Okoboshi Obidi
Okoboshi ‘s the son which have a good limp which matches with Chike (Aku-nna’s husband to be) over Aku-nna. Later on, Okoboshi’s members of the family kidnaps Aku-nna, an authorized community custom, in an attempt to build their Okoboshi’s wife. Just after kidnapping this lady, Okoboshi attempts to „devirgin” Aku-nna. When Aku-nna very first sees him immediately following she’s come kidnapped, she notices you to their look „had a form of crookedness about any of it; in the place of gracing this new middle [sic] off their face, this new look is actually taken lopsidedly into one of his ears. It actually was the newest smile from an enthusiastic embittered child. He hated their, this much she often see.”
He could be more powerful than this woman is, but she outsmarts your. She eyelashes aside which have spoken attacks so you can their pride. This world between Okoboshi and you will Aku-nna is a pivotal point in the story. It will be the first-time you to definitely Aku-nna requires a very good standing inside the protecting by herself, playing with all things in this lady power to claim living she wants, rather than the lifestyle one the girl people has tried to push on her. Okoboshi, contained in this esteem, represents exactly what Aku-nna discovers repugnant from the the lady traditionally men-reigned over society.
Aku-nna Odia
Aku-nna, the newest protagonist within this novel, is actually thirteen years old and staying in the fresh new Nigerian city Lagos when the tale opens. She’s a sensible young woman that knows, without having to be told physically, one she actually is „too insignificant” from the attention regarding the woman mothers. This woman is, after all, only a girl. This woman is also narrow and also at times most at the mercy of condition. Her moms and dads make reference to their since a keen „ogbanje”-a living lifeless. Her mom usually chides the woman by the inquiring Aku-nna and come up with up her attention if the she’s going to live otherwise perish. It have a tendency to appears that the only thing the girl moms and dads expect so you can, according to help you Aku-nna, is the fiance speed, the purchase price the woman husband to be will pay for the woman.
Aku-nna, from the start of the story, has some questions about her family, her society, along with her character into the people. She ponders such issues, however, she never ever sounds them given that within her culture it’s noticed worse than simply bad ways to ask her or him, specifically originating from a female. But it is this type of concerns you to drive Aku-nna throughout this story. She’s towards the a quest for solutions.
Because if lives inside Lagos, that was nevertheless quite dependent on antique Ibo people, isn’t problematic enough, on her father’s death Aku-nna is actually compelled to face actually stricter interpretations ones life style when the woman is taken back again to brand new family members’ ancestral town, Ibuza. Here Aku-nna is commonly slammed because of the girl modesty. She will not particularly taking in the latest naked publicly. The woman is including criticized since the she actually is allowed to keep the lady schooling. But it’s this lady friendship having Chike, an effective descendent from a slave, that’s this lady latest undoing.
It’s with Chike you to definitely Aku-nna seems the most comfy in asking those concerns with haunted the woman. She identifies having Chike’s character, that’s both a portion of the Ibo culture and yet surprisingly removed from it meanwhile. Chike are this lady teacher in more indicates than simply during the missionary school you to Aku-nna attends, and you can she falls in love with your. However, to declare that the lady relationship with Chike are the girl final undoing could be too effortless. There are more advanced issues inside it.
By the time Aku-nna transforms ten, she has person used to anything regarding the Ibuza town. She discovers towards Western european ways at school and you may happens family and you can face the brand new „unchanging way of life out-of [her] own somebody.” But really this woman is never capable of making herself feel comfortable from inside the either society. Each other Aku-nna and her sis are just like „helpless fishes stuck in an internet: they could perhaps not … return for the water, to possess they were swept up … yet , these were still live once the fisherman are active debating contained in this himself in the event it are well worth destroying him or her.” In the end, it is Aku-nna’s incapacity so you can totally free herself from the twisted web regarding their society one, no less than to your a good emblematic height, reasons their little armenia review demise.