Literature

Title: Girl (1984)
Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday
and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in
very hot sweet oil; soak your little clothes right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make
yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum on it, because that way it won’t hold up well
after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna1 in Sunday
School?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try
to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday School;
you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will
follow you; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a
button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a
dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know
you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a
crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you
grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen,
make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you
sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you
smile to someone you don’t like too much; this ishow you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is
how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a
table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a
table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men
who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned
you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to
play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something;
don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread
pudding; this is how to make doukona;2 this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good
medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes
a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something
bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man,
and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up;
this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on
you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker
won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman
who the baker won’t let near the bread?