Daughter in Exile

The novel opens in May 2007 as Lola Oduro, a Ghanaian woman who has lived in America for 10 years as an undocumented immigrant, prepares to face an immigration judge. Known also as Akua, her Akan day name, and Olivia, the Western name her mother gave her, Lola reflects on a decade of paying taxes but being unable to vote. A letter from her aging mother haunts her, and she draws resolve from the San kɔ fa swan, an Adinkra symbol from Akan culture representing the importance of returning to retrieve what one has left behind. The narrative loops back to 1995.

In Dakar, Senegal, 21-year-old Lola works as a translator at the Thai Embassy. At a going-away party for her American friend Olga, Len George, a Black American diplomat, mistakes Lola for a maid and calls her "Fatou," a generic name French colonialists used for African maids. Though furious, Lola later befriends Len. Her life shifts when her roommate Joana introduces her to Armand Beaumont, a Haitian-American marine stationed at the U.S. Embassy. Initially wary after past experiences with harassment, Lola gradually falls for Armand's quiet protectiveness. They become lovers. Armand is consumed by a desire to become a millionaire, driven by his family's immigrant struggles, while Lola has no desire for biological motherhood.

When Armand is reassigned to Barbados, he gives Lola his mother's ruby ring as a promise of marriage and deposits $2,000 for her to start a gold-trading business. Five weeks later, Lola discovers she is pregnant. She flies to Ghana to buy gold, but the venture collapses when she realizes that "10 pounds" in Ghanaian mining language means only 10 ounces, and the seller, Auntie Peace, vanishes with the money. Lola cannot bring herself to tell Armand.

Before leaving for America, Lola visits her mother in Kumasi. Mama raised Lola alone after her father died in a car accident at sea when Lola was three and has already written to oppose a foreign marriage. When she sees Lola's pregnant belly, she retreats to her bedroom and shuts the door for the first time in Lola's memory. She tells Lola to go. Lola departs for New York in January 1997, seven months pregnant, carrying only $250 and a tourist visa, heading to stay with Daniel Roberts, Armand's best friend, whom she has never met.

Daniel abandons Lola at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn at two thirty in the morning. A crisis worker connects her with Mrs. Summer, a Jehovah's Witness from Dominica, who takes Lola in overnight even as her own family copes with a dying relative in intensive care. From a letter in Daniel's room, Lola discovers that Armand's parents want nothing to do with an African woman. Unable to reach Armand, she contacts Olga in Maryland by singing their shared song from Treasure Island over the phone. Olga and her husband Barry take Lola in.

When Lola finally reaches Armand and confesses she lost the money, he accuses her of keeping it and declares he does not want the baby. The relationship ends. Lola gives birth to a son she names Dele Kofi Oduro, choosing the name without consulting family, which draws a sharp rebuke from Mama.

Lola moves through a series of unstable living situations. She stays with Auntie Theodora, her mother's cousin in Silver Spring, Maryland, but is asked to leave after a private letter she wrote to her sister, Awurama, travels through the Ghanaian gossip network back to Theodora. A friend arranges work and housing, but the job falls through when borrowed identification is reclaimed, and the man sharing the room tries to assault Lola. A live-in babysitting position with the O'Neal family lasts only one week; Lola learns the O'Neals feared she might have AIDS because she came from Africa and her child's father was Black. She moves in with Mindy and Ted, friends from Dakar.

At her lowest point, Lola tells Ted she wants to die. Ted reminds her that Dele needs her and suggests embassy work. The embassy of Mali hires her for a one-month trial. At a Christian retreat, Lola reconnects with Rob Morrison, a white American accountant who had given her coins for a phone call at JFK the night Daniel abandoned her and had missed his own flight searching for her. Rob begins spending time with Lola and Dele. Through a chain of diplomatic introductions, Lola secures a position as executive assistant at the Central African Republic embassy. The embassy obtains an A2 diplomatic visa for her, making her legal for the first time since her tourist visa expired.

Rob proposes after months of deepening friendship. They share an intellectual and spiritual bond, both rejecting the exclusivity of Christianity. They elope, drawing fury from Rob's parents, Richard and Barbara Morrison, who object because Rob has not been formally "born again," and from church members who oppose interracial marriage. Mama's letter declares Lola's life is now her own.

Five months into the marriage, Lola discovers she is pregnant, and Rob is arrested for tax fraud. He pleads guilty, urges Lola to divorce him, and refuses future prison visits. Shortly after, Rob dies by suicide in his cell.

Church members pressure the grieving Lola to give her unborn baby up for adoption. After giving birth to a daughter she names Kemi, Lola places her with Pierce and Tilly Livingston, a couple from upstate New York who promise an open adoption. Lola cannot physically hand Kemi to them; her friend John Peters, a missionary, carries the baby out. When the Livingstons grow cold and their home study reveals troubling details, Lola's lawyer, Scott Roanoke, reminds her she has signed no termination papers. She resolves to reclaim her daughter, and Benjamin Washington, a church member, drives her to retrieve Kemi.

After returning from maternity leave, a new ambassador at the embassy sexually assaults Lola. She fights him off and quits, which invalidates her diplomatic visa. Rob's parents, absent since his death, reappear and sue for custody of Kemi. The judge awards custody to Lola but bars her from taking Kemi out of the country, effectively trapping her in America.

Lola finds work as a French teacher at Blood of Jesus Academy, a Christian school, earning barely enough to survive. She is defrauded by an immigration consultant and neglected by another lawyer before a paralegal named Grace Logan and an attorney named Phoebe Gordon take over her case. They pursue suspension of deportation: An immigrant present in the country illegally for five years can petition to have deportation suspended and be granted permanent residence. If denied, Lola would face permanent deportation, but she accepts the risk, reasoning that even deportation would send her home to Ghana.

In May 2007, Lola appears before Judge Franklin Shaunessy. The prosecutor recommends permanent residence, and the judge agrees, granting Lola legal status without requiring testimony from the over 20 witnesses who came to support her. Lola weeps in the courtroom, finally free.

That summer, Lola flies to Ghana with Dele and Kemi. Awurama meets them at the airport, and they drive to Kumasi. At Mama's retirement bungalow, decorated with Adinkra symbols, Lola finds her mother in an armchair. Mama admires both children, calling Kemi beautiful without remarking on her mixed-race heritage. On a walk together, Mama tells Lola she has raised her children well, a statement that functions as both forgiveness and apology within Ghanaian culture. Lola accepts the name Olivia at last, understanding it derives from "olive," her mother's symbol for peace. They sit together in reconciled silence, fulfilling the lesson of the San kɔ fa swan.