The Icarus Girl

Jess’s family lands in Nigeria, and her mother tells Jess that they are going to see Jess’s grandfather and cousins. Outside the airport, several men approach Jess’s father and try to offer him a taxi. Jess’s mother speaks to the men in a combination of Yoruba and English, bartering for a good price. Jess’s mother selects a taxi driver, and the family loads their luggage into his car. As she gets into the taxi, Jess sees a man leaning against a car across the street, staring at her, “but in a distracted manner, as if she was something to look at while he waited for something else” (17). In the taxi, Jess wonders what her cousins will be like. Jess’s mother sits in the passenger seat, and the driver speaks to her in Yoruba. Jess’s mother tells the driver that they should speak in English so everyone can understand. 

Jess and her parents arrive at the house of Jess’s grandfather, Gbenga Oyegbebi. A gateman lets them into the compound.

Jess’s mother left Nigeria for England 15 years ago to attend university. During that time, Jess’s grandmother died. Jess meets her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Jess is disappointed that none of her cousins is close to her age. Jess’s grandfather holds out a hand to Jess and calls her “Wuraola.” Jess knows that Wuraola, meaning gold, is her Yoruba name, but to Jess “Wuraola sounded like another person. Not her at all” (21).

Later, Jess sits alone in the parlor with her grandfather. It takes some time for Jess to warm up to him, but she eventually runs across the room and sits on his lap. Aunty Funke brings Jess and her grandfather a soda. Jess, sitting on her grandfather’s lap, “marvelled at how at ease she had begun to feel with him” (24). Jess looks toward the doorway and thinks she can see her cousins watching her through the beaded curtain.

The next evening, Jess’s grandfather asks Jess whether she knows what Jess’s mother did. When Jess doesn’t respond, her grandfather scolds her, telling her that she should always respond with “‘yes, grandfather’” (28) when spoken to. Jess’s grandfather tells Jess that he sent her mother to England to study medicine, but six months into her education she switched her concentration to English literature, which he explains “‘has no value; in my eyes, it is to confuse’” (28). Jess’s mother then married an English man and became a writer. She dedicated two books to Jess’s grandfather. Her grandfather’s criticisms of her mother upset Jess, but Jess’s grandfather tells her, “‘You are a fine daughter’” (30).

One afternoon, Aunty Funke takes Jess, along with two of her cousins, Bose, age five, and Femi, age four, to the zoo. Jess’s grandfather’s driver, the gateman’s brother, drives them to the zoo. Jess wonders if this man is called Driver, since they refer to his brother as Gateman. At the zoo, people stare at Jess, and Jess stares at the ground, barely looking at the animals. The only animal Jess looks at is a snake that frightens her.

The family returns home that evening and walks back toward Jess’s grandfather’s house. Aunty Funke explains that they live in a gated compound. Jess’s grandfather lives in the three-story main house, and Jess’s aunts and uncles all have smaller houses surrounding it. Jess’s great-grandfather built the compound in the 1870s to house him, his three wives, and their children, and it has been passed down through the family. They pass a big grey building, which Aunty Funke explains was once the Boys’ Quarters, or servant’s quarters, but which has sat empty for years. As they pass the building, Jess sees shadows dancing in the windows.