What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky

In this fairy tale, young women create children out of materials they gather. When others see the created baby, they perform a traditional call-and-response song to bring the child to life. For a year, the mother must care for this creature until it becomes a flesh-and-bone child. The material used to form the baby in part determines the character of the person it will become.

Ogechi herself was made from mud, utilitarian and basic, but wants her child to be pretty, lighthearted, and lovable. She tries yarn, which women living in more comfortable circumstances often use, but the yarn baby snags on a nail and unravels. On a bus ride, Ogechi resentfully watches two basket weavers with babies made of woven raffia. The other riders praise the women for their handiwork and sing the traditional song.

She recalls her first attempts at making a baby. She used cotton tufts and then paper, but her mother destroyed both, saying that she needed one made of harder stuff to face a life of work. They fought, and Ogechi ran away.

Ogechi works at a hair salon owned by a businesswoman (“Mama”) who also runs a service that blesses the babies of motherless young women.