The Falodun Family Curse: Inheritance, Suffering, and Liberation in Oyinkan Braithwaite's Cursed Daughters
The Core Thematic Claim
The Falodun family curse is a patriarchal inheritance that condemns every female descendant to love in vain and suffer for men. More than a supernatural hex, the curse works as a self-fulfilling prophecy—a set of inherited expectations that trap women in cycles of betrayal, abuse, and self-sacrifice. Yet the same narrative that documents the curse's relentless repetition also charts a path to liberation: in the epilogue, Eniiyi Falodun defeats the beast-like curse in a symbolic underwater battle, reclaiming ownership of her body and breaking the chain.
This analysis traces the curse from its origin in Feranmi's story, through the lives of three distinct generations of Falodun women, and finally to Eniiyi's confrontation. It examines key characters and symbols—especially water and the ocean—and explores the complexity of a curse that is simultaneously real, psychological, and political.
The Origin: Feranmi and the First Wife's Declaration
The curse begins in the village of Feranmi Falodun, an extraordinarily beautiful woman who seduces a city man visiting to bury his father. After a night together, the man is forced by the village chief to pay a hefty bride price and marry Feranmi. He builds her a house but visits infrequently, barely thinking of her between trips. Five years later, his first wife accompanies him to the village and discovers Feranmi and her daughter Wemimo. When the man leaves the two women to “sort themselves out,” they fight physically, and the first wife rises to declare a curse:
“It will not be well with you. No man will call your house home. … Your daughters are cursed—they will pursue men, but the men will be like water in your palms. Your granddaughters will love in vain. Your great-granddaughters will labour for acknowledgement, but they will fall short of other women. … Kò ní dá fún ẹ́.”
She swipes blood from her wounds and smears it on the ground. Feranmi laughs, but her husband never returns. This origin scene establishes the curse as a weapon of patriarchal punishment: the first wife, herself a victim of her husband's infidelity, directs her anger at the "other woman" and her progeny. The curse is not a mystical force from outside but a human utterance that gains power through repetition and belief.
Part One: The Curse Repeats Through Kemi, Bunmi, and Afoke
The curse manifests differently in each generation, yet always through men who fail or harm the women. Three chapter-length “Falodun Family Curse” entries illustrate this pattern.
Kemi (Chapter 35) marries at seventeen an older suitor who dies soon after she bears a son. Her second husband is cruel and abusive; she flees when he threatens her child. Her third husband is wealthy but unfaithful; Kemi has an affair with her doctor and becomes pregnant. When discovered, she is thrown out and retreats to her grandfather's house with baby Ebun. Kemi's story shows that even pragmatic survival strategies—securing a male heir, fleeing abuse—cannot protect a woman from the curse's outcome: displacement and single motherhood.
Bunmi (Chapter 61) tries to outrun the curse by being the perfect submissive wife: she cooks, cleans, defers to her husband, ignores his infidelities, and bears his children, including a son. Yet her husband falls in love with an independent British-Nigerian woman and sends Bunmi and the children back to Nigeria. Her sacrifices, she realises, could not beat the curse. The chapter highlights the futility of female self-sacrifice under patriarchy: no amount of labour or compliance guarantees security.
Afoke (Chapter 75) is so terrified of the curse that she aggressively seduces her younger sister's boyfriend, trapping him with a pregnancy. Once married, she becomes a disengaged mother and compulsive gambler. Her husband sends her packing when she steals from his wallet. Afoke believes she sees the curse waving at her from the window as she leaves. Her story illustrates how the curse can drive women to desperate, self-destructive actions that reinforce the very pattern they dread.
These three women—Kemi, Bunmi, and Afoke—are linked by descent from Feranmi through the family tree that opens the book. Their experiences demonstrate that the curse adapts to context but always ends in rejection, loss, or betrayal.
Part Two: The Curse Strikes the Younger Generation—Monife and Ebun
The curse also operates in the narrative present. Monife (Prologue, Chapter 98) drowns herself at Elegushi Beach after being hurt by a man called Golden Boy. She hopes his heart will break. Her suicide is the novel's inciting tragedy, and her funeral in Chapter I is witnessed by her cousin Ebun, who is pregnant with Eniiyi. Ebun reflects that “love is what killed her cousin,” yet she herself struggles with the fear that the curse may pass to her daughter.
When Eniiyi is born, she uncannily resembles Monife, and the family wonders if she is a reincarnation. Ebun initially dismisses the superstition but cannot shake her dread. The curse becomes a psychological weight: Ebun tears up Eniiyi's drawing of “small me” and “big me,” disturbed by the implication that Monife's spirit may be present. Later, Eniiyi discovers that she is an exact replica of Monife and steals Monife's notebook, which documents the family curse.
Through Monife and Ebun, the curse moves from historical stories into lived reality. Ebun's rational skepticism is tested by physical evidence—the scar on Eniiyi's body, the old photograph, the notebook. The curse is both a belief system and a palpable force that shapes identity.
Part Three: Eniiyi Breaks the Curse
The climax of the curse's arc is Eniiyi's liberation. In Chapter 111, Eniiyi flees to the UK, desperate to escape the man Zubby. The narrator reveals future events: her grandmother Sango dies peacefully, Oba proposes to Ebun, and seven years later Eniiyi and Zubby will lock eyes in a Lagos restaurant, unable to look away—suggesting the curse still has a grip on romantic fate.
But the Epilogue (Chapter 112) offers a different ending. Eniiyi engages in a symbolic underwater battle with the curse, described as a beast. She wrestles it for an indeterminate period until it expires in her arms. Simultaneously, she walks through an airplane, locates seat 52A, and the plane takes off, skimming the ocean. She does not look down, though a shadow of the curse remains underwater. The narrative closes with the affirmation that Eniiyi alone is the owner of her body, marking her complete liberation.
This ending reinterprets the curse's watery imagery. Monife drowned in the ocean; Eniiyi fights in the same element and wins. Water is no longer a medium of death but of rebirth and agency. The curse is not erased—a shadow remains—but it is no longer dominant.
Character and Symbol Connections
Several symbols reinforce the curse's themes. Water and the ocean serve as both site of Monife's death and Eniiyi's rebirth. The mermaid imagery that once belonged to Monife transfers to Eniiyi, who defeats the curse underwater. The ankle bracelet (if present in the full text) may represent the binding nature of the curse. Birthmarks and scars—such as Eniiyi's scar from a hospital visit and her physical likeness to Monife—connect the generations bodily.
Key character arcs: Ebun Falodun represents skepticism and grief; Monife Falodun is the curse's victim; Eniiyi Falodun is the liberator. Kalu Kenosi and other male characters embody the men who fail the women. Bunmi Falodun and Kemi Falodun illustrate the curse's generational span.
Complexity and Contradiction
The curse is not a simple supernatural force. It is intimately tied to patriarchal structures: the first wife who uttered it was herself a victim; the curse punishes women for pursuing love outside sanctioned roles. Yet the women also internalise it, using it to explain failures and to justify actions. Ebun does not believe in curses, yet she is haunted. Monife's notebook records the curse with both fascination and criticism—she finds the women's actions “questionable.” The curse is both real within the story's logic and a metaphor for the social pressures that make happy relationships nearly impossible for Falodun women.
Furthermore, Eniiyi's victory is incomplete. The curse's shadow remains underwater, and she and Zubby will meet again. Perhaps the curse does not entirely vanish but can be managed through conscious choice. The ending affirms personal autonomy without promising a fairy-tale romance.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does the curse's origin in a quarrel between two women complicate the idea that it is a "curse on all men"?
The curse is invented by the first wife in a moment of rage against Feranmi, not against the husband who betrayed both women. It targets the female line, reinforcing patriarchal divisions between women. This suggests the curse arises from women's powerlessness within patriarchy, not from external magic.
2. Why does Ebun tear up Eniiyi's drawing of "small me" and "big me"?
The drawing visualises the fear that Eniiyi is a reincarnation of Monife, which would mean the curse is repeating. Ebun tears it to deny this possibility, but her action shows how deeply the curse affects her psyche even as she rejects superstition.
3. How does the curse manifest differently for characters who actively try to resist it, like Bunmi and Afoke?
Bunmi's resistance through submissive perfection fails because her husband falls in love elsewhere. Afoke's aggressive seizure of a husband ends in gambling and theft. Both attempts reinforce the curse's pattern, suggesting that resistance within the terms set by patriarchy is self-defeating.
4. What is the significance of Eniiyi's underwater battle with the curse in the epilogue?
Water, which claimed Monife's life, becomes Eniiyi's arena for liberation. By fighting the curse in the ocean, she reclaims a space of death as one of rebirth. The battle is symbolic of internalised struggle; the curse expiring in her arms implies that it was never entirely external.
5. Does Eniiyi fully break the curse, or does a shadow of it remain?
The epilogue states that a shadow of the curse remains underwater, and the narrator foresees that Eniiyi and Zubby will lock eyes seven years later. This suggests the curse's social and psychological weight is not erased, but Eniiyi gains the agency to own her body and choices, which is the true victory.
For further exploration, visit the main Cursed Daughters page and read about related symbols such as the Iroko tree.