Stay With Me

Adébáyọ̀ uses a blend of Yorùbá and Christian signs and miracles as a motif to explore The Power of Self-Deception and The Vulnerability of Hope Amidst Tragedies. Yejide’s desire for a child is so strong that she rejects the science of her university education and instead seeks the help of Prophet Josiah, who promises her a child even if no man touches her. She believes in her transformative experience on the mountain, where ritual, thirst, and hunger help her see a real transformation of a swaddled goat into a child. Her subsequent pseudocyesis is equal parts miracle and self-deception: Even when confronted with negative ultrasounds, her faith in the miracle and belief in her own body’s signs allow her to persist in the delusion, which serves as a catalyst for Akin to ask Dotun to impregnate her.

Yejide’s belief that she has missed signs of Olamide’s illness, as well as Sesan’s death despite his foot-first birth being a sign of prosperity, undermine her faith in positive signs and miracles. She ultimately abandons Rotimi, seeing in her other children’s death and suffering a sign that Rotimi is destined to die. While signs and symbols initially support Yejide’s willingness to deceive herself and maintain hope, after repeated tragedies, they have the opposite effect, revealing the limits of hope and faith.