The Plantation

Ochuko is Namidi’s only son and youngest child, and one of the innocent figures of the story. He is described as happy and playful, and he seems close to his mother and father along with his older siblings. When he first appears, he is seen through his father’s eyes who, the narrator says, sees his “six-year-old son as he came bouncing toward him from the backyard with the reckless abandon of a child” (79). While Namidi regrets that he cannot give Ochuko an education at the missionary school, Ochuko seems unbothered. He is content to be close to his family. Indeed, in describing his relationship with his older siblings, who are twins, the narrator likens them to “young musketeers” who “would scamper home from an adventure gone awry” (84).

This playfulness and closeness to his family are defining traits, as he’s positioned as a foil to his obsessive, angry father. After Namidi forces the family to join him at the plantation, Namidi orders his son to guard their possessions. Instead, Ochuko and his friend Onome become engrossed in play-acting and imagination. Despite the entertainment offered by the brawling villagers at the site of the pipeline leak, Ochuko begins to play soldiers with Onome until a real explosion breaks the spell of their game. Adagha depicts Ochuko as an imaginative boy, seeing the flames of the explosion as demons chasing him as he flees toward home. He hides beneath his mother’s bed, attempting to find solace in the red hut of his parents. Comfortable within the home that seems poor to his father, Ochuko waits for a family who will likely never return.

Hardworking and resilient, Mama Efe is described as “a thin, shriveled woman with a hardened look about her” (79). Poverty and labor have left their mark, as “toiling in the sun had drawn the skin taut over her cheek-bones” (79). Mama Efe is the moral center of “The Plantation,” an archetypical nourishing and protecting mother. Although she remains silent about the absurdity and consequences of her husband’s plans, she knows that his plan will result in pain. While he is worried about the other villagers stealing his gas, she worries about a more deadly threat—fire—before imagining a pile of bodies burning in the flames. Again and again, Mama Efe thinks to herself about the danger of the leak.

Mama Efe is worn down by her marriage, as Adagha notes that there “was a time when she could have derided or opposed him in some way, but long years of waging battles in her marriage had doused her spirits with meekness and tiredness” (81). This silence should not be confused with weakness, as Ochuko demonstrates her strength and importance. At the end of the story, he hides under her bed to avoid danger and to ensure her return.

Mama Efe’s role suggests that, in the patriarchal ordering of their village, women’s power is implicit and hidden but no less important. There is no more effective an observer, not only of danger but of her husband as well. During Namidi’s conversation with Jackson, she sees that her husband is close to the edge of his anger. While she never has to advocate forcefully against her husband, she can see his folly and greed for what they are.