Under the Udala Trees

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t]he female protagonists who did grow as selves were generally halted and defeated before they reached transcendent selfhood. They committed suicide or died; they compromised by marrying and devoting themselves to sympathetic men; they went mad or into some kind of retreat and seclusion from the world. (184, emphasis added) Ijeoma wants to be accepted in her society and wants to please her mother, but she cannot deny the way she feels and who she is. And throughout the story, we see the cost of living a life according to others' agendas and morality.

Okparanta’s analysis of religious authority in Nigeria goes beyond outlining its connections to the oppression of queer Nigerians. In my experience, sexual oppression is rarely far removed from misogyny, classism, and ableism. This holds true in Under The Udala Trees as well. Set in the civil war times in Nigeria, this book centers around a little girl, Ijeoma trying to discover her sexuality whilst fighting the evils of society, hunger, homophobia and all other vices that come with wars. Amina eventually succumbs to religious guilt, which brings with it a slew of gruesome nightmares, while Ijeoma resists the pull of guilt for as long as possible, before bending to her mother’s will. A loss for both, it would appear. Teenage romance and the naturalness of lesbian love Before the Nigerian civil war started, in each region – broadly speaking, the Hausa-Fulani in the N (...) also compares Amina to a water goddess, expressing here some form of same‑sex desire: “Her hair hung in long clumps around her face, like those images of Mami Wata, hair writhing like serpents” (105). The alliteration in /h/ could point to the sounds of pleasure, the moaning sounds, that will be produced during the sexual intercourse between the two teenagers; the mere sight of Amina makes Ijeoma feel short of breath. Homoerotic passages pervade the text and climax in a shared moment of daily life, particularly when the two teenagers prepare dinner: “That evening, Amina and I peeled the yams together, rinsed them together, our fingers brushing against each other’s in the bowl” (106). Peeling yams carries here an extremely sensual and/or sexual connotation, and the idea of a lesbian couple is undoubtedly conveyed.And the love affair between Ijeoma and Ndidi was heady for me. I did like how things turned out for two of them. Rechy, John. “The Outlaw Sensibility in the Arts: From Drag and Leather to Pose, the Mythology of Stonewall, and a Defense of Stereotypes.” Queer Frontiers: Millennial Geographies, Genders and Generations. Eds. Joseph A. Boone, Martin Dupuis, Martin Meeker, Karin Quimby, Cindy Sarver, Debra Silverman, and Rosemary Weatherston. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2000. 124-32.

As a young child, when one parent dies, ( I know this from experience), they often feel as though they've lost both parents.

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I was actually nearly convinced that this was a memoir, it rings so true. It's not, but the author has stated that some details are based on her mother's experiences in Nigeria. It feels like a family story. If you’ve ever wondered if love can conquer all, read [this] stunning coming-of-age debut.” — Marie Claire