Chibundu Onuzo Quotes

I knew that when you had fallen, the memories that charted your decline became invaluable.

There is a mythical bird we have here, Anna. We call it the sankofa. It flies forward with its head facing back. It’s a poetic image but it cannot work in real life.

Be courageous, not brave. Bravery was to dash out of the bomb shelter and grab the child left crying on the veranda. Courage was to go to the stream the day after a bomb had scattered your friend on that path because water must be fetched to sustain the life that was left.

Not even crocodiles eat their young...papa takes care of his children.

Even now after all he’s done, I’m still waiting for his attention.

A sense of rightness, a sense of self. It was nothing when you had it. You hardly noticed. But once it was missing, it was like a sliver of fruit on a long sea voyage, the difference between bleeding gums and survival.

The world will always have people like this, trying to press guilt on you, forcing pamphlets with gory pictures into your hands, holding you personally accountable for wars, famines, genocides. Why not be of use to those around you?

If you prefer sitting in traffic to sitting at your desk, if you pass office hours waiting for closing time, if you spend more time on Facebook than you do attending to important emails then perhaps it's time for you to consider quitting your job.

What

Rotten eggs that will never hatch

Even now, after everything he’s done, I still cannot bring myself to fear him.

What would you have done differently?” It is a childish question, but I am not grown up, only older. Little Anna is the kernel; big Anna is mere flesh, easily bruised, easily pared away.