Ndidi would have been just like any other girl. She wasn’t because she was always sickly.
In her community, they thought she was an ’Ogbanje’, a term used to describe the repeated deaths of infants and children.
During the period that this story was set in, people did not have information about sickle cell disease or what it meant to be a carrier of its trait. As a result, victims of this disease did not receive proper care and treatment. Instead, they were subjected to all sorts of brutality by their families to prevent them from dying.
Ndidi, who had a very bright future ahead of her, was a victim of this disease and a victim of the misinformation that motivated her parents to make the wrong decisions.