This Motherless Land

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, sexual harassment and assault, self-harm, and substance abuse.

This Motherless Land explores the ideas of prejudice and privilege and the way that the two interact. In the novel, every character has some form of privilege, whether it’s related to race, money, social status, and more. Additionally, as characters from different backgrounds interact, they all hold some form of prejudice, making assumptions about each other while knowing very little about them. In this way, the novel examines the interplay between these two ideas and the way that they impact people’s lives.

Central to the exploration of prejudice and privilege are the two protagonists, Funke and Liv, whose experiences mirror each other throughout the text. Since they both come from wealthy families, Funke and Liv are similar in the financial privilege that they have. Although Funke is laden with misfortune in the text—through the trauma of losing her mother and brother and the forced upheaval of her life two different times—she still has a wealthy family in Nigeria and lives off her grandparents’ fortune in England. Similarly, Liv also experiences trauma in the text, as she is sexually exploited by Clinton, suffers from substance misuse issues, and loses her best friend, believing Funke is dead for years. 

While their experiences reflect each other, what is important is the way that they respond to their traumas. Funke works harder in both London and Lagos, doing what she can to assimilate and using Grandpa’s wealth to survive, but she is also successful in school and earns a stipend for college. Back in Nigeria, she similarly puts aside her grief to attend medical school in Lagos, ultimately earning a degree and opening her own practice. Conversely, Liv uses her privilege to survive but does nothing in the way of helping herself. She takes Grandpa’s stipend, yet refuses to take housing or a job from him; she does not go to school, insisting that she does not want to be a secretary because that is what her family expects of her. She falls into substance misuse to cope with her trauma and resists treatment for years. These two characters’ different paths highlight the positives and negatives of privilege. While Funke uses her privilege to her advantage, helping herself and others, Liv simply takes advantage of it, failing throughout much of the novel to create her own life and advance herself.

Another key difference between Liv and Funke lies in their experiences with prejudice. When Funke comes to The Ring, she is immediately treated poorly by Liv’s family. Margot refers to her as “half savage” (34), and the rest of the family treats her as if she is stupid, impoverished, and uncivilized simply because of her diverse racial background. Then, when she returns to Nigeria, she continues to be treated as an “oyinbo” or “foreigner,” never truly fitting into Nigerian society due to her accent and the childhood she spent in London (176). In this way, Funke experiences prejudice that Liv never does, which teaches her the importance of privilege and, more importantly, treating others with respect. As a result, she vows to follow her “mother’s legacy” (213), using her medical training, money, and privilege to help those around her just as her mother did.

Ultimately, the experiences of these two characters emphasize the existence of prejudice and privilege within everyone. Ironically, when Funke comes to England, she, too, is prejudiced against her family in London, judging them for their dirty home, poor cleaning staff, and attempts to save money. Then, when she returns to Nigeria, she again judges her father for the life that he lives and is adamant that she wants to return to her life in London, where she assumes she will get a better education and be happier. In this way, May conveys the idea that prejudice and privilege are a part of everyone’s life, but what is important is the way that people minimize their prejudices and use their privilege for good.