Our Sister Killjoy

Content Warning: This section includes discussions of anti-Black racism.

Sissie is staying in a small Bavarian town. She lives in a youth hostel that used to be a castle. When she is on a walk by the river, Sissie meets a young German mother who asks her if she is Indian. There used to be two Indians who worked in the local supermarket, the woman explains, and she liked them both a lot. Sissie remembers her West Indian (Caribbean) neighbors who decided to move to Canada with their two children. They were stranded in Liverpool for months before they finally arrived. The husband died in a workplace accident almost immediately. The wife and children tried to move to New Jersey to find a relative, only to learn that the relative had been shot and killed. Sissie realizes that the German woman is unusual for having liked the Indian supermarket workers at all. 

The woman introduces her baby as Adolf, noting that her husband is named Adolf, too. Sissie explains that she is from Ghana; the woman asks, “Is that near Canada?” (24). After Sissie tells her a little about West Africa, the woman introduces herself as Marija. Sissie was called Mary when she was in school, as her family is Christian. She thinks about Ghana’s rich naming traditions, which were not considered sufficiently pious among missionaries and Christian converts, and how Ghanaian families were encouraged to give their children Christian names. Sissie notes that Marija laughs more warmly than most Germans. She says that Marija can call her “Sissie,” which is what most people have called her since she was in school “with many boys who treated [her] like their sister” (28).

Marija repeats several more times how much she liked the Indians from the grocery store. Sissie remembers meeting an Indian man who worked as a doctor in Germany. She asked him why he did not return home to practice medicine there; he explained that working conditions were much better in Europe. Sissie is disturbed by people from Africa and Asia working as expert physicians in Europe and America instead of returning home to help their own people.

The next evening, Sissie and Marija meet at the youth hostel, and Marija brings Sissie to her cottage. All of the people in Sissie’s program are constantly being fed a lot of German food, not all of which Sissie enjoys. She remembers doing missionary volunteer work in Africa; though she is conflicted about aid work, she feels that her work there had more value than it does in Germany. Sissie and the others at the hostel are volunteering in the nearby pine wood, making sure that the trees are covered with enough turf to keep them warm in the winter. Bavarian women work with them; all of them are widows whose husbands died during World War II. 

Sissie and Marija arrive at the cottage. Marija has a beautiful garden full of fruit trees, some of which (like plums) are unfamiliar to Sissie. Her husband is working overtime, so he will be home very late. After a lengthy visit, Sissie finally returns to the youth hostel with “two brown paper bags filled with apples, pears, tomatoes, and plums” (38). Sissie and Marija meet up every evening, and Marija always gives her fruit to bring back to the hostel. 

Sissie recalls being in London. Another girl in her program took her to the local teacher training college, where she worked. She made a point of showing Sissie the “only black girl on campus” (42). Sissie becomes something of a novelty in Bavaria. Everyone stares at her and wants to ask her questions because they see her as exotic. They become jealous that she spends so much time with Marija. Some of Marija’s neighbors start visiting the cottage while Sissie is there, which makes Sissie and Marija uncomfortable. To avoid scrutiny, they agree to start meeting later in the evening.

On their walk to Marija’s house, they meet an old couple who says something in German that Marija refuses to translate for Sissie, though it is implied to be a racist remark. Sissie asks why Little Adolf is not with Marija; Marija says he is at home, asleep. She sometimes needs time away from her son, though she is ashamed to admit it.