Decolonizing the Mind: Amari’s Quest towards Allyship in Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone

Abstract

Decolonizing the Mind: Amari’s Quest towards Allyship in Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone Sylvia Barnes (bio) Colonization isn’t a thing that happens just geographically. It also affects the mindset of the colonized and the colonizer. In Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, Amari undergoes the process of decolonizing her mind. Once Amari can leave her home that she had been trapped inside, she is able to experience things from a different perspective and from a mindset that is not synonymous with the life that she had previously left. Amari’s relationship, or budding friendship, with Zelie is one that has growing pains. Zelie is quite hesitant and reluctant to get close to Amari, but as the novel progresses, their friendship sparks Amari’s transition from the mindset of a colonizer to one that instead considers the experiences of those who have been colonized. This is not a simple process for either Zelie or Amari. Zelie’s hesitancy towards Amari stems from being on the receiving end of the violence and the degradation that are imposed onto divîners from the Orïshans. The foundation for this violence is fear, which is connected to colonialism; however, fear is a double-edged sword. The colonizers have weaponized fear in order to make the colonized subordinates, yet at the same the colonizers themselves embody this fear; thus “colonial violence, seems to have given way to indirect violence, the colonial order has contaminated the land of the colonizers” (France 8). However, eventually it is actually this violence that allows Zelie and Amari to see that, despite their different backgrounds they in fact have more in common than not. Construction of the Novel Children of Blood and Bone was published in 2018 and created a world that captivated readers of various ages. The construction of Children of Blood and Bone itself is a large part of the allure of Adeyemi’s novel, with different chapters allowing for the voices of her characters, Amari, Inan, Tzain, and Zelie, to be heard individually in an overlapping fashion that emphasizes their different perspectives. It is through this overlapping and layering of first-person perspectives that the reader is able to see a shift in each of the character’s mindset. For example, Amari undergoes a process to free herself from the different restrictions that have been previously placed upon her by her father and his indoctrination. Her brother, Inan, will also undergo this shift in mindset. Whenever Inan witnesses Zelie being beaten and having the word “maggot” carved into her back by his father’s decree, he starts [End Page 50] to have both empathy and sympathy towards her. Thus, he will learn what truly happened and not blindly believe the information that his father has provided. This difference in perspective can be seen when Zelie explains to him the reality of how things are for those who are not of noble status: “You can’t. They built this world for you, built it to love you. They never cursed at you in the streets, never broke down the doors of your home. They didn’t drag your mother by her neck and hang her for the whole world to see” (Adeyemi 313). Zelie articulates her pain in this statement, thereby providing Inan with insight about her survived hardships and troubles based upon her status. At the moment of Inan and Zelie’s encounter, he has not been privy to this information. Given his noble status, he has only had access to information that has been censored by his father. Therefore, any information that contradicts his previous knowledge causes him to self-reflect. In the following chapter, the voice shifts from Zelie to Inan. Zelie states to Inan, “Fool yourself all you want, little prince, but don’t feign innocence with me. I won’t let your father get away with what he’s done. I won’t let your ignorance silence my pain” (315). Zelie uses her voice to articulate her opinion and her pain. She chooses to force herself, and her people, into the dominant narrative—a narrative that has created an image that is not entirely accurate...