Reincarnation and Identity in Cursed Daughters: Eniiyi's Fight for Selfhood

Defining the Thematic Claim

In Cursed Daughters, Oyinkan Braithwaite interrogates the idea that identity can be inherited or imposed through reincarnation. The central claim is that selfhood is a personal construction, not a predetermined fate passed through bloodlines. Eniiyi Falodun must resist a family narrative that casts her as a vessel for her dead aunt Monife. The curse—a supernatural decree that the women of the Falodun line will suffer in love—threatens to subsume individual identity under collective trauma. Braithwaite uses reincarnation beliefs, family lore, and symbolic imagery to ask whether a person can ever truly be herself when others insist she is someone else.

Tracing the Theme Across the Plot

The Naming Ceremony: Imposing a Past

The first major plot point that establishes the reincarnation theme occurs at Eniiyi's naming ceremony. Ebun attends her cousin Monife's funeral while heavily pregnant; soon after, she gives birth. At the ceremony, Aunty Bunmi drops a fifty-naira note into the naming bowl and suggests the name Motitunde—"I have come again"—directly claiming the baby is Monife reincarnated. Ebun immediately protests, but her mother Kemi offers another name, Abidemi, meaning "born in the absence of her father." Ebun finally names her daughter Eniiyi, which she intends to mean "a person of integrity" and a break from the past.

This scene shows how the family tries to define Eniiyi before she can define herself. The naming ritual, meant to bless the child, becomes a battleground over identity. Ebun's choice of Eniiyi is a clear attempt to give her daughter a separate destiny, but the older women's pressure reveals how deeply the reincarnation belief is embedded in the household.

Eniiyi's Research and Inner Conflict

As a teenager, Eniiyi begins to question the family narrative. In a scene where she searches online for "how to tell if I am reincarnated," she reads accounts of children with past-life memories, articles about birthmarks and personality similarities, and even a blog on epigenetics and generational trauma. She experiences déjà vu and notices the way her dog Sango—formerly Monife's dog—treats her as though she were Monife. Her search reflects a desperate need to make sense of the feeling that her identity is being eroded by family expectations.

Here, Braithwaite adds complexity: Eniiyi does not simply reject or accept the reincarnation claim. She wavers, wondering if the curse is a real spiritual inheritance or a psychological pattern. The mention of epigenetics suggests that even without supernatural reincarnation, trauma could be passed down biologically. This ambiguity makes Eniiyi's struggle more poignant—she cannot easily dismiss the belief because it is reinforced by physical resemblance, family memory, and her own uncanny experiences.

The Confrontation and Reclamation

The most intense dramatization of the theme occurs when Ebun finds Eniiyi in Monife's old room, wearing Monife's dress and dancing in front of the mirror. Ebun slaps her repeatedly, trying to beat the reincarnation idea out of her. Eniiyi shouts back, referencing Aunty Bunmi's teachings about atunwa—the Yoruba concept of rebirth. The violence of the scene underscores how high the stakes are: Ebun sees the reincarnation belief as a death sentence, linking it to Monife's suicide.

In the subsequent family meeting, Ebun forbids any talk of reincarnation and threatens to move out. Eniiyi defiantly says she will not follow her mother, wishing Ebun were not her mother at all. This rupture shows that enforcing identity from the outside—whether through family love or violence—can backfire. Eniiyi's will to carve out her own selfhood is tested but not extinguished.

The Epilogue: Owning Her Body

The resolution arrives in the Epilogue, where Eniiyi engages in a symbolic underwater battle with the curse. Described as a mermaid, she wrestles a beast-like curse until it dies in her arms. Simultaneously, she walks through an airplane and sits in seat 52A as the plane takes off, skimming the ocean. The shadow of the curse remains underwater, but Eniiyi declares that she alone is the owner of her body. This mythic conclusion affirms that identity can be reclaimed through confrontation and will. The water imagery, which earlier signified Monife's drowning, is transformed into a medium of empowerment—water and the ocean become both the site of the curse's defeat and the element Eniiyi masters.

Symbol and Character Connections

Water and the Ocean

Monife's suicide by drowning sets the tragic origin of the reincarnation dilemma. Water later appears in Eniiyi's near-drowning at a birthday party, which terrifies Ebun into believing the curse will repeat itself. Yet in the epilogue, Eniiyi defeats the curse underwater, suggesting that the same element that claimed Monife can be a site of liberation. The ocean represents both inherited fate and the possibility of rebirth on one's own terms.

The Ankle Bracelet and Birthmarks

The ankle bracelet and birthmarks and scars serve as physical markers of identity. Monife likely wore such an item, and Eniiyi's scar from a childhood injury is noted as uncannily similar to Monife's. These bodily signs are ambiguous: they could be evidence of reincarnation or simply family resemblance. Braithwaite uses them to keep the supernatural question open while emphasizing that Eniiyi's body is her own to claim.

The Iroko Tree

The iroko tree in Yoruba cosmology is associated with spirits and ancestral connections. While not directly tied to Eniiyi's reincarnation, it appears in the family's landscape as a silent witness to the curse's weight. It symbolizes the rootedness of tradition that Eniiyi must either accept or transcend.

Family as Mirror Characters

The Falodun family tree in Chapter 1 establishes a lineage of women who have all suffered under the curse. Monife, Bunmi, Kemi, and others each represent different responses to inherited identity: some resist, some accept, some try to cheat the curse. Eniiyi's identity is shaped against this backdrop, but her final victory suggests that individual agency can break even a generations-old pattern.

Complexity and Contradiction

Braithwaite does not offer a simple resolution to the reincarnation question. The curse is presented as both a supernatural reality (detailed in the Falodun Family Curse chapters) and a metaphor for generational trauma. Eniiyi's online research into epigenetics introduces a scientific explanation: perhaps the curse is not spiritual but behavioral, passed down through learned patterns and trauma responses. This duality prevents readers from dismissing the family's beliefs as mere superstition.

Another contradiction lies in Ebun's own conflicted position. She rejects reincarnation talk yet feels a "shadow" of the curse in her heart after Eniiyi's near-drowning. Her violence toward Eniiyi mirrors the same force she tries to resist—she tries to control her daughter's identity through fear, echoing the way the curse controls women's lives. Eniiyi's final liberation requires not only defeating the curse but also forgiving her mother's limitations.

The epilogue leaves a trace of ambiguity: the shadow of the curse remains underwater. Even after Eniiyi claims her body, the curse does not vanish entirely. This suggests that identity is never fully settled; it must be continuously defended. The reincarnation theme thus becomes a meditation on how the past always haunts the present, but need not dictate the future.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the naming ceremony in Cursed Daughters set up the conflict over Eniiyi's identity?
   The older women propose names that frame Eniiyi as a reincarnation (Motitunde) or a child born in her father's absence (Abidemi). Ebun's choice of "Eniiyi" asserts a separate identity, but the tension shows that Eniiyi's selfhood is contested from birth.

2. What role does the internet research scene play in Eniiyi's struggle with reincarnation beliefs?
   Eniiyi's online search reveals her desire to understand whether she is truly a reincarnation. She encounters both supernatural accounts and scientific explanations like epigenetics, which reflect the book's ambiguity between spiritual and psychological causes.

3. Why does Ebun react so violently when she finds Eniiyi in Monife's room?
   Ebun fears that believing she is Monife's reincarnation will lead Eniiyi to the same tragic fate—suicide by drowning. Her violence is a misguided attempt to protect her daughter, but it also shows how fear can replicate the control the curse imposes.

4. How does the epilogue use water imagery to resolve the reincarnation conflict?
   Water shifts from a symbol of drowning and inherited death to a site of empowerment. Eniiyi defeats the curse in an underwater battle, then boards a plane that skims the ocean, claiming her body as her own. The shadow of the curse remains, suggesting ongoing vigilance.

5. What does the family curse reveal about the tension between inherited fate and personal identity?
   The curse binds the Falodun women to a pattern of doomed love, but Eniiyi's final victory shows that awareness and conscious choice can break the cycle. Braithwaite suggests that identity is shaped by both inheritance and individual will, and that selfhood must be actively claimed.