1. Book Review: Under the Udala Trees
By Chandra Dickey for ‘The Jeli’
Elegant prose, multifaceted characters, and a riveting plot are often markers of a great novel.
Chinelo Okparanta does this and more in her first novel, Under the Udala Trees. Set during the
onset of the Biafran War in the late 1960s, the novel focuses on the coming of age story of
Ijeoma, as she grapples with the violence and trauma the war brings to her life.
Everything changes after her father is killed in an air raid—he stubbornly refused to take shelter
in their bunker with Ijeoma and her mother. Left with a dire economic situation, Ijoema’s mother
sends her off to work as a housegirl for a schoolteacher while she tries to carve out a new life for
them at home. It is while she is away that Ijeoma meets Anima, it is here that Ijeoma realizes she
can love another girl.
When Ijeoma and Amina are found out, they are forcibly separated, shamed, and told that their
acts are ‘abominable.’ Upon returning home, Ijeoma’s mother resorts to reading Bible scriptures
and terrifying her daughter with promises of hell if she continues acting on desires she claims,
are unnatural. However, Ijoema is not easily convinced by her mother’s proselytizing and
continues to question society’s assumptions about homosexuality. Through all of this, Ijoema
remains true to herself through a combination of positive self-talk and denouncing her mother’s
beliefs.
Still, Ijoema longs for Amina, and finds an outlet for her sexuality by discovering a small but
welcoming underground queer community in her town. Yet, she quickly realizes the reality of
being queer of Nigeria of queer existence in Nigera as the club is met with a surprise raid, and
those who couldn’t reach the bunker in time are killed. Thus, Okparanta’s novel not only tackles
the difficulties of youth existing in the midst of war, but grapples with the ways a young girl
grapples with her queerness in a society that demonizes it.
Okparanta’s story is not fantastical, Ijeoma ends up pushed into an undesired marriage with a
man from her childhood. She continues to struggle with her sexuality throughout the marriage,
and her dissatisfaction is palpable with Okparanta’s imaginative and direct prose. Yet, the ending
offers a variety of surprises.
Under the Udala Trees, is a necessary read for lovers of diasporic fiction. Through Ijoema,
Okparanta humanizes an often shunned community within black spaces. Ijoema also represents
the dilemma many young queer youth face while navigating their existence in homophobic
spaces. Realizing that one can both break away from, and rely on tradition in order to love and
find acceptance within themselves. Ijoema is unafraid of contradicting herself, she sees herself as
an ever-changing individual, it is this mindset that aids her survival. Stories like these are
necessary to diversifying the scope of Afro-diasporic fiction