"Like Breathing for the First Time": Magic, Structural Oppression, and Black Re-Empowerment Through Identity Reclamation in Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone

Abstract

This paper examines power, magic, and identity in Children of Blood and Bone. It investigates how Adeyemi uses magic to illustrate both how structural oppression disempowers the black community and how identity reclamation can serve as a form of re-empowerment. It explores how Adeyemi works within the genres of black speculative fiction and Afrofantasy, utilizing magic to create a double narrative that simultaneously explores the power relationship between white and black people and lighter skinned and darker skinned black people. Magic becomes a marker of identity, allowing Adeyemi to capture the complexities of power as they relate to the black community. Ultimately, Adeyemi demonstrates the strength of identity reclamation in combating the disempowerment of structural oppression. She ends the novel suggesting that a combination of cultural and collective identity reclamation is a method of black liberation.