Critical Anlysis of Faceless ; Summary, Themes, Character

14-year-old Fofo is a street child living in a part of Accra named “Sodom and Gomorrha,” a place that is not good for anybody, least of all to children. Fofo has made it her task to find out what happened to her sister, Baby T, who was found dumped behind a marketplace, beaten and mutilated. Baby T. was the third child of Ma Tsumu, and was born after a brutal beating intended to abort the baby. Her father disappeared, leaving Ma Tsumu to fend for herself with four children. Soon Ma Tsumu found a new lover to share her bed, Kpakpo, who is good-for-nothing and earns his keep by “dubious” means.

Not willing to accept the presence of the new lover, the two brothers leave home. Soon after, Baby T. is sexually abused by Kpakpo. Hurt and confused, the twelve year old girl doesn’t confide in her mother, but instead in a family friend, Onko, who in turn rapes her. Ma Tsumu who then learns about the tragedy finds herself unable to do anything but take money from Onko, who continues to live in the same compound as Baby T. The situation is untenable. Kpakpo suggests that Baby T be sold into prostitution. The theme of discrimination against women is always present in this story. Baby T is representative of the sins visited upon all women in a society where they are discriminated against from birth. There is a note of home in the landscape of the story, when Baby T’s sister Fofo meets with a group of women who run an institution that documents issues called MUTE. The four women are inspired by the plight of Fofo and convert their library center into a practical street initiative 

The story begins with a street child, Fofo who earns her livelihood by washing vegetables and pick pocketing. She befriends another street child, Odarley and together they brace themselves for the harsh treatment of the streets. Fofo is nearly raped by Poison (the street lord) and is left with many unanswered questions. She is later hit with a blow of the death of her sister Baby T who is brutally murdered and dumped at the market square. This tragic loss leads her into the pursuit of justice and vengeance for the death of Baby T. After the perseverance of MUTE and Sylv Po, an epidemic is uncovered and the details of the fate of thousands of street children are laid bare. The perpetrators are then identified and the source of streetism discovered. Fofo is given a second chance to live a better life and her dream is actualized. The text is divided into three books.

Darko recounts the alarming situation of the complex details of street children and slum life in Accra with a fourteen year old girl Fofo being a victim of streetism. In book one, many issues and activities are put forth by the writer to arouse the interest of readers. The main theme of the text which is streetism is highlighted and emphasized. Some activities of those on the streets like prostitution and survival of the fittest is also unveiled. Mention is also made of people who would want to assist and support those on the streets. The major and minor characters in the book from Fofo who is the major character, her family, what led her into streetism, her activities on the streets, dreams and aspirations, the turn around and how it happened. Maa Tsuru, her activities ranging from giving birth to many children, her inability to take care of them, helplessness and irresponsibility amongst others are introduced.

In this book, the author records Maa Turu‟s relationship with Kwei and the superstitious beliefs of the African man which to a larger extent was made to believe that the fertility of Maa Tsuru is even considered a curse. Amma Darko illustrated the events that occurred after Kwei left the scene and went on to introduce Nii Kpakpo as the new lover. The devilish acts of Kpakpo are brought to bear in his bid to sleep with mother and daughter. In this same book, the way Fofo and Baby T came by their names is explained.

This book also opens and because it is the last in Faceless, it involves a lot of lessons. It begins with Kabria battling with her VW beetle popularly known as “creamy” which has been problematic to Kabria. In this book, there is a whole lot of action as MUTE, Sylv Po and Harvest fm gets down into action. Investigations into the death of Baby T have begun. All necessary quarters that must be contacted to help the investigation is on course 

Theme Analysis

 The women in this novel bore the hardship inflicted on them by the male characters who were mostly absent fathers, murderers and rapists. For instance, Kwei, Maa Tsuru’s lover and the father of her first four children abandoned her simply because of the superstitious belief that she was cursed. Poison the street lord brutally assaulted Baby T and even attempted to rape Fofo. Kpakpo and Onko took advantage of Baby T and defiled her. In fact, Kpapkpo masterminded Baby T’s venture into prostitution.  

Theme Analysis

This is a crime of harming a child, physically, sexually or emotionally. The first instance of childabuse in the novel is Poison's attempted rape of Fofo. Fofo, a fourteen-year old girl, decides tosleep in an open shade at Agbogbloshie Market in order to wake up early for her job of washingcarrots. Poison tries to rape her there.Another manifestations of child abuse is what Nii Kpakpo and Onko do to Baby. Nii Kpakpofondles Baby's private parts while Onko rapes her.When Fofo catches her stepfather fondling Baby T, she confides in Onko. Onko takes advantage of what Nii Kpakpo does to Baby and rape sthe girl.To cap it all, child abuse lays the foundation for the tragedy in the novel. It is child abuse that lays the foundation for the death of Baby T. As we can see, the rape of Baby by Onko makes her mother to send her to Mama Abidjan; from Mama Abidjan to another madame, Maami Broni. Itis in Maami Broni's hand that Baby becomes a prostitute. Baby falls into a wicked hand ofPoison who becomes her pimp. Baby T's child abuse ends in death. When Baby refuses to sleepwith Onko, Poison becomes furious. Baby finally dies from the merciless beating she receivesfrom Poison. Also, child abuse makes Poison become a bully and an aggressive person. Throughflashback, we are told that Poison used to live in one room with his stepfather, mother and fivesiblings. Poison suffers torture in his stepfather's hands; the man is constantly beating him.When the torture becomes unbearable for Poison, he runs away from home at eight years. Hebecomes a street boy, surviving in the street. He grows up to become a street lord and villain. 

Theme Analysis

Another important theme that runs through the novel is streetism chiefly represented by the life in Sodom and Gomorrah, a slum in Accra. Faceless portrays the rising menace of street life and its many underlying issues namely, rape, violence, broken home, theft, dirt, poverty, AIDS and illiteracy.

Theme Analysis

The theme of parental neglect runs through the novel. All the child characters on the street in Faceless were neglected by their parents. Fofo, Baby T, Odarley, Poison were all victims of parental neglect.  

Theme Analysis

The novel shows how strongly held superstitious beliefs affect society’s perception. It was believed that Maa Tsuru’s predicament was as a result of the curse placed on her at birth. Maa Tsuru herself believed this. Faceless illustrates the fact that superstitious beliefs often becloud people’s sense of judgment.

Theme Analysis

The author portrays the weakness of government institutions and lack of confidence in the system. MUTE had to open investigations into Baby T’s case because the police authorities were not interested in the matter. The police authorities lacked basic work tools due to years of neglect by the government. 

11. Friendship 

Theme Analysis

many of these children depend on each other to survive, through friendsip they keep eachother alive and help each other to overcome everyday obstacles.

Life on the streets is very difficult and friendships make it easier, especially for the youth.

Character Analysis

Fofo is one of the four children Maa Tsuru had with Kwei. She is their second daughter and hence a younger sister to Baby T, the girl who was killed and had her face disfigured to hide her true identity. Just like her elder sister, Fofo also ended up on the streets. At the age of fourteen, she was already a hardened hustler at Agbogbloshie market. The situation on the streets had made an adult out of young Fofo. She had little time to behave as a child. She must do what she must in order to survive the streets. This is seen in the manner in which she warded off the attempted rape on her.

Fofo naturally made conscious effort to move away from life on the streets by associating with members of MUTE. The gloom that clouded Fofo’s life from the beginning becomes slowly dispelled by the end of the novel. Fofo can best be described as a product of her environment. With an irresponsible father and an impoverished yet fertile mother, she had to live through what she can legally or illegally do; that is the Fofo readers see on the streets. But readers appreciate her softer and child-like side after associating with MUTE.

Life on the streets was not easy but Baby T eased her through it. Fofo recalled one of Baby T’s life quotes about hunger, “…for hunger, you either took charge of it or it will gain control of you…” (pg. 101). Fofo can also be described as a hardworking individual. As a child she initially worked with Baby T to support their mother’s odd jobs as stated by the narrator, “…Fofo and Baby T were also bringing home money from the streets…” (Pg. 129). And Fofo serves as a very frank and straightforward person. This is seen when she visited her mother in the company of Kabria and Sylv Po. Fofo expressed her displeasure at her mother’s decision to stay with Kpakpo which inadvertently pushed her two brothers, Baby T and her away on to the streets (pg. 158). As Maa Tsuru tried to answer that she cared enough about them, Fofo said sharply, “…Please mother…don’t say what you don’t know…” (Pg. 158). Through Fofo, the writer sought to portray a hopeful future for street children and make a statement about parental responsibility.

BABY T 

Character Analysis

She is the eldest daughter of Maa Tsuru and obviously a sister to Fofo. After getting raped by Onko, her mother made a rash decision to send her away to prevent any such occurrence. This finally brought Baby T to the heart of street life. Through Kpakpo, an arrangement between Mama Abijan, the retired prostitute and Maami Broni, Baby T ended with the latter in her ‘night business’. As all the street workers were under street lords, Baby T was under the patronage of Poison. Prostitution as a job for Baby T stripped her of her innocence. Her innocent self could not handle prostitution but Maami Broni introduce her to the ‘devil’s weed’ to keep guilt and self-pity at bay (pg. 191). A struggle between Baby T and Onko ended in the former’s death. As death was not good for business, Poison made arrangements to disguise Baby T’s dead body by mutilating the face and shaving all her hair. All this was done so her identity may be confused with a head potter or ‘kayayo’ or a girl from the north that no one knew. Thankfully, Fofo had privy knowledge and helped identify her. Baby T informs the title of the novel. 

Character Analysis

Maa Tsuru served as the character of notable characters such as Baby T and Fofo. In the novel, she is believed to have been cursed. A curse emanating from her a bitter and dying teenage mother whose anger was directed at the irresponsible man who never accepted her responsibility for getting her pregnant before her puberty rite ceremony. As Naa Yomo frankly expressed, this curse may have had effect but also, Maa Tsuru believed it too much to her own detriment. This supposed curse made her believed that no one can love or even like her. Thus, this resulted in her emotional dependence on any man that came her way. Her on and off relationship with Kwei produced four children and unsurprisingly, Kwei bolted to prevent a superstitious fifth child with her. The lonely Maa Tsuru accepted another irresponsible man Kpakpo even though that resulted in her detachment from her children. She lost her children mostly because she wanted an inner emotional need to be satisfied and it never mattered to her the dire consequences.

Character Analysis

Kabria in the novel is married to Adade with whom she had three children-Obea, Essie, Ottu. She also works with MUTE, an organization created by Dina to help collect rare data and attend to social issues. She served as Fofo’s saviour and through her Fofo got the shot to leave the streets for good. Through her intellect also, the culprits behind Baby T’s death were revealed. She is intelligent and reflective and these served as pivotal traits that helped resolve the murder.

Character Analysis

She is the head of MUTE and her leadership inspired her workers to unravel a complicated murder case that even the under resourced police force had neglected. She also facilitated Fofo’s reintegration back to normalcy by accepting her in her home before she enrolled as part of the rehabilitation program.

Character Analysis

This character’s name is a corrupted version of ‘uncle’. He was the father figure in Naa Yomo’s household. From the beginning, he had the trust of all the children and this is the same reason that made it chilling news as it became clear that he had raped Baby T. As if that was not enough for him to lose the respect of readers, his further advances and eventual declaration that he loved the then less than twelve year old Baby T made matters worse for him. He sought an impractical solution to the dwindling of his business by visiting a juju man who demanded among other things, the pubic hair of Baby T. The ensuing struggle resulted in the death of Baby T. He took the cowardly way out and committed suicide in the end.

Character Analysis

Poison is the street lord who controls among other criminal activities, prostitution on the streets in the novel. Maame Broni and Baby T were under him and almost everybody on the street knew how vicious he could be and no one dared disobeyed him. His history makes it clear that he grew up in an abusive home. Thus, the way he is on the streets is no surprise to readers. He moved to the streets a shy eight year old boy and gradually worked his way up the chain to attain the fearsome reputation he has in the novel. He was partially to be blamed for the death of Baby T as he forced the girl to go into the same room with Onko. But as a business man that he thought he was, he saw that the best way to continue his business was to keep himself and his crew away from the death by insisting on the use of wrong identity for Baby T. He took steps to ensure this until Fofo could not keep quiet and informed members of MUTE about the real identity of Baby T. He is used by the author to symbolise the bullies on the streets who make life hell for innocent children on the streets.

Character Analysis

She is an 87 year old woman who is the head of the house in which Maa Tsuru lived. Seen when Kabria and Vickie went on a mission to know more about Fofo’s family, she proved useful as a source of information. She introduced readers to the supposed curse that had affected Maa Tsuru. She proves an information fountain and she proved useful as she instructed the previously reluctant Maa Tsuru to open up to members from MUTE. 

The narrative style is straightforward. As the story revolves around Baby T, the author manipulates it to create suspense in the mind of the reader.

The diction of the prose is simple and quite understandable. Any layman can grasped the line of the story without much stress.

Humor: this technique in a way creates a comic relief and is evident in the actions of Kabria:

description of how her son Obea grows rapidly

the conversation she overheard between two women on her way to Naa Yomo’s house

Her experience of the blind woman that rained abuses on her.

flashback/reminiscence

This technique was used when the fifteen years life experience of Maa Tsuru was narrated and when Naa Yomo told a story of her life up to when Maa Tsuru was born.