Kemi Falodun: The Pragmatic Survivor and Matriarch of the Curse
Overview
Kemi Falodun—also called Grandma East—is the mother of Ebun and the maternal grandmother of the novel’s protagonist, Eniiyi. As the daughter of Afoke and a direct descendant of Feranmi, the woman on whom the original curse was pronounced, Kemi carries the full weight of the Falodun family legacy. The family tree in Chapter 1 establishes her place in a lineage haunted by failed relationships, and her story illustrates how the curse is both suffered and perpetuated across generations.
Plot Role
Kemi is a secondary but crucial character. She appears in the contemporary timeline as the financially unstable matriarch living in her grandfather’s house with Ebun and Monife. Her main plot function is to transmit the curse’s logic to the younger women. In Chapter 41, she pressures Monife to “lock down” her boyfriend, Golden Boy, and advises Ebun to ask her biological father for university tuition, insisting that men are resources to be claimed. These actions directly contribute to the tension that leads Monife to drown herself in the Prologue and force Ebun into a painful confrontation with her estranged father. In the later chapters, the outline tells us that seven years after Eniiyi leaves for the UK, Ebun moves out with Grandma East, indicating Kemi survives the events of the novel and remains a fixture in the family’s life.
Motivations and Traits
Kemi is driven above all by survival and material security. After three failed marriages, she has learned that men can provide temporary stability but must be managed with pragmatism rather than emotion. She shows resourcefulness—when her third husband throws her out for the affair that produced Ebun, she retreats to her grandfather’s house and raises her daughter alone, relying on “man-friend” dates to supplement the household income. Her sharp wit appears in Chapter 41 when she justifies targeting married men: “they are the ones with the loosest pockets.”
Yet Kemi also exhibits vulnerability. On days when her dates fail, she eats a plain bowl of gari with no accompaniments, and she mutters to herself about the coming month. Her belief in the curse is genuine—she warns Monife not to take the curse for granted—but she never questions the transactional approach to relationships that the curse has taught her. This makes her both a victim and an enforcer of the family’s toxic pattern.
Chronological Arc
| Time period | Key events (from the text and outline) |
|---|---|
| Early life (Chapter 35) | Kemi marries at 17 to a 45‑year‑old suitor arranged by her family; births a son; first husband dies. Second husband is abusive; she flees when he turns on her son. Third husband is unfaithful; Kemi has an affair with a doctor and becomes pregnant with Ebun; husband throws her out. |
| Present-day story (Chapters 41, 77, and 98) | Kemi lives in the family house, dates married men for money, advises Monife to trap Golden Boy, and pressures Ebun to ask her father for tuition. Monife’s suicide devastates the household. |
| Future epilogue (Chapter 111) | Ebun moves out with Grandma East, and the Falodun house becomes “a place of ghosts.” Kemi is still alive seven years after Eniiyi’s departure. |
Relationships
With Monife
Monife, the daughter of Kemi’s cousin Bunmi, lives under the same roof. In Chapter 41, the two share a candid conversation about money and relationships. Monife calls Kemi “Aunty” and gently challenges her advice, but Kemi dismisses her objections, telling her: “Sometimes you cannot leave these things to fate.” Their relationship is affectionate yet strained by Kemi’s insistence that Monife must manipulate Golden Boy into commitment. When Monife later breaks up with Kalu and hears of his engagement to another woman, she feels the curse has claimed her—a fate Kemi’s warnings helped shape.
With Ebun
Kemi is the single mother of Ebun, who is the product of her affair with a doctor. Their bond is complicated by Kemi’s expectation that Ebun should ask her biological father for money to attend university. In the same conversation with Monife, Kemi says of Ebun’s father, “He is her father… he can afford it,” revealing her belief that financial support is an obligation that supersedes emotional distance. Ebun resents this pressure. The outline confirms that eventually Ebun moves out, taking Kemi with her, suggesting a reconciliation of sorts, but the underlying dynamic of dependence remains.
With the Curse
Kemi treats the curse as a lived reality, not a superstition. She sees it as the explanation for the family’s romantic failures and passes its logic to the next generation. By advising Monife to “lock down” a man before fate intervenes, she reinforces the cycle of transaction and betrayal that defines the Falodun women’s experience.
Key Decisions and Consequences
| Decision | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Accepting the arranged marriage at 17 | Leads to her first husband’s early death; she learns that men are fleeting providers. |
| Fleeing her abusive second husband | Protects her son, but leaves her without resources, forcing her into a series of transactional relationships. |
| Having an affair with the doctor and keeping Ebun | Results in being thrown out by her third husband; raises Ebun alone in the ancestral house, perpetuating the curse’s poverty and dependence. |
| Pressuring Monife to secure Golden Boy | Contributes to Monife’s anxiety about the curse and her later despair when Kalu marries another woman—a despair that ends in suicide. |
| Insisting Ebun ask her father for tuition | Forces a painful encounter that Ebun dreads, straining the mother-daughter relationship. |
Theme and Symbol Connections
Kemi embodies several of the collection’s central themes:
- The Falodun Family Curse: Her life story is a direct illustration of the curse in action—she marries for survival, is abandoned, and repeats the pattern with her own daughter.
- Generational Trauma: Kemi’s decisions are shaped by her mother Afoke’s aggressive pursuit of a husband, which itself stems from Feranmi’s original curse. The trauma travels intact through the bloodline.
- Mother-Daughter Conflict: Her relationship with Ebun is defined by Kemi’s expectations of financial support from men and Ebun’s desire for independence.
- Autonomy Versus Superstition: Kemi chooses to believe the curse and uses it as a rationale for controlling behaviour. She never considers rejecting the belief, unlike Eniiyi, who finally defeats the curse in the Epilogue.
- Reincarnation and Identity: The curse repeats the same patterns of love and loss across generations; Kemi’s story is a near‑replay of her mother Afoke’s and her grandmother Yemisi’s.
Questions and Answers
-
How does Kemi’s first marriage set the stage for her later actions?
Answer: At 17 she married a 45‑year‑old man chosen by her family and quickly bore a son. After his death, she had no security, which taught her that survival depended on securing men quickly—a lesson she later passes to Monife. -
Why does Kemi advise Monife to “lock down” Golden Boy?
Answer: Kemi genuinely believes the curse will ruin Monife if she leaves her relationship to chance. In Chapter 41 she says, “if you get pregnant, for example … you better lock him down before anything happens,” showing she sees pregnancy as a tool and fate as an enemy. -
What does the “plain bowl of gari” symbolise in Kemi’s story?
Answer: The difference between a lavish meal when her dates succeed and a meagre one when they fail symbolises Kemi’s complete dependence on men for the household’s prosperity—a direct consequence of the curse. -
How does Kemi continue the curse cycle with her own daughter, Ebun?
Answer: She forces Ebun to ask her estranged father for tuition money, repeating the pattern of women begging men for resources. This mirrors Kemi’s own history of relying on men for financial survival and passes the transactional mindset to the next generation. -
What becomes of Kemi at the end of the book?
Answer: According to the outline of Chapter 111, Ebun moves out of the Falodun house and takes Kemi (Grandma East) with her. Kemi survives the events of the story and remains with her daughter, though the “place of ghosts” suggests she carries the curse’s shadow into her new home.
For further discussion of the curse’s origins and its effect on other characters, see the Questions and Answers page.