Tomi Adeyemi’s young adult fantasy novel is about a young girl, Zélie. Zélie is a magic wielding, Maji. With the Maji people under great oppression, Zélie takes on the task to bring magic back with her brother, Tzain and the Orisha princess, Amari. On this journey they are pursued by Amari’s brother, and prince of Orisha, Inan. Inan is going through change in which he is turning into the very thing he hates, a Maji. Adeyemi adds an author’s note at the end of this novel, stating why she wrote this story. In this author’s notes Adeyemi writes, “Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it” (526). Adeyemi wrote this fantasy with the intention to help her readers be the change that she hopes to be. This novel is not just about magic and adventure but is also about police brutality and today’s racial issues in United States society. While looking at Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone through a series of theory lenses, it becomes clear that Adeyemi is using this novel as a call to action for her readers. This call to action is meant to encourage her readers to take a stand agains racial discrimination and to educate her readers on police brutality. Adeyemi takes the reader into this fantasy novel, but ultimately brings us back to the reality of racism in the United States. Adeyemi shares this message through Inan’s fear, false lenses, and dreamscapes. She also shares this message through Saran’s influence over the Orisha guards and abuse of power.
Through the character, Inan, Adeyemi displays how fear impacts racial issues and stereotypes. From a young age Inan was taught to hate all Maji and Diviners. Edward Said writes about the “other” or the Orient in his book, Orientalism, “The corporate institution for dealing with the Orient-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short Orientalism as a Western style for dominating restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (3). When a culture is deemed an “other” people can develop false lenses regarding how they perceive that culture. This idea of an “other” can lead people to fear and stereotype the “other” culture. Inan develops a false lens when looking at the Maji and Diviners. This false lens stems from his very bias opinion that is based off the limited and one-side information that he has on the people with magic, given by his father. Within this false lens Inan believes that people with magic are evil, dangerous, and somewhat unhuman, which ultimately leads him to fear the Maji. Inan’s view of the Maji people is shaken once he meets Zelie. Zelie leads Inan to realize that he should not blindly believe what his father had taught him over the years.
Inan’s false lens does not only make him hate people with magic, but to also fear them. Overall, this fear is more dangerous that his hate. Once Inan begins to realize that he is becoming a Maji he first shows hate and blame towards Zelie. The main emotion that Inan feels, however, is fear of himself. He becomes what he has been taught to hate and fear. There are times that Inan’s false lens of the Maji are shattered during his journey to becoming a Maji. One of these instances is when Inan examines Zelie's mind, “It’s like seeing her for the first time: the human behind the Maji. Fear embedded in the pain. Tragedy caused in Father’s name. Father… the truth sears, a bitter liquor burning down my throat. Zélie’s memories don’t hold the villains Father always warned of. Only families he tore apart” (286). This is the first time that Inan looks past his false lens that his father created. This new view begins to change how he sees the Maji people. During these times, Inan changes from being viewed as the villain to one of the heroes. He begins to help Zelie in her journey to free the Maji and release their power and forms a romantic relationship with Zelie. For a while it seems that Inan’s intentions are pure and that he really has begun to see past the thick lens that Saran had given him. However, once Saran is back in his life Inan goes through a major decline back into his old ways. Although he has lost his hate towards the Maji, and even loves a Maji, Inan has not lost his fear. This is a critical part in this novel because through Inan’s journey Adeyemi shows how dangerous fear can be. Not only how dangerous fear is, but that it can be even more dangerous than hate.
Inan’s false lens is very similar to the westernized false lens that people in the United States might have towards the black community. Once again, Edward Said’s idea of the “other” is very critical when examining the westernized false lens. The idea of the “other” can stem from a variety of different reasons, but there are certain things that can add to giving certain groups the title of “other”. Stereotyping is a large factor in creating a culture that might be considered an “other”. Cassandra Chaney writes in “Racism and Police Brutality in America” about an intense form of stereotyping the black community,
Negrophobia can be surmised as an irrational of Blacks, which includes a fear of being victimized by Blacks, that can result in Whites shooting or harming an African- American based on criminal/racial stereotypes (Armour 1997). The aforementioned racialized stereotypical assumptions can be deleterious because they can be used by Whites to justify shooting a Black person on the slightest of pretense (482)
The false lens that is directed towards the black community could result in fear. The ultimate issue, however, that Chaney is addressing is that police are using this idea of fear as an excuse to ultimately abuse their power and commit police brutality. According to research Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white man. (Edwards). These statistics reflect the stereotyping and racism that can lead to police brutality. This fear is a direct result of stereotyping which then creates a false lens towards the black community.
Inan develops a false lens through his father’s teaching, but he also creates a false lens himself. As Inan continues in his journey into a Maji and his powers of the mind grow, he creates his own dreamscape. When Inan enters this dreamscape, he brings Zelie into it with him. The dreamscape is not physically a real place and is instead a figment of Inan’s imagination combined with his magical abilities to control other people minds. At first, Inan feels trapped within this unknown land of his mind. He is out of control, and ultimately terrified of his power. As his powers and love for Zelie develop the dreamscape land changes into a land that Inan and Zelie can escape to. Instead of fearing the dreamscape Inan craves it to escape reality. In creating this land that he can escape to Inan develops a false lens of the reality of his situation, which is, he is becoming the very thing he hates and is falling in love with the person his father sent him to destroy. On one hand, Inan is growing within this dreamscape. In this land he begins to lose his hatred for the Maji people. Through Inan’s growth in the dreamscape Adeyemi gives the readers the impression that Inan goes through a change in this novel, while, he does go through a change within the dreamscape, in the setting of reality he does not go through a change. The lack of change in Inan is revealed when he sees the Maji, Kwame, destroy a village with his out-of-control fire. Once Inan sees this he falls back into his original fear of the Maji. This, what seems to be, backslide continues when Inan is reunited with his father.
Although Inan’s dreamscape that he creates with his powers is the most obvious escape from reality in this novel, there is another form of a dreamscape in this novel. Inan and Zelie create a dreamscape together through their dreams of a new Orisha. In this Orisha, Maji are not discriminated but are instead included and accepted. Inan believes that if he and Zelie were to get married that it would unite the two different cultures. This dream that these two characters create together is a form of utopia that they hope their world will become. In a similar way to Inan’s magical dreamscape, this dream falls apart once these two characters are exposed to reality. When Zelie and Inan create this dream together they are at a Maji camp where they are disconnected from the real issues of their world. The instant that this dream is challenged, and they are exposed to the issues in their world their dream falls apart. Inan does not follow through with the dream and instead allows Zelie to be tortured, her father to get killed, and he even goes as far to destroy the scroll in attempt to kill magic.
Through the failures of both dreamscapes Adeyemi brings to light the issue of dreams versus reality. Adeyemi reveals to the reader that dreams do not result in change. Although Inan and Zelie both get involved in these dreamscapes Inan does not take any real action to change the dream into a reality. Although it is gratifying to have dreams of a better world there is no reality to the dream unless action is taken to make it reality. Adeyemi speaks to the reader through this novel and creates a call to action to not just dream of change, but to be the change. In the author note Adeyemi writes, “This is just one of the many problems plaguing our world and there are so many days when these problems still feel bigger than us, but let this book be proof that you can always do something to fight back” (527). The dreamscapes represent that change that is possible, but not acted on. But Adeyemi is calling to the readers to not fall into the same trap as Inan, and to instead be the change that can make the dream a reality.
The power structure and abuse of power in Orisha is extremely relevant and irrefutable. King Saran created this power structure by giving rise to the Raid against the Maji people. By leading the Raid against the Maji Saran was able to gain all the power in Orisha. He also created a system in which the Maji people were treated and considered lesser than the Orishans that were not Maji. Once the Maji people became thought of as an “other” the abuse of power continued to evolve and get worse over time. The Orisha guards are the clearest example of this abuse of power. King Saran set an example that the Maji are lesser than everybody else when he led the raid. Because of the example set by Saran, the Orisha guards believe that it is appropriate to mistreat and overall abuse their power over the Maji people. This reflects on how much influence the king has over the people, and more importantly the people with power, like the Orisha guards.
The idea of influence can be applied to today’s racial issues in the United States. People with both power and influence must set an example of unity and avoid setting up the Black community as “others”. If people with power mistreat the black community, they also might be influencing others that it is okay to mistreat the black community. More importantly these negative influencers can lead to some police to believe that they can use their power in an abusive fashion towards the black community, ultimately leading to police brutality. King Saran created an example for the Orisha guards that it was okay to mistreat the Maji people. James Miles writes in “They Don’t Really Care About Us” about the accountability of the men and women who partake in police brutality, “We are routinely murdered by the police, and they are rarely indicted or even disciplined. If this persists, police officers will continue to believe that their actions are correct and that there should be no punitive consequences” (121). Miles is addressing the issue that these police are not being held accountable for their action. Regarding this novel Saran is not holding the guards accountable for mistreating the Maji people because he also mistreats and sets the example of hate towards this culture. This is where once again, Adeyemi is giving a call to action towards her readers, and in this moment towards her readers that have the power to be influencers. This is calling the influencers to lead by example and to not treat different races as “others” like Saran does in this novel. If United States leaders, influencers and people with power choose to be a change others will follow. And unlike the followers of Saran, this novel is pushing for a change that is a positive use of power and influence.
The Orisha guards in this novel represent the police brutality that is occurring in the United States. In the author’s note at the end of this novel Adeyemi writes about her inspiration for this novel. She addresses the police brutality and points out specific people from the black community who were killed by police. One of these was a black male child names Tamir Rice. Miles also writes about the video that was release of Tamir’s death in his journal article,
In it, a police car pulls up outside of the park, where we can see Tamir. Within two seconds, he is shot by a policeman, who was not charged with murder or any other malfeasance. The shooting was ruled justifiable. Justifiable. A 12-year-old boy shot, and then allowed to bleed to death; even when caught on video, a person of color can be murdered by police, without any repercussions. They don’t really care about us (122).
Adeyemi wrote this novel and her author’s note so that the readers would know about victims of police brutality, like Tamir. When reading this novel there are examples of children getting killed, beat, and mistreated by the Orisha guards. And while reading about those fictional characters the readers can feel the emotion and tie them to the real-life issues of racism in the United States.
Adeyemi creates a fantasy world, where there are magic and fantasy animals, yet still finds a way to bring the reader back into the realm of reality. While reading this it is hard not to ask, why fantasy? Using a fantasy novel as her platform Adeyemi can grab her readers attention and ultimately force them to hear her call to action. As a reader I thought I was simply reading a fantasy novel about magic, until Adeyemi drew me into her true reason for this novel through her authors note. I then reflected on different aspects of this novel like Inan’s false lens, his dreamscapes, and Saran’s abuse of power in relation to the Orisha guards and realized that they had that deeper meaning towards racial discrimination and police brutality. Greta Christina write in an article about the importance of listening instead of speaking when it comes to racism in the United States, “It means that whatever talking we do is peripheral, done in service of understanding and amplifying. And sometimes—much of the time—it means shutting our mouths, and opening our minds” (34). In the end therefore this novel is so effective in the fantasy genre. This novel brings the reader into a fantasy world which drives the reader to think about these issues silently and without their bias of the issue because it seems at first glance to be a fantasy. It is not until the authors note that the reader will fully discover what they just read, where the fantasy becomes reality.
Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone is a fantasy novel but is meant to be so much more than a form of entertainment. This is a story for readers to discover the racial issues that are depicted in this novel are issues that are extremely relevant today in the United States. The Orisha guards are not simply guards, they are a representation of police brutality that happens every day. Inan and Zélie’s dreamscape is not just a beautiful idea of a utopia but is a call to action to take the step towards change instead of just hoping for the change. King Saran is not just a villain in a novel but is instead a representation of how negative influencers with power can lead to abusive power and the “othering” of different races. This novel is meant to educate the reader in empathy for the characters within the book. In the author’s note Adeyemi writes, “As Zélie says in the ritual, “Abogbo wa ni omo rèe nínú èjè áti Egungun.” We are all the children of blood and bone. And just like Zélie and Amari, we have the power to change the evils in the world. We’ve been knocked down for far too long. Now let’s rise” (527). Adeyemi is calling her readers to action to be the change in the United States that is desperately needed to unite and treat each other equally, with mutual respect and love.
Work Cited
Adeyemi, Tomi. Children of Blood and Bone. Henry Holt and company, 2018, pp. 3-523.
---, Tomi. “Author’s Note”, Children of Blood and Bone. Henry Hold and Company, 2018, pp. 526-27.
Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray Robertson. “Racism and Police Brutality in America.” Journal of
African American Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 480–505.
Christina, Greta. “The Part about Black Lives Mattering Where White People Shut up and
Listen.” Humanist, vol. 75, no. 4, July 2015, pp. 34–35.
Edwards, Frank, et al. “Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the United States by Age,
Race–ethnicity, and Sex.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America, vol. 116, no. 34, Aug. 2019, pp. 16793–16798.
Miles, James. “They Don’t Really Care About Us.” Teaching Artist Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, Apr.
2016, pp. 120–125.
Said, Edward. “Introduction”, Orientalism.
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