Lola Shoneyin

“There are many things in this life to find joy in, so you mustn’t be downcast.

I am here because I want to be here!”

Men are like that. They think they sit in the center and the world turns around them.

Men are like yam. You cut them how you like.

He led me to his home and took me. I will never forget that day or any other that I spent with him. He made my body sing. He made me howl when he bent me over; he made me whimper when he sat me on his belly. And when he took me standing up, it was as if there was a frog inside me, puffing out its throat, blowing, blowing and blowing until whoosh—all the warm air escaped through my limbs.

Only a foolish woman leans heavily on a man’s promises.”

He wasn’t like Tunde at all. There was no sucking, no licking, no nuzzling, no moistening. Baba Segi was heavy; everything about him was clumsy and awkward. He heaved and hoed, poured his water into me and collapsed onto my breasts. Tunde never did that; he always shook his water onto my belly. I looked forward to the day our paths would cross again at meet-roads. For months, I cleaned. I knew I would find Tunde when the time was right.

What do you do when something that is yours is claimed by someone else? You destroy it! You take it apart so devastatingly that it can never be put together again.

I was just happy to be near him so I could look at his face.”

It was at that moment that I realized that I meant very little to him.