Under the Udala Trees

At the kitchen table, Adaora has Ijeoma read the Bible alongside her. The first 15-minute lesson begins with Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve. Passages are included both in Igbo and English, and Adaora focuses on the heteronormative pairing. Adaora insists Ijeoma wear a black prayer scarf to show her “true penitence” (67).

The next morning, Adaora expresses regret for not retrieving Ijeoma sooner because it might have prevented her from becoming something that has yet to be named in the narrative. They hug after Adaora’s repeated apology, but Ijeoma feels a distance.

On her way to the market for okra, Ijeoma stops in Aba’s church and feels guilty for unnamed acts with a girl named Amina. However, she can’t pray alone in the pew.

That night, Adaora reads the Bible aloud and prays for Ijeoma to be protected from “the demons” and “the devil” (72) while Ijeoma is distracted by thoughts of Amina. 

Adaora compares the “behavior” of Ijeoma and “that girl” to that of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah (73). Reading the paraphrased Bible story about these sexually sinful cities, Ijeoma questions why Lot giving up his daughters to the Sodomites makes him a good man. Adaora replies that by sacrificing his daughters to be raped, Lot was protecting his guests from gay male sex. Adaora refuses Ijeoma’s alternate interpretations of the story.

In the parlor, the Bible lessons continue with Leviticus. Adaora has to define “abomination” (75) for Ijeoma, and emphasizes the importance of procreation. Ijeoma questions if heterosexual couples who can’t conceive—like the teacher and his wife—are also abominations, and Adaora replies that they are, according to the Bible.

Adaora also rejects Ijeoma’s act because it was with a Hausa girl—and the Hausas killed Uzo in the war. Ijeoma peeks at her mother’s Biblical bookmarks for her moral benefit.

Ijeoma recalls Uzo telling her folktales and explaining allegories before the war. In the present, her mother had arrived at her bookmarked passage in the Book of Judges, Chapter 19—the story of the Levite and the damsel, another instance where a young woman is offered up for rape to spare a man from rape. After reading the paraphrased text, Adaora asks how it applies to Ijeoma’s situation.

Ijeoma answers that men offering their daughters to be raped shows that they are cowards, and doesn’t know what this has to do with her. Adaora believes the lesson is that it’s better to have nonconsensual heteronormative sex than nonconsensual gay sex.

Ijeoma compares this to the story of Lot, and argues that Biblical stories are allegories. However, she isn’t sure her mother knows what an allegory is, and doesn’t have the courage to ask. 

One night, consumed with theological concerns, Ijeoma wonders about Biblical allegories, symbols, and whether Adam and Eve might have had unrecorded lesbian contemporaries. Briefly she considers arguing with her mother, but decides against it. 

After a lesson on the book of Malachi, Adaora asks Ijeoma if she still thinks about Amina “in that way” (85). Ijeoma truthfully answers that she does, and her mother forces her to kneel and screams at her to pray, but Ijeoma can’t. While Ijeoma’s eyes are closed, Adaora leaves.

When Adaora returns, she prays over Ijeoma, trying to exorcise the “devil” (88) of Ijeoma’s sexuality. Adaora blames herself for leaving Ijeoma with the teacher, but believes God will save her daughter.

Six months of Bible study pass before Ijeoma is supposed to start secondary school. Adaora puts a list of bookmarked Bible passages from Leviticus, Mark, Romans, Corinthians, Timothy, Jude, and Revelation on posterboard and reads it aloud.

At the end of these lessons, Ijeoma feels exhausted. By now, she has learned to lie to her mother. When Adaora asks again if she still has feelings for Amina, Ijeoma shakes her head.