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.

In the novel, rot is a reoccurring symbol of moral corruption in the fictional city of New Lagos. Rot is something that starts slowly and is almost imperceptible at first. By the time it becomes noticeable, it is often too late to save the rotten thing. Rot also spreads easily, contaminating whatever it touches. Corruption and immorality in New Lagos are similar. At Ahmed’s party, a woman warns Kalu that the city’s “rot” will sneak up on him; even if he thinks he’s “protected somehow, like the rot won’t ever get to [him],” he will “wake up one day and [be] chest deep in it” (34-35). This is exactly what happens to Kalu over the course of the novel. His proximity to corruption and immorality infects him and, before he realizes it, he becomes “part of everything [he] always hated” (273). Having sex with Machi, he feels like Okinosho put “a handful of dead things” in his chest, and now he is “decaying, “rotting,” and “dying” (273).