Swing Time

The narrative flashes forward to the narrator at age 32, visiting Gambia again on Aimee’s behalf. Now, the narrator enjoys trying to fit in more with the villagers. She has learned some of their language and their ways and can maneuver around the village on her own. As Fernando predicted, Aimee becomes distracted with other fanciful projects, so her attention to her school wanes. Meanwhile, the boys’ school resents the new school because they feel left behind. Government support has also diminished: “[I]t was hard to avoid the suspicion that the village was being punished for its connection with Aimee, or deliberately neglected in the expectation that Aimee’s money would flow into the gap” (300). Aimee has a romantic relationship with Lamin, which she tries, but fails, to keep a secret. Lamin has been promoted to the business and development side of the school, and Aimee has funded renovations on his impoverished compound.

On the ferry, the narrator witnesses two soldiers attacking a man who has epilepsy. She and the other passengers can only watch; they help the man after the soldiers leave.

The narrator happily reunites with Hawa. The women share a private joke of being motherless in societies that demand motherhood from women. Fernando discovers that Musa has been watching radical jihadist videos from Afghanistan, though Musa doesn’t understand the language of the videos and therefore doesn’t necessarily know what he’s watching.

At university, the narrator’s graduating class is the first to receive email addresses, so she and her mother email back and forth. Her mother has moved out of their project housing and now lives with a handsome man she calls the “Noted Activist.” Through her proximity to him, the narrator’s mother has become more popular as a commentator.

When the narrator graduates from university, she has no plans and no money, so she moves back to London into her father’s apartment. The narrator wants to get a job, which her father expects, since “[t]he importance of labor was a view he held as strongly as my mother held her belief that the definitions that really mattered were culture and color” (311). Her father comes from a long line of impoverished people who had no skills or education, so they staked their identity on labor.

The narrative flashes forward to Gambia. It has been several months since the narrator’s last visit, and when she arrives Fernando tells her a rumor that has been distressing to the village: Aimee is organizing a visa for Lamin to move to New York City. Aimee has been going through a stressful time after her new record was scrapped due to an affair gone wrong with a producer. The narrator doesn’t want to get involved, but Fernando encourages her to talk to Lamin about the rumor, so she invites him on her trip to Kunta Kinteh Island. They visit the slavery museum on the island, where the narrator is struck by the thought that her mother, Tracey, and even Aimee would likely have been imprisoned in the dungeon cellar for rebelling. The narrator believes she would not have been brave enough to rebel. Lamin is always on the phone with Aimee—he’s been teaching Aimee his dance moves.

The summer after university, the narrator applies for media jobs; as she waits to hear from them, she works at the same pizza place she worked at during summers off. The owner is horribly racist, but the narrator can’t afford not to work. When Tracey sees her at the pizza place, she invites her out, and the old friends reunite, though Tracey is derisive about the narrator’s university degree. Tracey has been cast in the ensemble of a West End revival of Guys and Dolls.

In Gambia, Aimee sends notice that the narrator can’t take the private jet back. The narrator suspects that Aimee has heard about the narrator questioning Lamin, but another coworker, Judy, informs her that Aimee is angry at the narrator’s mother, who has been making speeches in Parliament about British alliances with West African dictators, a criticism that can complicate Aimee’s partnership with the president of Gambia.

The narrator, Fernando, and Lamin attend Aimee’s son’s birthday party in New York City. Lamin and Aimee kiss publicly. Fernando tells the narrator that he’s in love with her, but she doesn’t want the responsibility of someone’s heart.

While the narrator is still working at the pizza place the summer after university, Tracey helps her get a job as a stagehand for Guys and Dolls. Tracey is having an affair with one of the stars, who is married and 30 years older than her. The narrator hasn’t yet told Tracey that she’ll be leaving the show because she’s been offered an internship at YTV. One night, she and Tracey go out drinking and return to the narrator’s father’s apartment. The narrator has forgotten her key and sends Tracey to the back kitchen door to check if it’s open. Later, Tracey sends the narrator a handwritten note that when Tracey went to the kitchen door, she saw the narrator’s father having sex with a blow-up doll.