Summary

In the chapter “Special Vest,” Fanne has Zainab try on what she calls “the special vest” (250), a “belt with several cylinders attached to it, and some wires sticking out here and there” (250). Fanne explains that upon detonating the vest, Zainab will go to paradise. She emphasizes that this is a special responsibility.

Ya Ta watches one of her husband’s videos, a scene of recruitment as young boys slash men’s throats. She recognizes her brother Jacob as one of the boys in the video. Ya Ta has come to think of Osama as being two people at the same time, the one in the camp and the one at home with her. Word spreads that Ya Ta denounced jihad and Boko Haram; Ya Ta’s husband returns home and beats her. Ya Ta knows that it is Zainab who betrayed her. Zainab...