How You Grow Wings

Rimma Onoseta's How You Grow Wings takes readers to a place, rural Nigeria, most of us will never visit and describes it so vividly it comes to life in our minds. It is a story set in a nation still suffering the lingering effects of colonialism and government corruption.
It's the story of a highly dysfunctional family. The mother, who grew up bearing the scorn of lighter skinned family members, obsessively bleaches her skin and takes her simmering anger out on her two daughters. The father, ashamed of not attaining the power and wealth of his older brother and aware that his wife wishes she was married to his sibling, has become silent—a shadow presence in his household. Older daughter, Chita, meets her mother's hostility with defiance. When she is ten she is hospitalized a week for injuries inflicted by her mother. And it's only the first time. Her younger sister, Zam, adapts by complying with her mother's demands and desperately attempting to stay out of her way.
When their Aunt Sophie requests that Sam come to live in her household the girls' lives go in very different directions. Zam is introduced to a life of privilege and opportunity. Chita flees her abusive mother to a precarious existence in the slums and a struggle for survival.
A voracious reader growing up, Onoseta writes the kind of stories her younger self wanted to read, "stories about young Nigerian girls who are chaotic and fierce and who question what they're taught." I certainly hope she's at work on another one.
The one thing I take issue with is the book's YA designation. YA covers a lot of developmental territory. The book opens with a scene in which Zam returns home to find a relative beating his daughter so severely she'll have to be hospitalized in a living room full of guests including the local priest who do nothing to stop the assault. This is not content for the younger end of the YA spectrum. Maybe could we have a mature YA category? On the other end it's also perfect for post secondary readers. In fact, given higher education's current emphasis on diversity and inclusion and the way in which topics such as colonialism, class, colorism, and intergenerational trauma are embedded in a riveting narrative, How You Grow Wings belongs in college and university classrooms. Maybe writers like Onset can replace some of the long dead white males who are still being inflicted on students.
On a purrrsonal note, the Black Bear Exchange had its official grand opening in the spacious location it moved into last winter. It was well attended and I saw some people I hadn't seen in awhile. People were quite impressed with the place.
A great big shout out goes out to Lisa and the BBE crew.
Jules Hathaway