Little Rot

Content Warning: The novel and this section of the guide contain references to violence, murder, drug use, rape, human trafficking, child abuse, and child sexual abuse.

“Aima knew Ijendu was fond of her godfather—he’d helped her out of a tough spot more than once, and there was nothing to do except laugh and shrug at the things he did, the girls he privately fucked and sponsored while still wearing his wife on his arm in public. All the married men in the city were like that, even the pastors”

This passage describes Ijendu’s godfather, the wealthy and well-known pastor Okinosho. The fact that he is a womanizer is an open secret, illustrating the ubiquity of corruption and immorality in New Lagos. Discretions like infidelity are so widespread as to be expected.

“This city. You think you’ll never be a part of things you hate; you think you’re protected somehow, like the rot won’t ever get to you. Then you wake up one day and you’re chest deep in it, watching some perverted gays at a random party in the highland.”

When Kalu goes to Ahmed’s sex party, he meets a woman who warns him against a sense of complacency toward the darkness and corruption in New Lagos. Throughout the novel, “rot” becomes a metaphor for the city’s corruption and its tendency to ensnare even innocent bystanders. The woman warns Kalu that the “rot” spreads so slowly he won’t see it coming.

“Ahmed stepped forward and his eyes glittered. ‘You’re a client just like those men—you come under my roof, fuck my women, and then think you can lecture me because you walked in on her? She’s lucky, Kalu. She works for me. What about the other ones, the ones you don’t see because your windows are tinted when your car drives past them? They get ripped apart and beaten into a bloody pulp, but what the fuck do you care? You don’t see it, so it doesn’t happen? Don’t fucking come at me. I’m a businessman. I hire whores who are old enough to fuck and I take fucking good care of them!’”

In this passage, Ahmed exposes Kalu’s hypocrisy after he walks in on Machi. Like all the other characters in the novel, Kalu compartmentalizes his experience as part of The Fight to Maintain Moral Integrity—ignoring the sexual violence all around him. It is only when he encounters a situation that it is impossible to look away from that he is moved to act. This passage underscores the convoluted sense of morality that runs through the novel. Ahmed suggests he is a good man because he treats the women he hires well, ignoring the fact that he is perpetuating