Religion In Okorafor's Lagoon

Okorafor’s novel, Lagoon, depicts religion as causing both an internal and external conflict between several of the characters. First off, Father Oke is a major player in the portrait of Christianity. Father Oke is the bishop that Chris turns to when he is fighting with Adaora. Father Oke isn’t the typical man that comes to mind when you think of a “Holy Man”. He owns several nice cars, wears expensive clothing and is simply in the business for the money. The gateman at Chris and Adaora’s house said, “even though he was Muslim, he had nothing against Christians. But a Bishop displaying such extravagance seemed wrong” (41). As we can tell from the gateman’s observation of the bishop, it was obvious that he wasn’t afraid to hide his wealth. However,

Similarly to Father Oke, she was a hypocrite. She was a prostitute who called herself a follower of God. However after all that had been going on in Lagos, she wanted to be taken by the water like the other three people in order to get away from everything. Before she dives into the water she asks herself “What have I done that is so terrible? Selling my body? It is just a body. I have a pure heart” (130). She is struggling with why everything is going so wrong and she claims that she is still a good person because she only sells her body, not her whole person. After Fisayo unsuccessfully tried to drown herself, she stated walking around Lagos with a sign that said, “REPENT. LAGOS WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED!” (177). She is ultimately trying to saver herself before God because she feels guilty for being a prostitute. But like many of the other people in Lagos, Fisayo started to go crazy. She shot and killed a little boy because she thought he was an alien and thus Fisayo ended up being killed by Ayodele. Fisayo’s character is a critique of Christianity because she calls herself a Christian but still works as a prostitute and kills innocent

The first way traditional spirituality is shown is through Legba. Legba is an Igbo American visiting his grandparents in Lagos. He spends his time in a Cyber Café with his cousins participating in Nigerian Internet Fraud, 419. He gave himself the code name “Legba” because Legba is the “Yoruba trickster god of language, communication, and the crossroads” (194). He didn’t think he would be caught because “who would suspect an Igbo guy who was American using the name of a Yoruba god?” (195). He thought he was in the clear from being caught since he was an American man with religious names. However that was soon going to be the least of his worries. The room suddenly shook and everything came tumbling down. As Legba was pinned under rubbish he noticed something massive coming through the hole in the wall where the door used to be. Legba suddenly realized it was Ijele, the Chief of all Masquerades, Igbo royalty. Legba said, “One of the greatest spirits of Nigeria had come. While the alien was speaking, we were focused on our own things, on getting what we could get” (199). Legba is saying there were too caught up in their own world to realize everything that was going on in Lagos. But by the Ijele coming, he was woken up. He said, “I will never practice fraud again. Never. I swear” (199). The traditional spirituality of Legba and the Igbo people came to