"She had come to understand that American parenting was a juggling of anxieties, and that it came with having too much food: a sated belly gave Americans time to worry that their child might have a rare disease that they had just read about, made them think that they had the right to protect their child from disappointment and want and failure. A sated belly gave Americans the luxury of praising themselves for being good parents, as if caring for one’s child were the exception rather than the rule."

"Ende was anxious for an explanation. He looked from his father to the strange object removed from the earth. ‘Dad what’s going on?’ Odula stood up slowly. ‘Let’s go home’. In a raised voice, Ende, blinking rapidly, said, ‘Dad tell me what’s going on? What is in this bag?’"

"The woman, a buxom radiant veteran, cackled, clapping her hands…‘Angel Martha! Na angel you be na. Wetin you wan do? Work for office, abi sell for market?’"

"She had told him, ‘Many men, only God knows where they come from, enter this room with big rods between their legs and chuck them inside me anyhow. After all, they pay money for it. You hear?’ He wanted to tell her that she could do other things instead of taking their money and the pain. But he had no courage"

"Later, Chika will learn that, as she and the woman are speaking, Hausa Muslims are hacking down Igbo Christians with machetes, clubbing them with stones.”"

"An incurable believer in hard work…she put all her energy into business"

"averse to foreign young men”"

"Here, take this microphone. Announce to all the world that we are two girls who don’t know the way home”"

"Sometimes life begins when the marriage ends"

"Motherhood is a glorious gift, but do not define yourself solely by motherhood. Be a full person. Your child will benefit from that.”"

"To call him humble was to make rudeness normal. Besides, humility had always seemed to him a specious thing, invented for the comfort of others; you were praised for humility by people because you did not make them feel any more lacking than they already did. It was honesty that he valued; he had always wished himself to be truly honest, and always feared that he was not"

"The man you become is the result of the totality of your environment rather than the mercy of the men who may or may not even be there to be your role models. You must develop an awareness that will transcend the short comings that you experienced while growing up, such as the absence of significant others like fathers and uncles"

"Things started to fall apart at home.”"

"A role model must be someone in my life, not a singer, actor or celebrity, for I do not know what their values are"

"Seeming to be more interested in attacking, [Odula’s uncle] said, ‘You’re the heir and you failed to come bury your father. You must have taken after your stupid mother who didn’t get a burial from you either"

"Will you make me / A laughing-stock?"

"Be a modern wife, look me in the eye / And give me a little kiss."

"I am greater than ... the living god among men."

"The greedy dog! Insatiate camel of a foolish, doting race."

"It is a rich life, Sidi."

"He's a die-hard rogue / Sworn against our progress."

"It is five full months since last / I took a wife."

"She hates it it when Pa has girlfriends. She says some men can't help themselves. Then she cries, and when she stops crying, she says they're weak - like children."

"My father must have realised that his marriage wasn't going to survive. He was biding his time, waiting for the right moment to leave. But there's never a good time to leave a grief-stricken wife."

"So, instead of abandoning us, Pa did the next best thing: he avoided my mother as much as possible, staying away for days on end."

"'Yeah. She doesn't understand Peter like I do. 'Just like my mother.' 'Yeah?'"

"can be questioned and challenged when … [they] reinforce gender inequality and other fundamental right"

"He left her to me. And for that I can never forgive him."

"Dismissing her accusations of infidelity, he claimed she was imagining things; he was staying overnight with relatives."

"Yes, some fathers are like that, ... It drives my mother crazy. Does Isobel go crazy as well?'"

"there is nothing to be said"

"...a divorce will have a really bad effect on Daddy’s preaching"

"cannot walk among other women with her head uplifted and straight"

"woman can be defined by her consciousness of her own femininity no more than by saying that she is a female, for she acquires this consciousness under circumstances dependent on the society of which she is a member"

"Well, I'm sorry you all feel uncomfortable about mybehaviour, but I cannot pretend. I cannot lie to myself and everybody else in this village"

"it was her fault that her husband looked at other women, It was her fault that her husband beat her"

"...all know how I was treated in my marriage. Why should Icry? For what? For my broken ribs? For my baby, the one he killed inside me while beating me? For what"

"Since Mama wouldn't let them visit us, he was spending time with them for a change. Of course there wasn't another woman! Mama was being neurotic, overwrought."

"And he was his mother’s only child. She has no one now. We do not understand it. Life is not sweet!’ Thus ran the verdict”"

"[I]t was six o’clock…this time, I did not run”"

"He was beautiful, but that was not important.”"

"Of course I will struggle…but I will let him go”"

"He was beautiful, but that was not important. Beauty does not play such a vital role in a man's life as it does in a woman's, or so people think. If a man's beauty is so ill-mannered as to be noticeable, people discreetly ignore its existence."

"My daughter, when life fails you, it fails you totally. One's yams reflect the total sum of one's life."

"Please, Chicha, I always know you are just making fun of me, but please, promise me won’t take Kwesi away with you.”"

"A goalkeeper is a dubious character in infant soccer. He is either a good goalkeeper and that is why he is at the goal, which is usually difficult to know in a child, or he is a bad player."

"even in the old times, people said that just to be old in itself was nothing. One could be old wise or old foolish"