Stay With Me

Both the personal and political struggles of the characters illustrate the vulnerability of hope in the face of repeated tragedies. While the characters often believe that hope is futile, the novel suggests that hope can be resurrected under the right circumstances.

After Yejide’s in-laws inform her of Funmi’s status as Akin’s second wife, creating an uncertain future in her home, Ibrahim Babangida’s coup overthrows Muhammadu Buhari, creating an uncertain future for Nigeria (See: Background). From then on, both public and private events spiral, subjecting Yejide and Nigeria to tragedy after tragedy. Nigeria sinks into corruption and oppression, with robbers operating freely with the police’s collusion and Babangida’s troops unleashing violence against student protestors. Yejide hopes that she will be able to conceive healthy children and have a happy family, but no matter what she tries to do—including trusting a traditional faith healer—she struggles to conceive, and when her children are born, two die of sickle cell disease. Despite her actions to avert each misfortune and the actions of civic-minded Nigerians, tragedies repeatedly occur, undermining her belief that personal actions matter. Without a sense of agency, Yejide loses hope. By the time the 1993 election arrives, Yejide feels only resignation. She experiences a similar reaction to Rotimi, believing that her death is inevitable.

Conversely, Akin retains hope, holding onto his belief that his marriage can be saved and that Nigeria will find its way politically. At first, however, Akin’s hope tends to be passive, causing further problems for him. His passive hope that a cure for his impotence will undo the damage to his marriage becomes Akin’s “opium, the thing [he] c[a]n’t wean [him]self off of” (214), which prevents him from taking meaningful action in regaining Yejide’s trust. Similarly, his hope and faith in the Nigerian military inoculate him from fear and disappointment, and he cannot believe the election annulment until soldiers begin shooting protestors in the streets. It is the election annulment that turns Akin’s hope from a passive force into an active one: He finds the courage to save Rotimi during the military occupation of Lagos, refusing to give up hope that she can be saved. Later, in 2008, he musters the courage to contact Yejide directly, taking action toward a reconciliation instead of hoping that things will right themselves.

It is thus not until Akin, Yejide, and Nigeria combine hope for a better future with direct action that real change occurs. The novel therefore suggests that hope alone is limited and cannot fix the world’s misfortunes but that it is a necessary catalyst for creating change after tragedy.