Oyinkan Braithwaite’s novel is deeply embedded in the cosmology of the Yoruba people of Southwestern Nigeria. Within this framework, a curse is not merely a figure of speech but a potent spiritual force, particularly when sealed with blood. The Falodun family curse is established when the first wife “swiped the blood from one of her many wounds and smeared it on the ground” (22), invoking a binding power that transcends generations. This act gives the curse a tangible reality, shaping the destinies of the Falodun women not as a psychological burden alone, but as a spiritual affliction.

Similarly, the concept of reincarnation, or àtúnwá, is a central tenet of Yoruba belief. According to Dr. Oluwaseun Samuel Osadola, a Nigerian professor of history and international studies at Federal University Oye Ekiti, the Yoruba believe in the communion between the living and the dead, and that the dead have the ability to influence the living, at times in the form of reincarnation. Dr. Osadola states that “reincarnation occurs […] in some circumstances of untimely death, in order for an individual to fulfill his or her God-given purpose or destiny in life, and in some cases of suicide” (Osadola, Oluwaseun S.