nine p.m. bedtime, some person unlucky enough to be appointed timekeeping prefect rang the bell, telling you all it was time to do something else.”

As Peter gives this detail about his schedule, it is reminder of the motif of control. Peter has little control over his schedule. Andrew has little control over his place in the pecking order. Bibike has decided to take ownership of her body and uses it to be able to provide for her family; Ariyike does something similar in her relationship with Dexter. However, each sibling is put in the position of having to do these things because of their place in society and their need to survive.

“When you are like me, people give you what they have, and you are supposed to be grateful, say thank you, sir, thank you, madam. This is going to be my whole life, isn’t it, being thankful for things other children don’t have to be?” 

Peter’s narration here highlights the effects of being orphaned. He is talking about how others give him what they want even if it doesn’t necessarily help him and how he is supposed to be grateful just because of his place in the world. It calls attention to the injustice of not listening to what people in need may want or need in order to navigate the world. 

“Back then, before our mother disappeared like smoke, before I had any real reason to weep, I would sing sad songs and cry so hard until I was sick with a high fever. My mother never could figure out how I got so sick sitting at home all by myself. But I knew what I was doing. I was sick with longing. I was sick with the curse of sensation, with all the world’s sadness seeking and finding a resting place in my bones and in my marrow. One day, I was just a little girl who sometimes got out her seat in the neighborhood bar to dance, even if no one else was dancing. Then the next day, I was in love, I was a woman.” 

This excerpt references not only the theme of being without parents in Bibike’s mention of their mother “disappear[ing] like smoke,” but it also foreshadows the fact that Bibike and her siblings will have to navigate an unfair world. Eventually, Bibike grows up and, at this moment in the book, she feels she has found a way to be happy in the world with her boyfriend, Aba.

“When our mother first came back, it was hard for me to believe our family could fit together again like an old jacket after a little mending. I would have been quite sure, once, that this jovial teasing was fraudulent—there was a suspicious ease in it, a hollow sweetness in their kindness to one another. However, as I watched them that morning planning for a wedding, I thought about Stacy and my heart ached because I realized how lucky she would have felt to have her mother back to argue with, to laugh with, to lie to.” 

This excerpt comes from Andrew’s last section in Black Sunday. Family and survival as a family has been a huge part of his story and of the siblings’ narratives. In this moment, he’s beginning to think that perhaps all could be well—that their family has returned together despite all of the trials each sibling has experienced. He grounds this in his adult understanding of Stacy’s life and how perhaps, this time, he is the lucky one.

“There are stories you can appreciate or understand only by living in a particular place at a particular time. Ori-ona is necessary for us here. In the middle of the worst type of tragedy, we got strange comfort from the idea that it was possible someone somewhere had been trying to warn us to prevent it. This is how we know that we are not completely forgotten.” 

Peter gets to the theme of storytelling in this excerpt. Stories have formed so much of his life—from Bibike telling him stories to writing his own poetry at school. They provide some comfort and offer life lessons. He thinks that perhaps people should have listened to Ori-ona. Additionally, Peter insists that some stories can only be truly understood “by living in a particular place at a particular time.” Readers understand the story to the extent that they can identify with the place from which it comes. 

“Now I realize that the king, kinder, fairer than 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.”

In Part 3, Peter reflects on the story Bibike told to him and Andrew in Part 1. As an adult, his view of its message has changed—especially since his life is so different from the first time he heard the tale. Bringing this story back in Peter’s last section of the book also emphasizes storytelling as a theme. These stories are a way through which each child understands the world, even if this understanding changes as they grow older. This is the case for Peter as he feels now like the hen. He must have a relationship with this woman—his mother. That is the nature of the world in Lagos, which also recalls the “how-to” motif seen in several chapter titles.

“I did not really expect her to answer my question about regrets. Just like I needed to ask, she needed to not answer. She did not seem to remember who she was before she ran to America in hopes for a better life. I did not know anything but the mother she used to be. That comparing and contrasting was my burden. I did not pay the price that she did, so America was not at all beautiful to me. What is the value of a thing but the price a buyer pays for it? How can I expect someone who went to prison for a chance to live in a country not to be excited when she got that chance? I did not really hate my mother, I did not even hate America. How can you hate something you do not know? America will always be, to me, the country that stole my mother and sent back something unrecognizable in her place. I will not call that country beautiful, or its people beloved.” 

Peter takes ownership in his adulthood in this chapter. Like he and his siblings, his mother did what she needed to do to survive in another country. Despite this, it is not without effect on their family. His mother is a different person and while he does not hate her for it, he will never be able to reconcile who she was before she left and who she is now: Her departure rid him of their time together and also changed who she was as a human and a mother.

“It is easy to get tired of proverbs. They contain a certain specificity of wisdom, a peculiar scale of right and wrong. Sometimes that scale is ineffective in the modern world. I am learning to create my own values.” 

In this context, proverbs are a form of storytelling, which has prominently figured throughout Black Sunday. In suggesting that she has grown tired of her grandmother’s proverbs and that they don’t always apply to the present, Bibike indicates that she has moved past storytelling as the guide for her life. She works to find her own way and her own set of values. This choice does not mean that she no longer values stories; in this chapter alone, she mentions how she has started to record her grandmother’s stories for her daughter. However, she is now working to take control of what’s important to her, what she values, and letting this direct her decisions. 

“In the past, I had fought with Tunde for the way he took charge of everything, treating my whole life like a problem needing intervention. I realized then that my daughter, Abike, was lucky to have that in her father, someone so comfortable with responsibility that he’d take on more without being asked.” 

Bibike is not used to having responsible parent figures in her life. Instead, she has had to navigate her way through the world, which is likely why she has a difficult time allowing Tunde to care for her. However, she also recognizes that this is, in many ways, a positive trait since she has been forced to become wildly independent. This refers to the motif of control in that Bibike is working to find a balance. She needs her independence but has become grateful for Tunde’s willingness to share responsibility with her.

“First of all, the leadership of the church does not think females should ascend in ministry from position to position like men do. No, our access is always tied to the men in our lives, the husbands and fathers. Second, the Christian practice is very masculine. It’s a religion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, after all. Our God is a man, His Son is a man. Therefore, all the sent are men. It is just the way things are.”

Ariyike highlights the patriarchal nature of the New Church in this excerpt, drawing attention to the difference between the way men and women are treated. She also connects this to the theme of religion by saying Christianity is “very masculine” in practice. Additionally, her note that all of the leaders of the church are men because “[i]t is just the way things are” speaks to the idea of “how-to live” in Lagos. This fact is something that must be accepted in order to move through society. 

“I know what I am doing using Scripture for my own ends. It is impossible to spend so much time reading and teaching the Bible and be unskilled in using it as a weapon. Does not the Bible in the book of Hebrews refer to its content as a two-edged sword, cutting and dividing?”

Religion is used in many ways throughout Black Sunday, playing a complex role in the lives of all four siblings. In this instance, Ariyike recognizes how it can be used to further one’s own personal wants and needs. This has also occurred in instances where Pastor David seduced her by telling her how both he and God would take care of her. It also foreshadows the revelation that Pastor Samuel was working on behalf of the New Church when he scammed Ariyike’s father.

“I know what it’s like to find a way out and hold on to him. I remember what desperate feels like. I remember the intoxicating combination of fear, anger, and ambition. I can sympathize with her situation except that she’s crossed the line with the ‘God told me to keep my baby’ talk. The kind of girl to fuck a married man is the kind of girl who gets a compulsory abortion. This is Lagos, not El Dorado. There is no happily-ever-after for her here.”

Ariyike had to sleep with both Dexter and Pastor David in order to provide for her family; often, this led to a loss of control because she was dependent on them to get ahead. This quotation also has to do with the “how-to” motif because of Ariyike’s insistence that, for this young woman, “[t]here is no happily-ever-after for her here.” She suggests this is part of life as a woman in Lagos.

“I used to believe that I was helping people here. I used to tell myself I was making a difference and improving lives. These days, I am more accepting of the fact that I became a Christian to help myself. I am a Christian because I believe I am God’ most important project. This is the foundation of Christianity, it seems to me; to believe that Jesus died to save my soul is to believe that I am important enough, that I am deserving of the highest kind of love and the sacrifice of an innocent.”

This quotation comes just one chapter after Bibike admits she never thought her sister really believed in Jesus. Almost in answer to this, Ariyike’s narration explains her personal reasons for being a Christian, which helps the reader to recognize what religion means for Ariyike. It is more than what the faith is on its own; it is what it is for Ariyike and her understanding of herself in the world. It is a path through which she feels empowered and deserving.

“This is my personal revolution. All my life I never dared to think of myself as anything special. I think often of something my twin sister said once, about what happens to you when you grow up as deprived as we did. She said we got our brains locked in survival mode and we will be spending our whole adulthood dealing with that. I think she was right. Even with all this money and influence, I am still as self-serving as I was when I hawked water on busy Lagos streets. But I am Christian, so this makes it okay, God understands and gives me His grace.” 

Questions of survival—especially without parents—are key to understanding Black Sunday. Everything Ariyike has done she has done to provide for herself and her family. She feels locked in survival mode and lives in fear that it could be ruined at any moment. She finds empowerment in Christianity, despite her belief that she is “self-serving.” Religion has provided a comfort to her throughout her life and career. Even when she first sees Pastor David again, she is deeply moved by his sermon. It is an authentic belief and one that supports her even she feels trapped in survival mode.