描述
Àṣàkẹ́, a lovechild, was born to a town chief and pepper seller in Ile-Ife, Western Nigeria. She spent her early years with her mother, who showered her with as much love and affection as she could offer. Àṣàkẹ́’s mother always worried that given the power and class imbalance between her and her daughter’s father, Àṣàkẹ́ would eventually be taken from her. She wanted Àṣàkẹ́ to remember her, to remember the women of their tribe who came before them, to remember their little home in Ile-Ife and the beauty that their home and culture held. So Àṣàkẹ́’s mother took her to the neighbourhood onikola(scarifier) and asked for her child to be given their native pele tribal mark. It was painful and hard, but her mother knew that giving her daughter a lasting map to find her way home was important. The sound of Àṣàkẹ́ crying as her skin was cut was one she knew would be etched in her memory for an eternity to come. Hence, when Àṣàkẹ́’s father came to relocate his daughter to a country where foreigners lived, a place that was different from their home, she remembered her daughter’s tears and her daughter’s marks and was quietly reassured that her daughter, Àṣàkẹ́, would eventually find her way back home.