Summary and Analysis of OGADIMMA:THE DIARY OF A HOUSEMAID - Chigbo Ugwuoke

  OGADIMMA: THE DIARY OF A HOUSEMAID 

A COMPLETE ANALYSIS

SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL 

The Novel Ogadimma: The diary of a Housemaid opens with Mabel who is upset at how her four year old son, Prince eats and stains the clothing on the dining. 

Then she calls out to Ogadi to hurry up or they will be late for her graduation ceremony as a medical doctor. Ogadi searches for her clearance slip without which she will not be cleared, and after a period of search, she sees it. She accidentally stumbles upon a cellophane bag that contains items that remainder her of the past. Among these items is her diary which is precious to her. She opens it and flips through.

Subsequence scenes are flashbacks of the past. The next scene is a flash back to when Ogadi is two years old. Her parents have a misunderstanding after her father’s usual consumption of excess alcoholic drink. This attitude upsets Mabel and she recalls how her father had refused to give her out in marriage initially until Ude's dying father requested that an earlier reached agreement be fulfilled and that agreement is to give Mabel to Ude in marriage. This makes her father to give Mabel out to Ude in marriage and that stopped schooling. At 19, she is already the mother of three year old Ogadimma fondly called Ogadi.

A fight broke out because Ude is drunk and threatens to beat Mabel. Mabel fights her way and runs out of the house. As Mabel escapes with Ogadi, she is confronted by Ngozi, Ude's elder sister who forcefully collects Ogadi from her. She insists Mabel leaves if she wants to but not with the child. Mabel returns to her father’s house and attempts to get her daughter failed. Mabel returns back to boarding school after her parents decided she needs to stop being worried about her child.  

On the other hand, Ude gets married to Onome. Onome acts nicely when Ude is around and when he is not around, she maltreats Ogadi. As time goes by Onome who is barren becomes more jealous. Each time she sees that Ude is getting close to Ogadi, it hurts her and makes her hate Ogadi.

 Ude, recalls his relationship with Mabel which he never liked. He recalls that he never loved Mabel but was forced to marry her as part of his father's dying wishes. Even though he does not love Mabel, Ude still cherishes some of her qualities. However, he loves Ogadi so much and always pray that she does not end up useless like himself.

Onome sends Ogadi to hawk vegetables. Ogadi decides to delay and return late. Ude is not happy with this and beats up Onome. Onome is upset and vows to find a way to make sure Ogadi leaves the house completely. Onome pretends to be pregnant and as part of her plans to get rid of Ogadi, Onome suggests she is to be sent to the city to learn catering and baking. Ude is not happy about it but he accepts not knowing the evil scheme Onome has in mind.

Onome introduces Eke to Ude. Eke is to take Ogadi to the city. Ogadi refuses to go with Eke but her father persuaded her with the hope that it is for her good. Ogadi follows Eke amidst tears to the city of Abuja. When they got to Abuja, Eke leaves, leaving Ogadi with a young man who came to meet them at the park. Back at home, Onome had used her fake pregnancy to cajole Ude into living Umeneke village for Akure where she grew up.

The young man from the park, handed Ogadi to Madam Nago. Ogadi is surprised that she is giving buns and cakes to hawk with other girls. 

She does not understand the market terrain like the other girls and gets knocked down by a motorcycle. She loses half of her goods in the process. Madam Nago punishes her for the loss.

 Madam is yet again upset that Ogadi does not make good sales and she threatens to send her back to the village. Ogadi meets Yinka who hawks meat pie and she in turn took her to places where she can make good sales. The other girls are surprised at the sudden changes of Ogadi's sales.

Madam Nago leaves home one morning and forgets to give Ogadi her own ration of the cooked breakfast. Ogadi becomes hungry and ate some of her buns and cake. Madam Nago is upset about it and beats Ogadi seriously after which she asks Ogadi to pack her belong and leave the house. Rather than return to the village as Ogadi intends, Eke tells her to apologise to Madam Nago. Madam Nago forgives her on the grounds that something like that must never happen again

 Ogadi stays at home to do chores instead of Ramatu who is sick. In the process of cleaning, she came across a white substance which she is not sure of. She tastes the white substance and finds out that it is a terrible substance. In no time, her lips becomes swollen and starts to bleed. Madam Nago’s daughter, Cordilla rushes her to the hospital and the kind woman doctor tells her that the white substance she tasted is caustic soda which should be carefully concealed at homes. Ogadi later told Yinka about the nice doctor that treated her and said she wishes to be a doctor which Yinka mocks her by referring to her as a poor child who wants to become a doctor.

Madam Nago takes Cordilla to the church and later to the hospital because she is under spiritual attack. Madam Nago believes that the attack is from one of the girls and she invites a prophet when none of the girls confessed. Ogadi is accused of being a witch simply because she is said to have appeared in Cordilla's dream. Ogadi is asked to pack and leave.

Eke takes Ogadi to a hostel as her new place of work where she does clean-up for 12 ladies’ room who worked at night but sleep all day. Ogadi does not understand the kind of job they do. One particular day, three of the twelve women, Yeyedesmell, Areamama and Gaga take Ogadi out for shopping. Yeyedesmell, one of the three women stole a tiny box and hands it over to innocent Ogadi to keep. As soon as they leave the shop, the sales boy runs after them shouting thief. The women take off and surprise Ogadi who does not know what was going on equally take off. The ladies escape but Ogadi is caught. The owner of the shop, Mrs Bello, comes in time to stop the angry crowd that is about to do jungle justice to Ogadi. She considers Ogadi with sympathy.

In no time two police officers come to take Ogadi to the station in spite of Mrs. Hello intention not to forward the case to the police station.

Ogadi is locked up and later, she is brought before a stern female magistrate. Mrs. Bello tries to make the magistrate go easy on Ogadi but the magistrate is hot-tempered and goes hard and harsh on Mrs. Bello and Ogadi later collapsed from fear. This does not bother the magistrate but goes ahead to sentence Ogadi to five months imprisonment.

Just before Ogadi is taken away, a Hausa man who witnessed the whole incidence showed up. He is given a chance to talk and his story makes the magistrate to release Ogadi for further investigation to take place. Mrs. Bello therefore takes Ogadi to the hospital having sensed a falling health.

Ogadi is surprised when she opens her eyes and sees she is in a cosy place which she later found out to be that of Mrs Bello. Mrs Bello questions Ogadi about her roots and she explains about her village and her father and how Uncle Eke has brought her to the city. She fears Mrs Bello would send her away and so she begs. Mrs Bello promises jot to send her away bit will rather help her re-unite with her parents through the help of the police. Uncle Eke visits Mrs Bello to claim Ogadi but he is told to produce strong evidence other than verbal statement. He leaves and does not return since he has no evidence.

Mrs Bello enrolled Ogadi into school and soon she helps Yinka enrol to the same school as her but through charitable organization that belongs to a friend of Mrs Bello. Through Mrs Bello, this assistance to Yinka is made possible. 

Ogadi’s is in her room doing her assignment then she comes by her torn diary which she thinks needed to be fixed. She murmurs to herself about fixing it and just then, Mrs Bello who has not been feeling too well comes in. She asks Ogadi a few questions about school and then requests to see her torn diary. Ogadi happily gives her and produces a photo of herself, her mother and father. Mrs Bello immediately recognizes the photo and collapsed from shock. She is rushed to the hospital. Ogadi expresses fear as Mrs Bello health gets worse. She decides to pack her things and run away from home thinking she will be held responsible for it since they already told her previously that she is a witch. She runs to Yinka. She is afraid that the police and the magistrate will soon come for her. Just then, Mrs Bello drives to Yinka in search of Ogadi. Ogadi is shocked to see her but Mrs Bello is happy to see Ogadi. She explains that she is Mabel, her true mother. Ogadi is shocked the more. Then she had a mixed feeling for having been abandoned for so long. Mabel takes time to explain to her everything that happened.

PROLOGUE

(Back to the beginning)

A hand touches Ogadi. She was worried that Ogadi wasn’t downstairs yet. With her old diary in her hand, Ogadi turns to at her mother who stands behind her. Ogadi tells her mother that she was just going through her diary’s which reminds her of her terrible past. She tells Ogadi to hurry and assures her that that is in the past. Then she tells Ogadi to hurry and meet them downstairs as Yinka is already waiting.

SETTING

The setting is in two locations – Umeneke village and a city in Abuja.

THEMES

1. Forced Union: The novel condemns the idea of parents forcing life partners on their children. Mabel is just a little girl of about sixteen who is preparing for her SSCE. She is forced to marry Ude, an irresponsible drunkard who does not have any single love for Mabel. In the novel, the readers are made to know that Ude strongly dislike her. Ude's father forces his mart age to Mabel down his throat in hopes that Mabel's ambitious, diligent and homely Character would rub off on him.

2. Impermanence of Condition: From Ogadi’s character, we see that no condition is permanent. After all the hard labour and slavery work performed by Ogadi, she finally finds peace and rest when she meets Mrs Bello who is the same person as Mabel, her mother. The same happens to Yinka, Ogadi’s friend.

3. Deception: Onome and Eke deceive Ude when they lied about Ogadi travel to the city. Eke in conjunction with Onome, take Ogadi to the city to perform tasks quite different from what Ude thinks. Onome also deceived Use when she faked her pregnancy and makes Ude leave Umeneke village for Akure.

4. Child abuse and neglect: Child abuse involves subjecting a child to several in human treatments. In the novel, there are several instances of child abuse. At tender age of nine, Ogadimma is sent to the city as an apprentice. In the house of Madam Nago, Ogadimma and the rest of the maids are starved on daily basis. When Ogadimma eats a few pieces of snakes as a result of hunger in her, Madam Nago flogged her until her waist began to hurt.

5. Determination leads to success in life: Mabel is a typical of a determined character. When Ude divorces her, she still picks up the courage to get her desired goal in life. She gets to Asaba to sit SSCE. Her firm determination makes her a fulfilled lawyer and a successful jewellery store owner.

6. Jealousy: Onome is jealous of Ude's love and closeness to Ogadi and this is what makes her to get rid of Ogadi by planning with Eke to take her to the city. Again, at Madam Nago's house, some of the girls are jealous because Ogadi's sales eventually went beyond theirs. This is the reason there was joy in Ojoma's heart when Ogadi was called a witch and evicted from the house.

7. The importance of keeping memories alive: The novel captures the great importance of recording important events. All the memories  of Ogadimma's life are clearly written in her old little diary. Also, the old family pictures are well preserved by her. It is all those memories which she has preserved that saved her and reunite her with her lovely biological mother.

8. True friendship: Ogadi and Yinka established true friendship because both are open and sincere to each other. Their friendship continues even after they have grown up to the University graduates

9. Kindness: Mrs Bello shows kindness to Ogadi even though she was caught with a box of jewellery that is stolen from her.

10. Indolence: Ude is lazy and this is what forced him into selling almost all the land he inherited from his father, the money which he wasted on alcohol.

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Ude: He is the first husband to Mabel and father to Ogadi. He later remarry Onome after Mabel left. He is a lazy person and a drunkard bit loves Ogadi sincerely.

2. Mabel: she is the first wife of Ude and mother of Ogadi. She is Kind hearted and hardworking. She has great interest in education and this is the major reason why she was not happy she her father asked her to marry Ude. Her kind heartedness is seen when she assisted Yinka to gain admission into the same school as Ogadi.

3. Ogadi: She is the daugher of Ude and Mabel. She is sincere and hardworking girl. She has great interest in education. She is open-minded and trust people easily

4. Onome: Onome is the second wife of Ude after Mabel left. Onome is a pretentious woman. She claims to love Ogadi when Ude is around but does otherwise in his absence. Onome is deceitful. She decides Ude into believing she is pregnant. She also deceived Ude into sending Ogadi to the city.

5. Eke: He is from Umeneke village but based in the city of Abuja. He engages in child labour by taking young village girls to the city to perform odd tasks which he gets paid for.

6. Madam Nago: She is the woman that sends some young girls including Ogadi to hawk buns and cakes. Even though she has children of her own, she lacks motherly feelings going by the way she treats the girls. For instance, she beats Ogadi up when Ogadi is knocked down by motorcycle which makes her lose almost half of her buns and cakes. Her love for money will not allow her to entertain excuses from the girls concerning her business. She is also involved in child labour.

7. Ngozi: She is Ude's elder sister. She supports Ude each time he has a fight with Mabel. She is the one that takes care of Ogadi after Mabel left. She may have had issues with Mabel but she has a motherly feeling.

8. Area Mama, Yeyedesmell and Gaga: They are the three of the twelve women in the hostel whom Ogadi works for. They are into an illicit kind of job which sees them working all night and sleeping all day. They are petty thieves too because they use Ogadi to steal a jewel box from a shop.

9. Yinka: She is Ogadi’s friend. They met each other in the park during their usual hawking. Yinka is from a poor family but she is sincere in her friendship with Ogadi. Their friendship continues after when they have grown into  adults. Both are kind to each other.

Opinion:

Ogadi's sufferings started after her Mum left her marriage. Do you think Mabel should have bear with Ude's excesses?  Send your opinion in to the comment section