Touted as a queer manifesto and set in the ever-bustling city of Èkó, Vagabonds! is a collection of interrelated stories based on the society’s “rejects.” Eloghosa Osunde unearths the good and bad of the people of Lagos state in the book; relying on Èkó’s assigned monitoring spirit, Tatafo, once beloved, to tell their stories.
The book opens with a story that reinforces Èkó as the city of endless possibilities — a young boy looks between his knees at the market and is carted to another realm. What you think you know cannot save you and what you cannot say will probably end you like Aniekan, who must learn to lose his name, identity and tongue in a bid to survive.
Eloghosa’s Lagos bears more than what meets the ordinary eye, requiring discernment for navigation. In a city primarily concerned with keeping up appearances, the Vagabonds! are a stain, a fear, a tipping of scales and frankly, the only ones who manage to live their truth in a city of lies. They are confined to corners, forced to hide out in the darkness of the night and branded a crime. ”We’re ghosts because we have to be, because our lives depend on passing and being passed by” — an irony since the very people who castigate them tremble at the feet of their very existence behind closed doors.
The author pushes imagination and employs the help of shapeshifters, supernatural beings and androgynous citizens to bring Vagabonds! to life. In the Lagos portrayed in the book, everyone is a vessel — the devil possesses a thug to avenge a child who has been sexually molested, fairy gods save young girls by books and gender is a thing of belief. As the book progresses, we discover a strong disdain for the religious and powerful, who often double as hypocritical. The book reveals their cowardice and the meaninglessness of their lives when compared to those marginalised for simply being the same as them.
In Vagabonds!, love is simply love, as the author paints vivid pictures of the warmth contained in the daily, typically routine intimacies of queer relationships that leave one with a deep longing. We are invited to watch Divine’s Daisy when the book lets us know that “they still bonded in the same ways: flooding the kitchen with groceries, spending a full day cooking, sharpening each other’s tastes.” This is despite the fact that they have been together for several years.
What stands out the most in Eloghosa’s debut is her writing. Vagabonds! reads very take-it-as-you-see, with every sentence unpredictable almost like the penning down of a vision. Blending English with pidgin and metaphors, she successfully creates a borderless, freeing reality.
Vagabonds! mocks the powerful and religious, revealing how much people marginalised for their sexuality, social class, physical appearance or gender threaten the so-called elites. This does not mean that the novel carries the standard “moral lessons” as many a crime is committed with no consequence.
In Eloghosa Osunde’s universe, the winners are those who remain undeniably themselves. You do not require loud declarations of who you are or who you want to be, all you need to do is be.