Black Sunday

Black Sunday opens in 1996 with Bibike’s—a school-aged girl and twin sister to Ariyike—perspective telling the story of how her “twin sister and I were almost stupid girls once” (4).

On the walk home from school, they stop for a snack. Unafraid to talk to strangers, Ariyike asks a man for directions. Bibike, who thinks this is dangerous, implies this is the moment they were “almost stupid girls” (4), saying, “Here, take this microphone. Announce to all the world that we are two girls who don’t know the way home” (5). Nonetheless, Ariyike relays the directions she was given, and the two find a bus.

After seeing public school kids jeer at two girls asking for money, Bibike thinks how they remind her of a set of twin boys. She explains that the traditional Yoruba twin names are “Taiwo” and “Kehinde,” which was another way to refer to twins beyond their given names. Because there was a set of twin boys in her and Ariyike’s school, the girls were referred to as “Girl Taiwo” and “Girl Kehinde,” with the latter sometimes shortened to “Girl Kenny.” Bibike notes that she hated being called “Girl Kenny.