![]() The alters use her body for pleasure and pain, abuse substances, shift her gender and sexuality, put her into danger, and step in to protect her from abuse.Īs each alter develops, whoever controls Ada's body at any given point also controls the narrative. ![]() Each alter takes control, usually seeking to protect Ada, but often acting in opposition to Ada's wishes. We did the best we could.īetween the ọgbanje pushing for Ada's death early on and traumas Ada suffers at other people's hands, Ada develops separate selves as she fights to live and search for even a scrap of peace. She was a question wrapped up in a breath: How do you survive when they place a god inside your body? We said before that it was like shoving a sun into a bag of skin, so it should be no surprise that her skin would split or her mind would break. When you break something, you must study the pattern of the shattering before you can piece it back together. They don’t mean to cause so much harm and destruction:Īllow us a moment to explain a few things. ![]() Despite the ọgbanjes’ early desires to die (so that they could be free to return home), they end up loving Ada deeply and wanting to protect her above everything. Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, tells the story of gods, ọgbanje, trapped in a human body-the body of Ada, an Igbo girl born “with one foot on the other side.” The first chapters are narrated by the collective of gods who find themselves trapped within Ada at her birth, with Ada beginning to narrate when she’s older. ![]()
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