Dipo

When Dick saw Grace in the Dipo ceremony, he noted she had a body that reminded him “of the girls in the girly magazines” and he was enraged his daughter was being displayed like “merchandise.”

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

A ceremony like Dipo may seem troubling at first blush—and there are aspects of the ceremony that I continue to find troubling—but I think people tend to be particularly sensitive to and critical of such practices in part because they are foreign.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

The fact that white-skinned Grace has stolen this Dipo show—because she has—somehow seems an incarnation of that slavery.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

When Mawuli left Mary Catherine to watch the third day of Dipo, he told her, We are like the Holy Trinity.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

Her only hope was that someday she would be able to look back on Dipo and laugh.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

“You will learn personal hygiene as part of Dipo,” Mawuli said to Grace as he inhaled her vomit breath while eyeing her dirty fingernails, greasy hair and wrinkled, reeking clothes.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

Fine by me, Mama said, after Grace explained Dipo.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

Grace knows her parents will allow her participation in Dipo, based on the exchange she and Mama had earlier in the day when the two were sharing some unsweet “sweet bread.”

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

But Tessa is at once horrified and bored with this Dipo.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011

According to Mawuli, this day of Dipo is called Bua Sia Mi.

Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011