Of Burdens and Predestined Encounters | A Review of When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Written by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, When We Were Birds is a poignant and refreshing tale of love, grief and secrets set against a magical background. The two main characters are young people carrying burdens that shape them into distinct yet somewhat relatable characters.

The story follows Emmanuel Darwin, a Nazarene whose search for greener pastures takes him away from home into the bustling and treacherous city of Port Angeles. Port Angeles is a fictional city set in Trinidad that bears a striking resemblance to Lagos, Nigeria and Darwin finds himself taken back by the congested nature of the city, a sentiment that can be shared by anyone arriving in Lagos for the first time.

Darwin’s burden is partly made up of a mother who is unwilling to let her son be soiled by the iniquities of the city that took away his father. The other part of his cross is the vow of the Nazarene, a vow that he breaks to assume work in Fidelis, a graveyard with secrets that lie as deep as the bodies. The story starts with him cutting off his locs, a Samsonian betrayal of his oaths in order to blend into the mirage of Port Angeles. The betrayal of his oath and his mother plague him as he resumes work in the fast-paced city.

His burden becomes heavier when he meets his fellow gravediggers Errol, McIntosh, Cardo, Mikey, and Jamesy whose odd and secretive natures clash with Darwin’s value system. He finally learns about their secrets and the burden becomes so heavy it almost crushes him to death.

Yejide St Bernard, the other half of the love story, is a young woman with a generational burden to bear, a gift and responsibility from a line of women that protect the living and the dead, the corbeaux. Her lifetime so far has been spent seeking crumbs of love from her mother, Petronella who generously gives it in heaps to her dead twin sister Geraldine, in measures to her lover Peter, and to everyone else that asks for it except her very own child.

Yejide’s burden is compounded as Petronella faces the storm of death making her next in line to receive the powers of the St Bernard women. This is a role that she is not ready to assume having received no guidance from her mother.

Darwin and Yejide meet at the peak of the storm, when the burdens they have delicately balanced threaten to crush them. This meeting is so well predestined by fate that it does not matter that the leads get together in the final chapters of the novel because you have been waiting patiently for this.

With Yejide, the voices in Darwin’s head are silenced and he is taken away by how right she feels; her voice and her warmth provide him solace. With Darwin, Yejide feels alive, emboldened with all the love she sought in her lifetime.

But life doesn’t always turn out to be just the way we want it to go and soon, Yejide and Darwin have to confront aspects of themselves before they can be together in the end. Darwin confronts ​the grave digging crew who will stop at nothing to protect their dirty side dealings even if it means burying their problems. Yejide is forced to confront her duties of acting as a conduit for the spirits.

In the end, Darwin lives again, in both metaphor and reality and is able to provide a semblance of closure to his mother concerning his father and settles into his place of loving a woman who is half his and half not. Yejide who has now come fully into her role carries out her duties without sparing others of love.

The beauty of this novel lies within the distinct use of Patois to express the nature and culture of the people and the setting. Banwo’s descriptions are vivid in bringing to life the city, the people, and the magic whilst the storytelling is rhythmic, taking the reader on a journey through the past and into the present while meeting each character.

Although this is a story about love, grief, and responsibility, in subtle ways, the novel speaks to the reality of those that have left home in search of greener pastures and hold fear concerning the uncertainty of their tomorrow through Darwin’s internal struggle. We watch as his responsibilities to his mother as provider fights the desire to remain in the familiar cocoon of Dalia Street.

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