55 pages • 1 hour read
Natasha BowenSkin of the Sea
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Back in the village, the rot has spread at an alarming pace, and the air smells like sickness. Angry people are gathered outside Kola’s home. The crops died overnight, and the people demand answers from the village leader. Kola’s father promises answers the following day, and the guards send the villagers away.
Kola’s father sends Ifedayo, a warrior from the capital who is helping the village, with Simi and the others, and the group prepares for their journey to Esu’s island. Before they board Kola’s ship, Kola sends Issa away. The yumbo doesn’t want to go, but Kola insists, pretending he’s mad so Issa will go home, where he’ll be safe.
Simi has a nightmare about Esu’s island and wakes to find everyone else asleep. Peering out over the water, she realizes they are near the palace of Olokun, the orisa who oversees the land of the dead. She dives into the sea, her tail forming, and swims down until she reaches Olokun’s palace. As a result of trying to drown the world, the orisa is chained to the ocean floor and bitter at his punishment. Simi offers to help him if he gives her his blessing and aid to succeed against Esu. The orisa whispers a request that drips “with venom and revenge” into Simi’s ear (206), and though she’s unsure, she agrees to his terms. The orisa disappears, and Simi swims back up to the ship, where Yinka stands gazing down at her in the water.
Chapter 19 Summary
Aboard the ship, Yinka, Bem, and Ifedayo give Simi odd looks. Kola told them about Simi’s Mami Wata nature while she was gone because they worried about her disappearance. At first, Simi is enraged because it wasn’t Kola’s secret to tell, and the looks from the others appear disgusted. Kola assures her that they understand and just need a chance to “absorb the fact that they are in the company of a daughter of Yemoja” (210). Thinking of it that way makes Simi feel better, and her anger fades. She apologizes for disappearing but can’t bring herself to tell Kola she made a deal with Olokun.
A bit later, Bem and Ifedayo seem less disturbed, but Yinka is still staring at Simi like she’s something strange. Simi asks Yinka to spar, and the girls fight until they are drenched in sweat and laughing together. Yinka is the daughter of a warrior and yearns to be a strong and ruthless as her mother. Later, Simi speaks with Ifedayo about Esu but doesn’t get any straight answers. Something about Ifedayo makes her wonder if he is trustworthy, but she isn’t sure what.
Chapter 20 Summary
Simi hears a noise from below deck, and they find Issa among their extra sacks of food. Kola starts to reprimand him but is cut off by land appearing in the distance. The sight of Esu’s island sobers everyone, and Simi tells an old story of how the orisa tricked a group of nomads. The nomads neglected to pay tribute to Esu, which angered the orisa, and he switched the positions of the sun and moon so the nomads would get lost in the desert. As soon as the nomads prayed to Esu, he fixed the sky, and Simi concludes the orisa is not evil because “he showed them mercy when they showed him respect” (224).
Esu’s island is a mix of sandy beach and gnarled trees surrounding a volcano. The group picks their way through the forest to a river, where they stop to rest, with Simi entering the water to change form. Yinka asks Simi what it feels like to change, admitting she sometimes feels like she becomes something else when she’s fighting. Simi explains how the water takes her memories but also feels like belonging and how the conflict confuses her. Without flinching, Yinka looks directly at Simi and affirms, “I see you” (231).
When they resume the journey, they walk until long after dark, and Simi is limping badly. Kola calls for them to stop and inspects Simi’s feet, wrapping them in healing leaves. He is grateful for everything she’s done, and the look in his eyes terrifies her because it mirrors her own growing feelings. She walks away before he can say anything more. She doesn’t want to explain Yemoja’s warning and knows if he confesses feelings, doing so will be “so much harder than this already is” (233).
Chapters 18-20 Analysis
The angry villagers in Chapter 18 show the irrationality of fear. The unnatural rot came overnight, suggesting the problem has supernatural origins. The people likely know this, but they go to Kola’s father for answers, even though he is human like them and knows no more than they do. The people want someone to fix the problem and look to their leader to do so, as many people would. When Kola’s father doesn’t have an immediate answer, the people get angrier, showing how quickly attitudes can change. The irrationality of fear keeps the people from realizing that there is nothing Kola’s father can do. They see only a leader who did not give them the answer they wanted to hear, which causes discord.
Simi’s visit to Olokun introduces tension to the rest of the story and sets up the sequel. To build suspense, Bowen does not disclose the deal Simi makes here. In myth, Olokun is depicted as male, female, or androgynous. In the Ifá spiritual system, Olokun is depicted as male, showing Bowen’s adherence to the Ifá system throughout Skin of the Sea. Olokun lives in a palace at the bottom of the sea, much like the king of the merpeople in The Little Mermaid. Olokun’s myth is complex and uncertain, but stories of his attempt to flood the world match the history Bowen gives him in the novel. As a result, Olodumare chained Olokun at the bottom of the sea, which prompts Olokun to make a deal with Simi. Desperate to stop Esu, Simi agrees to the terms, and it is later revealed that she agreed to live with Olokun in the realm of the dead at the bottom of the sea. The book ends with Simi plunging into the water, suggesting that the result of this deal will be explored in the sequel.
Simi struggles with her Mami Wata nature in these chapters. Kola reveals her nature to Bem, Yinka, and Ifedayo because it seems like the right thing to do. Simi is angered by this because her nature is her secret to keep or divulge, and she feels Kola put her in danger. Yemoja has warned Simi that humans would try to capture her for her powers, and she wonders how knowing the truth will change Bem’s, Yinka’s, and Ifedayo’s opinions of her. She also feels her differences will drive them away, which makes her sad because she was just feeling as if she belonged. This is one of many reminders for Simi that she is of the sea and does not belong among humans. Her reaction shows that she is aware of her differences but that she increasingly wishes they were not there. Sparring with Yinka helps Simi feel better because it shows that she can find common ground with humans, even though she is not one of them. Doing so also clears any uncertainty Yinka had about Simi, and the girls form a friendship, foreshadowing how they will be separated later.
The story Simi tells in Chapter 20 shows a few things. First, it is a link to her mother, who was a storyteller. Simi has the same ability to tell tales of the orisas and the past, weaving details and messages into her words. The story she tells shows Esu as a trickster who is only interested in the notoriety that prayers can bring him. Simi argues that Esu is not evil because he sets things right for the nomads after they pray to him, but Esu also played the trick in the first place. While Esu’s ultimate decision is not evil, the trick he played is not good, showing the orisas complicated nature.
The arrival at Esu’s island sets up the book’s climactic sequence and foreshadows that Ifedayo is Esu in disguise. Like Esu, the island is a collection of crossroads and tricks. The giant fruits that grow from the trees seem poisonous, but the water is fresh and cool, offering Simi a much-needed break in her Mami Wata form. The conversation between Simi and Yinka in Chapter 20 foreshadows the arrival of the bultungin in Chapter 22 and Yinka’s possible bultungin nature. Yinka is uncertain of her past, so she may be bultungin kin as the bultungin suggest. Simi’s exploration of changing between Mami Wata and human form shows her coming to terms with her differences. She comes out of hiding in these chapters, which allows her to find the strength she needs to rescue those she cares about in the final chapters.
