Under the Udala Trees

The narrative flashes back to a year prior to Ijeoma’s father’s death. Ijeoma prays in church after watching Chibundu play police with other boys outside on the church steps. Chibundu predicts the bombers will reach Ojoto. In response, Ijeoma asks God to be a “magician” (12) and make the war disappear.

After this flashback, the narrative returns to the day of Uzo’s death, to Mama and Ijeoma searching for him in the ruins of their camouflaged house. Ijeoma recalls praying for Papa in the bunker—the sounds of the raid answered her prayers.  

The description of their bombed-out house continues, as their neighbors seek items and people. Ijeoma remembers a classroom history lesson about mutiny, when Mrs. Enwere, her social studies teacher, listed the gruesome deaths of leaders before their current Head of State—“Before Ironsi, Azikiwe. After Ironsi, Gowon” (18).

In the bombed house, Mama cries, wails, and pleads over the body of Uzo while Ijeoma remains rooted in place. Some church parishioners come to take Uzo’s corpse, clean and dress it, and then return it to the parlor. 

Our narrator pauses to discuss her parents’ names and their meanings. Her mother is named Adaora, which means “daughter of all, daughter of the community” and her Papa’s name, Uzo, means “door” or “the way” (21).

Ijeoma describes the weeklong wake held for her father and the daylong ikwa ozu ceremony. After the ceremony, the women’s discussion of food—how protein improves the brain for school and marriage—reminds Ijeoma how Adaora studied food before becoming a shopkeeper. 

A month after Uzo’s death, Adaora is still not talking about him. When Ijeoma asks about this, Adaora says she is angry at him for committing suicide.

The bombing destroyed their bedrooms, so the women sleep in the parlor together, and Ijeoma hears her mother having nightmares. After recalling her own recurring nightmare of being stuck, Ijeoma describes a night when she has to remind her nightmare-addled mother that “Papa is dead. Do you forget?” (27). Adaora cries in her arms.