Summary

Before traveling to the capital city, Odili visits his home village, both to see his father and to take his house-boy Peter to his own home for the holidays. As Peter buys gifts for his parents, Odili thinks about his own family relationships. Odili’s mother, his father’s second wife, died at Odili’s birth, which made the villagers consider Odili to be an unlucky child. His father’s first wife, whom everyone called “Mama,” raised Odili as her own.

Odili’s father was a District Interpreter, a powerful man who served as the link to the white people who were truly in power. People sought the father’s favor, but he was also hated by many. When Odili was in secondary school (high school), he lived at school and was invited to go to the nearby home of one of his classmates during a...