In the Shadow of War

“At that hour, for the past seven days, a strange woman with a black veil over her head had been going past the house. She went up the village paths, crossed the Express road, and disappeared into the forest.” 

This is how the narrator introduces the veiled woman, and the only information Omovo has of her. A veil shrouds obscures her face, symbolic of the mystery surrounding the woman’s identity and her actions.

“Omovo’s father wiped the sweat off his face with his palm and said, with some bitterness: ‘As if an eclipse will stop this war.’ ‘What is an eclipse?’ Omovo asked. ‘That’s when the world goes dark and strange things happen.’” 

Omovo’s father’s bitter response to the forecasted eclipse shows a sense of hopelessness regarding the country’s civil war: Even a cosmic event with supernatural effects is not enough to put an end to it. This moment also foreshadows the night’s horrific events that Omovo later witnesses.

“They had said she had no shadow. They had said that her feet never touched the ground. As she went past, the children began to throw things at her. She didn’t flinch, didn’t quicken her pace, and didn’t look back.” 

The children of the village who have also seen the veiled woman rumor that she has supernatural powers and seem to fear her. Her lack of reaction heightens her mystery and by incorporating the potential for the supernatural, Okri creates a setting in which reality and truth are called into question.

“The soldiers stared at him. On his way back one of them called him. ‘What’s your name’ he asked. Omovo hesitated, smiled mischievously, and said: ‘Heclipse.’”

Omovo is learning the complexities of truth-telling and lies and this exchange offers an opportunity to experiment with a lie of his own. By calling himself “Heclipse,” he recalls his father’s playful warning that Heclipses eat children (4) and unknowingly foreshadows that that night could be dangerous for him.

“‘Have you seen that woman who covers her face with a black cloth?’ ‘No.’ [...] ‘She is a spy. She helps our enemies. If you see her come and tell us at once, you hear?’ Omovo refused the money and went back upstairs.”

Again, Omovo lies to the soldiers. Even though they believe the woman to be an enemy spy, Omovo does not unquestioningly trust them. As a young child he is exploring his understanding of trust and loyalty, and his dishonesty can be read as an attempt to protect the veiled woman. He understands their offered money to be a bribe and refuses it, demonstrating a sense of integrity for his early age.

“He passed unfinished estates, with their flaking ostentatious signboards and their collapsing fences. He passed an empty cement factory: blocks lay crumbled in heaps and the workers’ sheds were deserted. He passed a baobab tree, under which was the intact skeleton of a large animal.”

Even though there is no active fighting in his village, Omovo sees that the effects of the civil war have reached even the far outskirts of the city. The bleak setting reminds Omovo how the war was a sudden interruption to Nigerian lives and how prolonged this disruption has been. The animal’s skeleton foreshadows the corpses Omovo soon sees at the river.

“The figures surrounded her and touched her and led her into the cave. He heard their weary voices thanking her.” 

Omovo watches the veiled woman leave her red basket in the cave with impoverished women and sick children and from their reaction, learns she has been helping them by bringing them some sort of supplies. Though this does not directly contradict the possibility that she is either a spy or a witch, Omovo sees that regardless of political allegiances, she is risking her own safety to help people who are clearly in need.

“Omovo saw capsized canoes and trailing waterlogged clothes on the dark water. He saw floating items of sacrifice: loaves of bread in polythene wrappings, gourds of food, Coca-Cola cans. When he looked at the canoes again they had changed into the shapes of swollen dead animals. He saw outdated currencies on the riverbank. He noticed the terrible smell in the air.” 

When Omovo reaches the river, he sees even more devastation because of the war. Okri’s addition of olfactory imagery to the already specific visual imagery establishes that death is permeating the air. The change Omovo observes imbues the scene with the possibility of supernatural shapeshifting, but also stresses that Omovo’s childhood naivety is transforming as he is exposed to the gruesome truth of war.

“‘You dis witch! You want to die, eh? Where are [the others]?’ She stayed silent.”

A soldier accuses the woman of being a witch and threatens to kill her if she does not share where “the other” spies are. She confirms nothing, further enhancing the mystery of her identity and her motives. Regardless of who she really is and who she is protecting, for political reasons or not, she remains steadfast in her allegiance to them and is willing to risk her life.

“The fat soldier tore off her veil and threw it to the ground [...] Her head was bald, and disfigured with a deep corrugation. There was a livid gash along the side of her face.”

Omovo sees the soldiers humiliate and assault the woman and without her veil, he sees that her head and face are disfigured. The cause of her wounds is unknown, but she has survived some traumatic injury. The veil served to hide the brutality she experienced and its removal symbolizes the brutality of war made clear to Omovo.

“The lights changed over the forest and for the first time Omovo saw that the dead animals on the river were in fact the corpses of grown men.” 

The changing light suggests that the eclipse is commencing, which, according to Omovo’s father, will trigger strange events and behaviors. This transformation magnifies the sense of magic at play, but also serves as another instance where Omovo is metaphorically enlightened to the realities of war.

“She turned to the fat soldier, drew herself to her fullest height, and spat in his face. Waving the veil in the air, she began to howl dementedly.” 

The woman does not show any fear of the soldiers, standing up to them and their abuse. She never speaks, only howling “dementedly,” which reinforces the idea that she is not merely human, but might have some supernatural powers—especially on the night of the eclipse when “strange things happen” (4).

“The fat soldier wiped his face and lifted the gun to the level of her stomach. A moment before Omovo heard the shot a violent beating of wings just above him scared him from his hiding place.”

Omovo flees before he sees the solider shoot the woman, leaving room for question of the aftermath. The soldier’s choice to shoot the woman shows Omovo how skewed morality can become during times of war, even for those who are expected to do what is right.