One of the great things about Chioma Okereke’s Water Baby is that it reminds us of the possibilities of striving towards dreams and the humaneness found in the crevices where the faint light of hope shines through the darkness.
By Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera
Chioma Okereke’s novel, Water Baby, has been making its rounds as one of the new stories, as the novelist, Chika Unigwe puts it, “about love, loss, community and dreams”. The story is set in Makoko, a well-known riverine community in Lagos State, often dubbed the “Venice of Africa” for its tourist appeal, though it is equally notorious for the poverty and environmental pollution that have plagued it for decades.
In Water Baby, the protagonist is a young teenage girl named Yemoja, who dreams of acquiring a higher education despite her impoverished background. She harbors a deep love for Makoko, but her thoughts and aspirations set her apart from the average person in the community. Yemoja’s journey is not only a personal quest but also a reflection of the complex layers of life in Makoko—its challenges, beauty, and the dreams that emerge from its waters.
She loves education and dreams of having a life and career in the more affluent parts of Lagos someday. She has no boyfriend, and though she is coming of age and on the cusp of adulthood, she isn’t spending time with any boys, as is common in her neighbourhood, who might end up getting her pregnant. Instead, she prefers to work on the river as a ferry operator to make money in her spare time, despite her father’s pressure for her to get married.
Water Baby is written in the first person, from the protagonist’s perspective. Through her eyes, we come to understand her and the psychological tides that a girl her age, living in a place like Makoko with dreams as big as hers, has to navigate. We also see the people around her—her friends, Charlie Boy, Efe, and Prince, as well as her mentor, the larger-than-life Mama Jumbo, whose open-mindedness about a woman’s potential draws Yemoja close to her.
The novelist, Chioma Okereke, approached this book with motivation and a story brimming within her. It quickly becomes apparent that this is not a tale drawn from her immediate personal experience, but rather from her observations—likely informed by her role as the founder of the Makoko Pearls organisation—and through research.
The main challenge in her attempt to tell this story, one she is clearly familiar with, lies in the use of language. In Nigeria, a multiethnic country where language is further divided by class, language can sometimes be a complex issue.
Not having grown up in a place like Makoko, or in one of Nigeria’s ghettos, poses the difficulty of authentically capturing the language of a story set in such an environment. She acknowledges this in a brief disclaimer at the start of her novel, writing: “This novel was deliberately written in Pidgin-lite. My people: don’t come for me, abeg una”.
However, one of the greatest gifts an artist can give themselves is not allowing their limitations to hold them back. This is one of the most profound achievements of this novel. The author grants herself the grace to tell an important story, which, in turn, extends grace to young girls living in places like Makoko, who dream of becoming more than their birth circumstances and environment might allow.
The characterisation in Okereke’s novel is detailed and evocative. Her main character, aside from being ambitious, is attentive and knowledgeable of her surroundings and the world beyond it. It is this knowledge of the good life that lies beyond Makoko and what it takes to achieve it that lays the framework for her visionary mindset.
It strikes the reader that a lot of effort went into creating this, but it is also one place where the limitations of the novel are glaring. The language is unable to capture the full mindset of the characters in Water Baby in relation to their real life prototypes. From her father to Mama Jumbo, to even Yemoja herself.
At times, their thoughts feel overly constructed, a form of over-performance that disrupts the authenticity. However, the relationships between the characters often reveal something beautiful and compelling. Between Yemoja and her father, we witness a conflict of interest stemming from their differing worldviews; between Yemoja and Mama Jumbo, we see the influence of a woman living beyond conventional boundaries, inspiring a young girl to dream of soaring higher; and between Yemoja and her friends, we experience the gift of love and support, the natural fruits of friendship.
Chioma Okereke’s Water Baby is not only about Yemoja but also about Makoko—the place itself and the enigmatic position it holds within the broader society. It delves into the history of the settlement, how people came to inhabit it over a century ago, and how it gradually became a small, overlooked part of an advancing civilization.
It’s not immediately apparent that the people of Makoko spend their days contemplating these larger historical and societal factors. This is because the narrative is more self-aware, and Okereke succeeds in portraying Makoko as it is perceived by much of the outside world: a group of people seen as poor and impoverished. Yet, to the residents themselves, they are simply human, thriving in a community that is both local and lovable to them.
It provides an inside glimpse into the world of Makoko—a world deeply concerned with its own affairs, despite the urban world’s perception of it as merely an obstacle to its efforts at modernisation.
As the novel progresses, so too do the characters, and the book evolves into a dynamic narrative, revealing its full message as a tale of hope and inspiration. We witness how Yemoja leverages the support of her friends, her community, and those who understand her dreams to achieve her goals.
I would love to see this novelist, with her incredible talent for evocativeness and attention to detail, write a story set in a world she knows more intimately than from the standpoint of observation. Her ability to paint with words and draw out brilliant metaphors from the lives of people and their stories is truly admirable. It would be impressive to read a tale of ‘grass to grace’, even though such stories are becoming rare in contemporary Nigeria.
One of the great things about Chioma Okereke’s Water Baby is that it reminds us of the possibilities of striving towards dreams and the humaneness found in the crevices where the faint light of hope shines through the darkness.
Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera, a writer and community builder, is the author of the novel, “Loss is an Aftertaste of Memories” and the convener of Umuofia Arts and Books Festival.