Review - Caine Prize 2019 - Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria) for ‘Skinned’

© Emily Baxter

Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria) for ‘Skinned’, published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 53 (2018).

Synopsis - Ejem, an unclaimed woman lives her daily life in the nude in keeping with her Igbo tradition of doing so until claimed by a man. Navigating life throughout Nigeria and describing the everyday pressures to settle, marry and maintain a existence as dictated to her by patriarchal society, she crosses paths with Odinaka, a wealthy, unclaimed woman who seemingly flouts tradition on her own terms.


Review - Most interestingly about this short story is the wealth of perspectives we experience in such a small space. Each character is complex and seemingly trying to make sense and convince themselves of the merits of tradition, no matter how painful this may be.


From those in the upper echelons of society such as male politicians who go so far as to argue ‘The only place for unclaimed women, however, as far as most were concerned, was the giant factories, where they would weave cloth for women more fortunate than they’

The most interesting aspect was the multiple perspectives offered by the different women. Taking for example Doreen, an Osu woman who appeared self-assured in owning her nudity as her own, declaring she’ll ‘be goddamned if they make me feel uncomfortable for their law.’ Paradoxically, While on a surface level Odinaka appears to be flouting tradition, her speech is marred by a desire to dominate other women of a lower caste, as is traditionally expected (“You are just like Doreen,” Odinaka continued. “Look, I employ an army of those women. They have a job and they need to do it. You remember how that goes, right?)

Is freedom simply behaving in the same way as a man or reinventing the wheel? Or is independence a mimicry of those who once had more than yourself?

Cloth, like the security of a blanket for a newborn, is a powerful physical motif - it protects, shields from the cold stark reality of the world, and at times, is purely decorative. As with all signifiers of wealth and status, clothing, or lack thereof can be both welcoming and ostricising.