Part One
1958-1959
Chapter One
Lagos, Nigeria
June, 1958
“I miss you, Mummy.” Maggie Jimoh knelt in front of the small tombstone that read Mrs. Esther Margaret Jimoh, Wife and Mother, at the Ikoyi cemetery. Huge beads of sweat ran down her face. Keeping her gaze fixed on the tombstone, she wiped the sweat away with her blue head tie. She then spread it over her head and shoulders to protect her brown skin from the scorching afternoon sun. Just being under direct sunlight for ten seconds hurt her skin, but today she had had to visit her mother, who’d died three years ago last month.
Maggie tried to visit her mother every year on the anniversary, but this was the first chance she had had, this year, to visit. Her father, Professor Jimoh, or Professor as she called him, had forbidden them from visiting her mother’s grave for some reason. As a result, Maggie and her siblings had to concoct excuses to leave the house and visit.
“Come on, Maggie!” Dele, her twenty year old brother, yelled from the sandy path leading back to the cemetery gates. “We are already late, oh![i]“
She looked at her watch. It was almost quarter past two and father was going to be livid when Maggie and her younger sister got home. On Sundays, the girls normally got home from church around one, but since they had stopped at the cemetery they would not get home before three o’clock.
“Maggie, come now!” Dele shouted even louder.
“Don’t shout in a cemetery.” Maggie waved, getting to her feet.
She dusted off her blue wrapper and moved towards Dele, who in Maggie’s opinion was a giant. Like their father, Professor Jimoh, Dele stood intimidatingly at over six feet tall. Seventeen year old Maggie took her mother’s height and only scraped above five feet. However unlike their mother, but very much like their father, Maggie and her little sister, Ronke were, like her mother used to say, pleasantly plumpy. Maggie laughed, recalling her mother’s words.
“Oya now.” Remi, Maggie’s twin brother, drew her upper arm.
The four siblings ran down the sandy road to the bus stop as a small battered bus started to pull away.
“Wait now!” Dele shouted, racing in the direction of the bus as his siblings trailed behind him.
The driver looked out of his window and laughed at the children as they chased after his bus. Maggie could see the man was getting some pleasure from watching them run. Several passengers and bystanders were laughing too. That was all part of using public transport in Lagos, so after a few minutes, the bus driver eventually stopped. While Maggie and her siblings squeezed into the bus, an old lady began to rebuke the driver for taunting the children.
They did not have enough money to pay for four seats, so Maggie sat on Remi’s lap and Ronke sat on Dele’s lap. This way the children only paid for two seats. The conductor hissed at their economising, but took their money.
“What time is it?” Remi asked Maggie.
“We’re already late, oh.” Maggie winced, thinking about facing her father. “Professor won’t be happy, at all, at all.”
“I’m hungry,” twelve year old Ronke whined quietly. “Dele, do you have any biscuits?”
“Sorry.” Dele hugged his sister. “We will eat when we get home.”
Dele shot Maggie a worried look. It was Sunday afternoon, so they were almost out of food until Professor gave out money again on Tuesday to Dele and her three step-mothers.
Maggie understood money was always tight. Professor claimed he was very careful in allocating funds. Maybe it was because her father had fourteen children from four wives and only made a polytechnic instructor’s salary. On top of his familial obligations, Professor still entertained the boys, his large group of male friends each weekend.
Maggie had to figure out something because she was the older girl and therefore in charge of feeding her siblings. Professor would never give them any more money before Tuesday, especially since Dele had asked for his university tuition last week.
Getting food from Professor’s relatives was also forbidden by Professor because the Jimoh’s were not beggars. But Maggie’s mother had been an orphan and apart from two distant cousins in Epe, they had no family on her mother’s side to go to for help.
She gazed up at the sky as the bus travelled through the quiet Sunday streets. Maybe she could ask Mrs. Kevin. Maggie shuddered. Mr. Kevin always found a reason to touch Maggie when she was around him. Mr. Kevin was one of her father‘s friends, one ofthe boys. For that reason, Dele and Remi loathed him like a diseased rat.
“What’s wrong?” Remi asked her.
“Food,” Maggie whispered.
“Don’t worry, we will find something,” Remi replied, smiling back.
Thirty minutes later, the four disembarked in Lagos Island and started the short walk home. She searched her little purse to see what money she had. All she found among her papers was two pence, which she would need to get to her job at Trinity School tomorrow. However, if she walked home, then she would only need one penny.
“How much to do you have?” Dele whispered.
“Three pence, but I only need two for tomorrow.” She forced a smile, knowing Dele would not take the penny from her if he knew she only had two.
Dele put his hands in his pockets and brought out another three pence. She knew it was all he had, so she took two. Maggie put the money in her purse and then strolled over to a road side stall where a little girl with messy hair sat frying yam slices. Maggie paid for three pence worth of yam. Without words, the little girl took out a sheet of old newspaper and started placing the yam slices on it. She sprinkled on some pepper sauce and wrapped up the small package. Maggie frowned. There was not a lot there, but if they all drank a lot of water they would be full tonight.
They got home and were ready to receive the wrath of their father, but luckily he had gone out unexpectedly.
* * *
“Thank you, Sister.” Ronke belched after the meal and stretched out across the floor of the tiny room the four shared.
Maggie and Remi were also sitting on the floor eating, while Dele sat on the bed reading an old engineering magazine.
“Thank Dele, he gave us the money.” Maggie pointed to him.
“Thank you, Brother.” Ronke jumped up and hugged him.
“Thank God, huh,” Dele replied quickly, returning to his reading.
Suddenly, they all heard someone banging on the door.
“Margaret! Margaret! Come here,” a woman yelled at the top of her voice.
It was Mama Sunday, Professor’s first wife. Technically their mother was the first wife, but after she died, Mama Sunday started calling herself the first wife and Professor never challenged her about it.
“Ma[iv],” Maggie called out loudly and hurried out.
When Maggie got outside their room, Mama Sunday was gone. She looked down the poorly lit corridor, but only saw some of her younger half-brothers and sisters playing.
Tosin, her half-sister, walked by without saying a word to Maggie, but that was not unusual. The wives seldom allowed their children to play or interact with the other wives’ children. Maggie and Remi were in the same set[v] as Tosin, but she never spoke to them in school. To be fair, Maggie knew Tosin’s silence was largely because Dele had given Silas, Tosin’s brother, the beating of his life when Dele had once caught Silas, peeping when Ronke and Maggie were changing.
Maggie laughed as she noticed a large bundle of clothes lying in front of her room. They looked like her father’s clothes. Mama Sunday probably left them there for Maggie to wash. That was what her step-mother wanted, Professor’s clothes washed at six o’clock in the evening. Maggie kicked the clothes in annoyance.
Why did Mama Sunday wait until now to demand this? Mama Sunday could have told her yesterday or on Friday. Now Maggie would still be washing when her father’s boys came over for their weekly discussions. She picked up the bundle and headed outside to soak them.
* * *
Roughly an hour later, Professor came home and soon his boys started arriving. Maggie was at the side of the house doing his laundry when he summoned her and Tosin. The girls were to serve beer and snacks for his boys. She put aside the washing, a little peeved. Her other half-siblings could have served Professor, as they were doing absolutely nothing. Maggie, on the other hand, was going to have to come back to finish the laundry. It was not fair. She loved her father, but complaining about it would only get her a slap on the face.
“Fine girl.” Mr. Thomas, of Professor’s boys, moaned and rubbed the small of her back as she placed a bottle of stout on the table in front of him.
Maggie soon slipped away and went back to the washing as Professor and his friends sat in front of the house talking, eating and drinking. It was clear the other men looked up to him. Maggie was proud that they did, as her father deserved their reverence.
Professor was well educated, having completed university in the 1920s, which was rare for people from her area. He had also attended the prestigious University of Cairo, which was especially rare. He now lectured at Ikeja Polytechnic, but no one knew what he taught, at least no one in his family, and Professor seemed to prefer it that way.
When she was done, she walked round to the back of the house to hang up the clothes. The backyard was empty except for a few of Mama Suzanna’s goats wandering around. Everyone except for Professor and Maggie were inside asleep or trying to sleep. She started hanging up Professor’s clothes.
“Fine girl,” a man whispered and grabbed her right breast.
“Ugh.” Maggie pushed back instinctively and swung and hit the man in the face.
She turned to see the wrinkly face of Mr. Thomas.
“How now?” Mr. Thomas grinned broadly at her.
“Mr. Thomas, what do you want?” Maggie scowled, picked up the bucket of wet clothes and walked away from him.
“Ah ah, you won’t greet me?” The potbellied man reached out to touch her cheek. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“I’m too young to have a boyfriend, sir.” She pushed him away.
“Too young ke[vii]? How old are you, twenty?” He laughed.
“She’s only seventeen years old,” Dele bellowed.
Maggie was relieved to see her brother. He was standing at the back door with his arms folded, fuming.
“Maggie, go inside,” Dele ordered, not taking his eyes off of Mr. Thomas.
Dele respected his elders. He normally did not try to fight his father’s friends, but his family was the most important thing to him. Maggie could see from Dele’s eyes, that he was more than ready to start something.
Mr. Thomas mumbled a joke and then made his way to the latrine.
“Was he touching himself?” Remi whispered as she entered the house.
Maggie mimicked vomiting as she passed by her twin, leaving her brothers to finish the laundry. She reached the room and found Ronke asleep on the bottom bunk the girls shared. She bolted the door, changed and slipped into bed next to her sister. Maggie did not feel like sleeping because of the heat, instead she lit a candle and started to write down her thoughts. She was still scribbling away when her brothers came in and went to bed, Dele in the bed by the window and Remi in the top bunk.
* * *
After school, Maggie hurried to Mr. Kevin’s office on Broad Street to deliver a letter for her father. She was worried she might be late for her job at Trinity School. When she reached his office, she was kept waiting in the private reception area outside his office for over an hour. He waved apologetically to Maggie as his other visitor left.
“Maggie.” He chuckled and eyed her suggestively.
Mr. Kevin was very attractive, but his expression made her uneasy. Since Maggie started wearing a bra three years ago, Mr. Kevin had made it clear he wanted to marry her. This seemed to make her father happy because Mr. Kevin’s family was very rich, but like a lot of Yoruba men, Mr. Kevin had several wives already. However her father had promised to never force any of his daughters into marriage.
“My dear, how are you?” Mr. Kevin ushered her into his air-conditioned office. “Can I get you some food?”
“No, I can't stay.” Maggie’s stomach rumbled.
Although she was hungry, she took her job seriously as that was steady income for her. And besides, she knew Mr. Kevin was interested in more than just food.
“I have lessons,” she explained.
“You're going back to school?” Kevin looked at his Italian wristwatch. “It's almost three o'clock. You should be home taking care of your father.”
Maggie nodded. In a perfect world, she would be able to come home right after school and putter around the house, but this was the real world.
“At least, let me buy you food,” he pleaded again.
“I'm sorry, sir, I can't wait,” she implored and handed him her father’s letter.
“Maggie, I don't get to see you anymore.” Mr. Kevin reluctantly collected the letter. “I'm starting to believe you don’t like me?” He tilted her head up with his index finger. “I hope you don’t have some small boy you're calling a boyfriend. You know I won't like that.”
“I'm too young to be thinking about boys. My education’s first.” She moved her head away. “My mother made me promise I’d complete my HSC Two before marrying.”
“Good, finish your school,” he said patronizingly as he went back to his desk and took out his wallet, “but at your age you should already know who you're going to marry.”
“Thank you, sir.” Maggie decided to end the conversation by thanking him for the guidance.
She rose to leave.
“No, wait now. Take this for your transport.” He handed her some money.
“sir, this is too much.” It was six guineas.
She never liked taking money from Mr. Kevin, but to down a gift from someone like him was considered rude for a child her age.
“Nonsense.” He hugged her briefly.
“Thank you, sir.” Maggie pulled away from his embrace and hurried to the door, relieved to get away from him.