Family

Who is family? Nhamo starts out with blood relatives, her aunts and cousins, and particularly her grandmother. She has no parents. This extended family takes care of her because they have to, because she has nobody else, but aside from Grandmother and Masvita, they don't seem to love her as a family should. They want to marry her into a family that will probably destroy her. Modern Americans think of marriage as starting a family, but this marriage would not only take Nhamo away from her family, it would also be the end of her.

Setting off to find her father's family is a way to escape, and also a way to embrace her culture. In Nhamo's world, a person belongs to their father's family, so Nhamo is seeking where she truly belongs.

The baboon family she observes on the big island reminds Nhamo how families ought to...