Rite of Passage by Pearl Osibu

“We played together, but Adia’s world was not our world,”. Rite of Passage by Pearl Osibu is a well-crafted fiction that peers into girlhood among two classes in Africa, bearing witness to its untimely undoing. Deftly told through the voice of young Amara, our narrator describes the time she spent with her pesky older sister Chichi and their wealthier friend, Adia. Both sisters have a deep admiration for their lively friend who lives in the lavish house next to their compound. By both employing feminist themes and revealing Amara’s innermost thoughts and feelings to build sympathy her, Osibu’s tale helps readers garner an understanding of how even being in a higher class cannot protect girls and women from patriarchal forces that keep them perpetually vulnerable. Pearl Osibu gives us insight into an unspeakable moment that profoundly affects every character and will surely leave readers with the unmistakable sinking feeling of innocence lost.