And So I Roar: A Novel

Don’t block your ears. Please listen…so that you can be full of thank-you that you are born in a part of the Nigeria where a girl-child is not a curse. Be full of thank-you that your papa can pay money to send you to school.” Her voice takes a dip, like she’s plunged her head into something hollow, buried. “Please listen, Ms. Tia—so that you can co

She’s right. But also wrong. We, the city-born-and-raised Nigerian women from middle-class and wealthy families, might be free of some harmful traditions and customs, but we still get the short end of the stick. Deola, my former boss, who is successful and well traveled, was raped by her ex. She got examined forensically after subjecting herself to

“Our land is bleeding, the world is bleeding, and it is the girls that are suffering the most.”

ON SCHOOLING Sending only boys to school is like clapping with one hand. Where is the sense in that? Hear me this: Every single child is deserve of a chance to go to school. When you send a girl to school, her whole village will eat the fruit of it, especially including you, the sender.

ON FAITH Faith is the knowing that somehow, tomorrow will be better than today. Even if today doesn’t make much sense.

A good education can never be good enough when you have a bad name.

ON BEING A MAMA A mama is always there even if she cannot be there. A mama is more than just the science of body. It is the true deepness of heart, the beginning and end of love, the true meaning of sacrifice.

ON WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU Life is not too much about what happened to you, but about how you answer the question of what happened to you. There is a simple English word for this thing: re-action. How do you re-action to what happened to you?

Who tells you that girls are supposed to be a servant? Look at yourself, you are so full of power! So great! We need to understand the power we are having, and if our world is not a letting us climb high, if they are removing the ladder for us to climb, let we women bend our backs on top of each other and make a ladder for ourselves, by ourselves!”