Summary

The first person narrator of “Redemption” is an unnamed 13-year-old girl who lives with her single mother in a prosperous home, presumably in Nigeria, that is tended to by a 19-year-old servant named Grace. The narrator becomes enamored with Mayowa, a new 13-year-old servant who begins working as a household servant for the neighboring family, the Ajayis. The day after the narrator meets Mayowa, Mayowa throws “a missile of shit wrapped in newspaper like a gift” at the narrator’s house (213). The narrator is attracted to Mayowa’s anti-authoritarian streak. The narrator comes up with an increasing number of excuses to visit Mrs. Ajayi in her house, but the real purpose is to observe Mayowa.

The narrator is constantly taken to church by her devout mother. The narrator is cautious of Brother Benni, the leader of the children’s ministry, because he had abuse...