“But back to the schools—no ship jumping, no wading in the waters of the Atlantic would forestall the westernisation of the school system. I didn’t see myself in the reading primers in elementary school that stated, “See Jane run.” I wasn’t Jane. I needed an escape route, and in Los Angeles, the waters of the Atlantic could not be my salvation.”

“My response caused her to sit up even straighter and, without missing a beat, declare: “You’re real pretty for an African! I thought Africans were all ugly with black skin, thick lips, and fat noses.” “

“When he comes over to place the white porcelain on my table he adds a sentence in French. I realise too slowly that he’s said something more than “Here you go” or “Enjoy,” and miss his meaning. I think he feels sorry for me and has offered the cup for free. I can’t be sure, but speaking feels like an acutely vulnerable act.”

“This girl is my daughter,” the cleric says. “She’s only five. She got married last year… so why are you not ashamed to say you’re too young to marry?”

“I, too, believe where the wound lies in this picture postcard, and others like it, is the fact of the man’s death. That, necessarily, he is dead.”

“The next day I awoke with Beyonce’s voice in my throat. She says “tough love,” an oxymoron if there ever was one. Hate is easy; love that’s what tough.”

“The hustle in cities is distinct than in township settings; there is also more to be said about how the former contributes to an upward climb on the Bloom scale.”

“These were not times when Achebe would have imagined he would relocate permanently to the US.”

“Although produced under a low budget, Nollywood films had the desire to generate stories to which many Africans around the continent, scattered in their various forms of being, could relate.”

“Three months later, four black church girls would share Evers fate after Klansmen planted 19 sticks of dynamite on the threshold of God’s house.”