What are the ogbanje? Why is the narrator "we"? by Molly Ferguson

2025-09-17 13:30:43 UTC

This article deep dives into how the Ogbanje are represented in Abiku by Nigerian poet, J.P Clark. It dissects the specific behaviors of children in the past labeled as such, and the beliefs surrounding their behaviors. These children are essentially "born to die", and must "be called upon" by their earthly parents. Meaning, they are often born after numerous miscarriages, and it is speculated these spirits are specifically meant to torment the women in their family because of past wrongdoings. These spirits are sent in the form of mischievous children, purposefully meant to shake up family dynamics, and cause eventual sadness when they depart. Native doctors will often cut deep into the skins of these children as well, leaving them with serrated scars that mark their face, back, or other parts of the body in efforts to find their "iyi-uwa", the "stones" inside of them, and cease the family's misfortunate.

-Ruby June

Ella and Amelia

2025-09-17 13:36:19 UTC

"To destroy it, they would have to destroy her. To keep her alive, they would have to send her back." (Emezi 15)

Daniela and Johanna

2025-09-17 13:36:33 UTC

That morning (the day we died and were born), her labor started as they drove down the twisting red roads. (p. 3)

Elyse and Jaxsin

2025-09-17 13:37:04 UTC

The problem with having gods like us wake up inside of you is that our hunger rises as well and someone, you see, has to feed us. (ch 4)

Kayden and Chelsea

2025-09-17 13:37:23 UTC

"We did not come alone. With a force like ours, we dragged other things along--a pact, bits of bone, igneous rock, worn out velveteen, a strip of human hide tying it all together. This compound object is called the iyi-uwa, the oath of the world. It is a promise we made when we were free and floating, before we entered the Ada" (Akwaeke 14).

Ashe

2025-09-17 13:37:26 UTC

"Reality was a difficult space for her to inhabit, unsurprisingly, what with one foot on the other side and gates in between. We wriggled deeply in her, reliving the blood of the backseat over and over again till the red was painted all inside. You must understand that Anuli's accident was a baptism in the best liquid, that mother of a color, then a clotting movement, a scrambled look at mortality and the weakness of the vessel. With our swollen new eyes, we saw the blood and knew it was a mantle." (Chapter 3)

Ruby June

2025-09-17 13:37:43 UTC

"Humans who have sense always look for the iyi-uwa, so they can dig it up or pull it from the flesh, from wherever secret place it was kept, so they can destroy it, so their child's body will not die" (31)

Savannah & Kendall

2025-09-17 13:37:52 UTC

“It was understandable; it is always like this with ọgbanje, it is difficult for their mothers. If we could go back, we would tell Saachi what she realized only many years later: that none of the ways she tried to take care of this child would ever feel like enough.” (Emezi 25)

Cecilia

2025-09-17 13:37:56 UTC

"We were sent through carelessly, with a net of knowledge snarled around our ankles, not enough to tell us anything, just enough to trip us up" (34).

Lilly and Anna

lillylemonade12 — 2025-09-17 13:38:05 UTC

"No god would intervene, because ogbanje are entitled to their vengeances; it is their nature they are malicious spirits." (31)

Ella and Amelia

2025-09-17 13:38:34 UTC

Alondra and Brianna

2025-09-17 13:38:53 UTC

"Our brothersisters rejoiced from the other side- they had succeeded in chasing her away. No god would intervene, because ogbanje are entitled to their vengeances; it is their nature, they are malicous spirits" (31)

"Our brothersisters had known this, had known where the weak points in the Ada's family were, where best to apply the pressure for a breaking." (28)

Chelsea and Kayden

2025-09-17 13:38:58 UTC

Alexis

2025-09-17 13:38:59 UTC

"We did not come alone. With a force like ours, we dragged other things along--a pact, bits of bone, an igneous rock, worn-out velveteen, a strip of human hide tying it all together. This compound object is called the iui-uwa" (14).

Liz + Jack

2025-09-17 13:39:16 UTC

"With a force like ours, we dragged other things along--a pact, bits of bone, an ingenuous rock, worn-out velveteen, a strip of human hide tying it all together. This compound object is called the iyi-ụwa, the oath of the world. . . When spirits like us are put inside flesh, this oath becomes a real object, one that functions as a bridge" (14-15).

Daniela and Johanna

2025-09-17 13:39:28 UTC

This article gives an overview of what the Ogbanje is and how it affects the families.

Elyse and Jaxsin

2025-09-17 13:39:35 UTC

Chloe Alexander

2025-09-17 13:40:06 UTC

"We were used to the warm thuds of two heartbeats separated by walls of flesh and liquid, used to the option of leaving, of returning to the place we came from, free like spirits are supposed to be. To be singled out and locked into the blurred subconscious of a little mind? We refused. It would be madness" (4).

Georgia + Gray

2025-09-17 13:40:49 UTC

"we reached out the Ada's hand until our fingertip brushed the surface of the pool, of the stale, exposed blood with its calm skin...We skimmed our fingers across the tight top of it, then the Ada stood up and we walked away, away from the terrifying rush of how much we wanted more of it, much more." Emezi 40

Savannah & Kendall

2025-09-17 13:41:31 UTC

When considering gender dynamics and femininity, the first person plural narration brings to mind the collective experience of being a woman/womanhood.

Savannah and Kendall

2025-09-17 13:41:32 UTC

This little YouTube short explains some things about the Obanje.

Alondra & Brianna

2025-09-17 13:42:09 UTC

Chloe Alexander

2025-09-17 13:42:23 UTC

Ella and Amelia

2025-09-17 13:42:37 UTC

The plural first person signifies the Ogbanje with the Ada as a singular unit but also as multiple metaphysical beings.

Liz and Jack

2025-09-17 13:43:28 UTC

This one briefly describes the self-reflection of the iyi-uwa from someone's personal post.

Ashe

2025-09-17 13:43:40 UTC

Daniela and Johanna

2025-09-17 13:43:44 UTC

The significance of the narration is that the story is being told from the perspective of the gods inside of her, while she is not the one directly telling us the events. This narration also is unreliable, because Ada herself doesn't what is happening to her and these gods do not have her best interest.

Cecilia

2025-09-17 13:44:18 UTC

This article references the vast knowledge and foresight of the Ogbanje

Ashe

2025-09-17 13:44:56 UTC

The first person plural brings individual experiences into a collective. It can both represent shared experiences as well as sort of show how trauma can shatter people into various different parts.

Ruby

2025-09-17 13:45:20 UTC

Personally, the usage of this especially throughout childhood felt very familiar as someone who was socialized as strictly "woman", but always felt gender nonconforming. When I presented more masculine or feminine before I knew who I really was, it often felt like completely different people inhabiting the same body. The push and pull of identity as it forms, coupled with the "evil spirit" inhabiting flesh aspect, absolutely calls for a collective narration of all aspects of Ada/Ala's living flesh.

Lilly and Anna

lillylemonade12 — 2025-09-17 13:45:55 UTC

Kayden and Chelsea

2025-09-17 13:46:15 UTC

"We were not like other ogbanje. We did not hide it under a tree or inside a river or in the tangled foundations of Saul's village house. No, we hid it better than that" (Emezi 15). The relevance of first-person plural narration not only calls in the spirits within the Ada, but it also can call in the reader as a participant in the text, in a "you should know this too" way. By utilizing "we", as opposed to another POV, Emezi also engages a sense of community in their narration, which allows this ogbanje to differentiate itself from other ogbanje.

Jaxsin and Elyse

2025-09-17 13:46:32 UTC

The first person plural narration is important in this novel because it is being used to separate the ogbanje and the child Ada. They call her “The Ada”, showing the separation from themselves and her. To them, she is an unwilling vessel, but in the narration it is clear that they are trying to take control in a way, specifically of her mind. I think we will continue with this narration and at some point the spirits will truly “become” or take over Ada, body and mind, to get back to Allah.

Chloe Miller

2025-09-17 13:47:03 UTC

"That moment, when our eyes opened in the dust of the village square and we were awake in both her realm and ours for the first time, it felt like pure brightness. We were all one, together balanced for a brief velvet moment in a village night" (20)

Georgia + Gray

2025-09-17 13:47:10 UTC

A film that centers on a mother who gives birth to an Ogbanje spirit and how that impacts her experience as a mother and the development of a mother/child relationship

Cecilia

2025-09-17 13:47:30 UTC

The significance of first-person plural narration is that it shows the connection. There are two ogbanje inside the Ada. The story at this point is told from their perspective. They are trapped inside the Ada, but they haven't all three merged as they should. They are all inside the same suit of flesh, but the Ogbanje are separate entities alongside the Ada's consciousness.

Georgia + Gray

2025-09-17 13:47:49 UTC

The use of 1st person plural befuddles the reader as much as it confuses Ada. It allows the reader to get much closer to the Adas and their terror about the situation. It also works to show how intertwined The Ada has become with the Iyi-uwa, with both of them idolizing the blood.

Alexis

2025-09-17 13:49:06 UTC

At the end of chapter four, we learn that there is more than one Ogbanje inhabiting Ada. Ada is distinct from the ogbanje inhabiting her, and the Ogbanje are also distinct, so the use of plural pronouns is the only thing that makes sense. The fact that they are a 'we' is a problem and must be acknowledged.

Lilly and Anna

2025-09-17 13:49:11 UTC

This narration style really works to show readers that there are multiple identities that are possessing this body. It adds a lot towards the cultural ideas that are represented in the story and demonstrates the clash between the human identity and the spirit identities within. We do not see Ada's singular perspective because there is not one. An external narrator would not be able to portray what is going on in the story like the "we" do. This breathes a lot of life into the motives of the actions of the obanje.

Liz + Jack

2025-09-17 13:49:12 UTC

Important to separate the Ada (the physical body) from the spirits/"We" (the soul) that are connected to the Ala (the universe).

Alondra and Brianna

2025-09-17 13:49:42 UTC

The 1st person plural narration separates the reader emotionally from the circumstances that the Ada is in. It also gives the reader a general feeling of being an outsider in both the dominant religion and way of life that the other characters experience and live in.

Alexis

2025-09-17 13:49:58 UTC

Chloe Alexander

2025-09-17 13:53:16 UTC

I believe that the significance of the book being written in first person plural is that we get to see who and what the Ogbanje are, and how these spirits affect the Ada. One of the things I learned from the media is that someone may try to find the iyi uwa, or a connection between the child and the spiritual world, and I would guess from this knowledge that someone may hold some sort of intervention for the Ada later on in the book. This may end up hurting the Ada as we have seen first-hand that the brothersisters love to relish in malicious pursuits. That being said I have some level of fear for the characters future given what the Ogbanje inside of her has already caused her to do, self-harm for example, and I don't think that I would get that same level of fear if I did not see the ruthlessness of the brothersisters and the Ogbanje from their own perspective. I imagine I might write it off as I do not believe in these myths. In other words, the use of the first person adds a significant weight to the understanding of the characters, but also the tone in which the author sets up for the book.

Chloe Miller

2025-09-17 14:05:43 UTC

This is an abstract for a novel and it discusses Ogbanje is a personality disorder for someone who does not follow their god given talents. I think this is looking at the validity of the Ogbanje legends while connecting them to western mental health but I know we are looking at believing the legends first.

Chloe Miller

2025-09-17 14:19:17 UTC

The first person plural narration is important functionally for readers who don't know ogbanje legend and getting the perspective of the spirits helps explain how they work within the modern world and how they move in a person. That information wouldn't be intuitive. Something else I picked up on was the power dynamics set up so that the spirits are the ones in control and they have a higher power and influence than anything in the human world. This is also apparently obviously by calling her the Ada like the spirits are removing themselves from her perspective while still being in her life. Ada isn't the one in control or even the most important part - the spirits are. The "we" also gives an uncanny feeling like the usual understanding of a singular narrative at a time is challenged.

Olivia Jackson

2025-09-19 15:55:36 UTC

“When spirits like us are put inside flesh, this oath becomes a real object, one that functions as a bridge. It is usually buried or hidden because it is the way back, if you understand that the doorway is death.” (Ch. 2/Pg. 15)

Olivia Jackson

2025-09-19 16:02:06 UTC

Visualizing the belief can help people understand that Emezi is not inventing the spirits for metaphor but writing about an existing Indigenous tradition that knows ogbanje to be spiritual beings with power over the body and family.

Olivia Jackson

2025-09-19 16:06:37 UTC

I feel like the choice to use “we” instead of “I” reflects Ada’s fractured identity, and possibly her struggle with control of her situation. I also think that when the ogbanje speak as a collective, it resists our western assumptions of a unified self and instead aligns with Igbo beliefs. A person may be inhabited by many spirits at once, hence the multiple identities.