AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Falodun women have been cursed for generations.
OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE: (Reading) It will not be well with you. No man will call your house home, and if they try, they will not have peace. Your daughters are cursed. They will pursue men, but the men will be like water in their palms. Your granddaughters will love in vain. Your great-granddaughters will labor for acknowledgment, but they will fall short of other women. Your daughters, your daughters' daughters and all the women to come will suffer for man's sake. (Non-English language spoken).
RASCOE: And this curse is passed down from daughter to daughter to daughter.
BRAITHWAITE: (Reading) Twelve-year-old Ebun told 16-year-old Monife that she didn't believe in curses. That's fine, said Monife between the slow chewing of gum, but what if the curse believes in you?
RASCOE: Monife dies nine years later. On the day she's buried, her cousin Ebun gives birth to a daughter who looks incredibly like the dead woman. That's the plot of "Cursed Daughters," the new novel from Oyinkan Braithwaite, the bestselling author of "My Sister, The Serial Killer." She joins us now. Welcome to the program.
BRAITHWAITE: Thank you so much for having me here, Ayesha. It's good to be here.
RASCOE: This story is really about the youngest three Falodun women - Monife, Ebun and her daughter Eniiyi - who live on the southwestern coast of Nigeria. Tell me about this family and how each of them have come under the shadow of the family curse.
BRAITHWAITE: You know, the curse begins with this gorgeous dark-skinned, confident young woman who sets her sights on this married man, and they spend a passionate night together, and then he's sort of forced to marry her, which obviously his wife is not too happy about. So she promptly curses this young lady.
And, you know, in the book, we see that generation after generation of these women have suffered or believe themselves to be suffering the repercussions of this curse. That's kind of where we meet our characters who are dealing with their belief or unbelief. You know, when they're confronting their womanhood and what their life is going to look like, this is sort of the backdrop of everything that's going on with them.
RASCOE: That curse - I would say it's almost a very insidious curse. It could almost be described as life, you know, because no one is guaranteed an eternal love, right? But then when you have this curse overtop of it, it makes you think every time a relationship fails, that's the curse.
BRAITHWAITE: I mean, I played with the curse on a lot of different levels. On one level, I treated it as it was - a curse in its purest, fantastical form. This is a curse. This exists. And then I was also approaching it from the perspective of generational trauma and what that looks like passing on trauma from child to child, and then also this idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A lot of families deal with things where - for example, there are families who you might be the first one to go to university, but you're not really that confident because you think, my aunt tried it and dropped out. My dad tried it and dropped out. And then if you do end up dropping out, you think, well, it was bound to happen. You know, even though people might not be able to empathize with this particular state of circumstances, I think one can understand the pressure that the legacy of a family can sometimes put on you and what you think that you're able to achieve.
RASCOE: The novel begins with 25-year-old Monife walking into the ocean and drowning. How does her death come to also be a family curse, the way that it haunts the rest of the family?
BRAITHWAITE: On the one hand, I think she's haunting them because they all have some responsibility. But then there's also Eniiyi. There's the birth of Eniiyi, and, you know, she looks the spitting image of Monife, so she's a reminder, but also sometimes she thinks or makes choices that Monife would've made. She's constantly dreaming about Monife, but I think a huge part of it is because they need to contend with this history that they have and also with the mistakes that they made.
RASCOE: Eniiyi - she's the youngest generation, and she studied genetics in school. Monife's mother is very into juju and spirits. How do Christianity, juju and science compete with each other in this family?
BRAITHWAITE: For the most part, it's a Christian family. But I - kind of writing it, I wanted to address the duality that I've seen in Nigeria 'cause I've heard of, you know, people who are practicing Christians outwardly, but juju isn't - it has a lot of negative connotations in Nigeria. So it's not something - if you do practice it, it's not something you are loud and proud about, you know? So you have Christians who do dabble. They might go to church on a Sunday, and then on a Tuesday, they might go to their babalawo and do what they need to do to get what they need to get and could be success, children, marriage, love - whatever it is.
So I definitely wanted to explore that because at least Nigerians consider those two things - it's not supposed to be something that goes side by side. And then with the science aspect of it, just looking at this family and looking at how they engage with the curse, at some point I just realized that I need a character who would go, hey, now, maybe I can find my answers elsewhere in this other opposite.
RASCOE: That brings up the bigger question, and I think Eniiyi is really struggling with this idea of, how does she have her own life? How does she figure out who she is outside of her aunt?
BRAITHWAITE: Yeah. I think even if people don't think you're a reincarnation, I feel like there are loads of people that could empathize with the pressures of expectation in a family and, you know, how you deal with that. I'm the eldest daughter, and, like, putting family first has been drummed into me, like, for as long as I can remember. And then I have three siblings, and the two youngest - sometimes I see them make some decisions, and I'm like, that's allowed?
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Yeah.
BRAITHWAITE: And it's just this idea of balance. Like, how do you choose self and also choose family? Where do you draw the line? How do you do what's best for you, and what does that look like? So I think I was definitely kind of interested in that and just seeing how Eniiyi would deal with the many, many burdens that were on her.
RASCOE: In a note to readers, you say that you're a completely different person than the one who wrote your first novel, "My Sister, The Serial Killer." What did you mean by that?
BRAITHWAITE: When I wrote "My Sister, The Serial Killer" (ph), I was, I think, 29. I was single. I was living with my parents. I wasn't paying any bills. But when I was writing "Cursed Daughters," I was married, pregnant. My dad was staying with my husband and I and dealing with a health diagnosis. I had responsibilities. I was not the author of "My Sister, The Serial Killer" and everything that that had come with.
RASCOE: And so it sounds like you were facing your own pressures of living up to other people's expectations and your own expectations for your life, kind of like Eniiyi. I guess, where do you land on that idea of destiny? Is it possible for Eniiyi or any of us to really shape our own lives?
BRAITHWAITE: I think so. I think that, you know, you fight for the things you want. You fight hard. I've seen people who have labored under generational trauma and generational curses. And I think I would say, if you are laboring under that kind of thing or a system of behavior or legacy that your family has, fight harder. Fight with everything you've got because that doesn't have to be. I don't believe it has to be your destiny.
RASCOE: That's Oyinkan Braithwaite. Her new novel is "Cursed Daughters." Thank you so much for talking with us today.
BRAITHWAITE: Thank you, Ayesha.
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