I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. There were cows and goats set for slaughter; dozens of women stirring boiling cauldrons of meat and rice, packing hundreds of meals into shiny, plastic containers with a fork, napkin, and toothpick. Even the road into the village had to be repaved to accommodate traffic from all the well wishers.
In the end, thousands of people attended Granny’s funeral, not to speak of the hundreds who came to the family compound in the village. Aunty Valerie set up a dozen tables in the front yard under a giant tent where groups of aso ebi women gathered to pay their respects.
Celebrants at our family compound paying respects to my grandmother (2014)
Aso ebi women dancing at my grandmother’s funeral in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria (2014).
Aunty Valerie speaks with women at our family compound in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria (2014).
A women’s group visits our family compound in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria (2014).
About Elizabeth’s Daughter
In 2010, I traveled to Nigeria to conduct research for a memoir of my late mother, Elizabeth Essien, who died from cancer more than ten years ago. I interviewed my mother’s family and friends in Akwa Ibom State, visited her village, and schools at which she was a student and teacher before immigrating to the U.S.
Elizabeth’s Daughter is a multidisciplinary memoir that chronicles my journey from grief to hope, as I uncover my mother’s life as a would-be nun turned wife while coming-of-age as an artist and young woman. The memoir explores issues of religion, politics, language, girls’ education, sexuality, and identity through the lens of my mother’s life and my own.
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