Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Girl, Woman, Other, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Diaspora, Culture, and Identity
Love, Sexuality, and Race
Home and Community
Contradiction, Complexity, and Intersectionality
Radical vs. Reformist Social Movements
Summary
Analysis
Dominique spots Nzinga in Victoria station at rush hour. Nzinga has fallen amidst the bustle, her bag spilling all over the floor, and Dominique helps her pick up her things. She is stunned by her beauty. Nzinga is statuesque with glowing skin, flowing robes, and waist-length dreadlocks adorned with beads. Suspecting that she’s a lesbian, Dominique asks her out to coffee in the station cafe and Nzinga accepts. Nzinga explains she doesn’t abuse her body, so drinks only hot water with lemon. Dominique is suddenly self-conscious for dunking biscuits in her sugary coffee.
From the minute Nzinga appears in Dominique’s life, Dominique puts her on an unrealistic pedestal of god-like perfection. Nzinga believes her way of living is superior to all others, and that assertion of superiority immediately functions as a subtle critique of Dominique, specifically a critique of her body.
Themes
Dominique has never met an African American, so is fascinated with Nzinga’s accent, which reminds her of the cornbread, gumbo, collard greens and other foods she’s read about in African American literature. Nzinga is in England after making a pilgrimage back to the “Motherland,” Ghana. She visited Elmina Castle, where thousands of Africans were imprisoned before they were sent to the Americas as slaves. Nzinga describes violently sobbing as she felt 400 years of painful history enter her body. More than ever before she understands the white man’s crimes. Dominique holds herself back from mentioning that African men sold Africans into slavery, too, making for a more complicated history.
Nzinga’s African American identity is exotic and unfamiliar to Dominique. It’s an image and identity Dominique imposes onto her. Dominique wants to complicate Nzinga’s narrative about visiting Elmina Castle, in the same way she wanted to critique Amma’s single narrative about her father. Dominique is hyper-aware of the ways that intersectionality complicates historical and social realities.
Themes
Back in the U.S., Nzinga builds houses on women’s communes. At five she moved from the UK to the “Dis-United States,” so her mother could be with a man she’d fallen in love with from afar. They lived in a run-down trailer, her mother worked at a factory, and the man spent most of his time drunk and high. He beat her mother when she tried to curb his substance abuse, and eventually her mother turned to drugs, too. One night the man raped Nzinga. She told a teacher at school the next day, and she and her brother were sent to live in foster care with a caring but not loving family.
Nzinga highlights the deep divisions that exist in the United States, counter to its narrative of unity and freedom. Nzinga’s early childhood was deeply affected by the institutional inequities of poverty, addiction, and misogynistic violence. Her mother’s story is a common one that upends the stereotypical narrative that men are the providers.
Themes
Nzinga’s brother called her a “bull-dyke” after discovering her lesbianism. He joined the army and Nzinga was accepted to the recently desegregated University of Texas. After graduating, she moved to a women’s commune where she wouldn’t have to deal with men like her brother and her rapist. She and her brother never spoke again, not even when their mother died of an overdose. Dominique admires her perseverance in the face of these struggles. She’s used to being perceived as strong, but feels she pales in comparison to Nzinga who is a “zami,” a “phenomenon.” For the first time since she left home, she wants to be cared for. She feels herself falling in love with this stranger.
Along with the abuse she suffered within her own family, Nzinga had to contend with homophobia as well as southern racism both during and after Jim Crow segregation. Her early years were traumatic both in and out of her home. Dominique, awed by her strength, thinks she’s phenomenal, a nod to Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman, and a “zami” in a nod to Audre Lorde’s biomythography. She turns Nzinga into one of her heroes. Dominique’s own childhood traumas, namely being forced out on her own at the young age of sixteen, leave her vulnerable to Nzinga’s power. Nzinga offers to care for Dominique, who is yearning for that care at any cost and sees Nzinga as a home she never truly had.
Themes
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Nzinga tells Dominique that her series of blonde girlfriends indicates a self-loathing and internalization of white beauty standards. Dominque remembers that Amma always teased her for this, but without judgement. Dominique is suddenly worried that she’s failing to be a Black feminist, an identity she proudly wears. She believes Nzinga will make her a liberated Black woman. They sleep together every night. Dominique raves to Amma about how this is the first time she’s truly been in love. Amma invites them over for lunch at Freedomia, and Nzinga agrees so long as there are no white people and only organic, vegan food.
On the one hand, Nzinga points out a pattern in Dominique’s life that may have some merit, one that her friends have noticed, and one that is common in a white-supremacist society that portrays white women as the most desirable. On the other hand, Nzinga’s incessant scrutinizing of Dominique’s life leads her to question her own identity. She suddenly feels inadequate and like her identity as a Black feminist, one that she cultivated through her hard work at the radical Bush Woman Theatre company, is now up for debate. Nzinga is positioning herself as Dominique’s liberator and savior, and Dominique’s outsized admiration for Nzinga as well as her need to be cared for threaten her autonomy and individuality. It’s also clear Nzinga’s radical lifestyle has very strict rules governing who she, and by extension Dominique, can eat or associate with—a red flag.
Themes
Nzinga stuns everyone at Amma’s with her beauty. Amma notices that her presence is so powerful that she diminishes everyone else. She wants Nzinga to prove herself worthy of Dominique. Offended by Nzinga’s demands, Amma didn’t buy organic food as instructed. Everyone admires Nzinga, who sits at the center of what Amma thinks is an unearned, overly devoted attention. The gathering turns tense when Nzinga declares it’s “weird” to hear so many Black women speak with British accents. Amma balks at this implication that their accents make them in-authentically Black, one she’s encountered many times before. Dominique, usually opinionated, sits silently at Nzinga’s side.
Amma immediately sees through Nzinga’s charming façade to her narcissism and need to exert power and absolute superiority. Amma refuses to give in to her demands and is extremely worried about Dominique, whose personality has already noticeably changed under Nzinga’s influence. Her radical politics go so far as to undermine the women she claims to represent when she passive-aggressively criticizes the women’s accents, as if it's impossible to be both British and Black.
Themes
Glaring at Amma, Nzinga warns that there are dangerous women among them. Nzinga tells the women that wearing black socks is symbolic of stepping on their own people, to never use black garbage bags, or step on a black doormat. Amma finds this absurd and can’t believe the rest of the women nod along in agreement. Amma challenges Nzinga, and the two argue before Nzinga and Dominique leave. Amma is glad to see them go but worried by Dominique’s blind devotion to this woman. Amma hopes the relationship will end, but Dominique, faced with an ultimatum—move or break up—follows Nzinga to America.
Nzinga sees Amma seeing through her, and immediately recognizes her as a threat to exerting total control over Dominique. Her sinister warning starts to put a calculated distance between Dominique and Amma. Amma, who at this point is living at the peak of her radical lifestyle and identity, is shocked by Nzinga’s extreme radicalism. When Amma and Nzinga fight, Dominique is stuck in the middle between her best friend and her new lover. In the face of Nzinga’s ultimatum, Dominique chooses her over Amma, and leaves her British life and home behind.
Themes
Dominique moves with Nzinga to a rural “wimmin’s” commune called Spirit Moon. She becomes a strict vegan, radical feminist housebuilder just like Nzinga. They live in a cabin isolated from the rest of the commune. Dominique is enchanted by the surrounding nature and upset with Amma, who tried to convince her not to come. Nzinga tells her that Amma is jealous that she’s replaced her as the most important person in Dominique’s life. Dominique was tired of running the Bush Woman Theatre company, and Nzinga is the new adventure she yearned for.
With Dominique separated from her home, friends, and community in London, Nzinga can control and change her entirely. Dominique adopts Nzinga’s extreme way of life without realizing that Nzinga is in fact forcing this new life and identity on her. Nzinga continues to poison Dominique’s opinion of Amma to strain their relationship even further. At this point, Dominique is too enchanted by this new and exciting adventure to notice any of these red flags.
Themes
They attend a dinner at Gaia’s house, the woman who owns the estate. Inside there are no pictures of men, women artists drone from the record player, and the women are glowing and enthusiastic. Dominique feels she’s entered an alternate society, and briefly wonders if it’s a cult. Men are strictly forbidden from this divine feminine utopia, and if a woman “goes straight” she’s forced to leave. Dominique attracts attention as a Black British woman. She notices that Nzinga sits alone looking angry, monitoring her every move until telling Dominique it’s time to leave.
The Spirit Moon commune is meant to be a safe harbor away from the misogyny and violence of men. However, Dominique immediately notices the cracks in its utopic façade. Like Nzinga, the commune operates under extreme and strict rules. Additionally, the way that the other commune members tokenize Dominique for being both Black and British highlights the limits of a predominantly white, feminist community that wants to unite around womanhood without addressing the intersections of gender and race. When Dominique attracts all this attention, Nzinga gets angry because other people threaten her total dominance over Dominique.
Themes
On the way back home Nzinga tells Dominique they aren’t going to socialize anymore because these white women offer fake friendship but will turn against them. Confused, Dominique asks why they live here if she hates the other women so much, and Nzinga says it’s preferable to living among men. Nzinga tells Dominique that she’s safe and complete with her, though Dominique was feeling neither unsafe nor incomplete before. Nzinga decides to rename Dominique Sojourner, after Sojourner Truth, despite Dominique’s protests. She decides she won’t respond to this unwanted new name and starts to worry that maybe Amma was right to tell her not to follow this woman.
Nzinga uses race to strategically separate Dominique from the women on the commune. She knows that Dominique looks up to her as an ideological authority, and will therefore comply, which Dominique does even though there is a voice in the back of her mind that questions Nzinga’s claims. Ironically, Nzinga’s behavior is becoming more and more misogynistic now that they’ve moved onto the commune that she claims is their escape from men and the harms of a patriarchal society. Finally, Nzinga quite literally robs Dominique of her identity by forcing her to change her name, ironically naming her after Sojourner Truth whose life cause was freedom. Dominique is starting to see what Amma saw in Nzinga, but now she’s too far away to reach out to her friend for help.
Themes
Nzinga tells Dominique it’s clear that they’ll be together forever. Dominique thinks it’s too early to declare this. They’re only in their 20s, after all. Nzinga tells her about her first partner, Roz. They met on a women’s commune in Oregon, but after discovering Roz’s alcoholism they got into physical fights, culminating in one that sent Roz to the hospital with a broken bone and head injuries. Nzinga explains that the all-white community blamed and evicted her alone. She moved between women’s communes and had a series of relationships that all ended badly until meeting Dominique. Nzinga grips Dominique’s head tightly in a “mechanical” embrace, imploring that they never keep secrets from each other. She asks Dominique if she still loves her, and Dominique says more than ever, truly meaning it.
Nzinga is intent on trapping Dominique and controlling her future. The story of her past partner, Roz, foreshadows a dark future for Dominique. When Roz breaks one of Nzinga’s strict rules, sobriety, the relationship descends into physical abuse. Nzinga presents the fight as mutual, but it’s notably only Roz who suffers serious injuries. Nzinga uses race and the threat of racism to convince Dominique that she was blameless in this situation. Nzinga’s “mechanical” embrace of Dominique reveals her absolute, crushing power over her. Escaping that embrace will be hard, if not next to impossible, all on her own. Dominique’s love for Nzinga is so powerful that, despite her misgivings, she’s still deeply invested in the relationship.
Themes
Soon their relationship is plagued by constant arguing. Dominique questions the truth of the story about Roz. She is still enamored with this woman who “rescued” her from London but doesn’t know why she puts up with the way she controls her life and mind. Nzinga’s expectation that she give up her independence for love reminds Dominique of male chauvinism. Dominique no longer feels like herself and desperately needs to talk to Amma, but Nzinga gets upset when Dominique tries to talk to anyone. She sends Amma letters, but never hears back. When she tells Nzinga that she wants to call her, Nzinga is upset for days, so Dominique never brings it up again.
As conflicts arise, Dominique begins to understand the story about Roz as a warning. She’s still in love with the idea of Nzinga as her “rescuer” and caretaker, but is beginning to realize that she’s also her warden. Dominique recognizes that she’s giving up her life and mind, but lacks the resources to escape. Dominique is beginning to articulate the hypocrisy in Nzinga’s behavior. Nzinga professes to hate men while at the same time weaponizing misogyny against Dominique, revealing that women can internalize and assert destructive patriarchal violence against other women. Nzinga can sense that Dominique is coming to these realizations, so she doubles down on keeping Amma out of Dominique’s life.
Themes
The strenuous eight-hour days building houses are drastically different than what Dominique imagined. Nzinga secures Dominique easier work duties and takes over all household chores. At first, Dominque is happy with this arrangement, but after a while is desperate for something to do. Her life is suddenly reduced to loving and obeying Nzinga. Nzinga criticizes Dominique’s “provocative” clothing, blames her when men in town check her out, and forces her to keep her hair buzzed. Dominique must constantly reassure Nzinga that her past, white lovers aren’t a threat. Nzinga preaches that only a Black woman can truly love another Black woman. Dominique gives in to her ranting, but Nzinga isn’t satisfied. She wants Dominique to change, to accept her reasoning as the truth.
Nzinga’s misogyny and abuse further escalate. She forces Dominique into the role of housewife, leaving her trapped in the house where she’s totally isolated and completely dependent on Nzinga. She polices Dominique’s body and becomes extremely jealous and possessive, worrying about Dominique’s past white lovers. Nzinga continues to inundate Dominque with her extreme beliefs about love and race and Dominique gives into her ranting in order to try and restore peace. However, Nzinga can sense Dominique’s doubt and insincerity, and this outrages her because she wants total and complete control not just over Dominique’s body, but terrifyingly, her thoughts as well.
Themes
Dominique has been at Sprit Moon for a year when Amma shows up unannounced. They’re thrilled to see each other. Amma’s been worried because Dominique never replied to her letters. Dominique is about to explain that she never received any letters when Nzinga comes up from behind and rudely addresses Amma. Nzinga’s anger fills the house with tension as she silently cooks dinner. Amma ignores her, immediately questioning Dominique to try and understand what’s going on in her life here. Dominique reveals how limited her life has become but insists that everything is perfect this way.
Amma shows up and infiltrates the bubble that Nzinga has created around Dominique. It becomes clear that Nzinga went to great lengths to prevent communication between the two by throwing out or hiding Amma’s letters. Nzinga is violently and palpably angry that Amma has arrived and threatens to upend the control she’s worked so calculatingly to exert. With Nzinga hovering angrily in the background, Dominique is afraid to confide in even her best friend. Nzinga’s presence alone keeps Dominique trapped.
Themes
Behind this façade of perfection, Dominique thinks about how much she misses the life of drama and protest she and Amma lived back home. That life feels so far away to her now. She realizes that being cut off from Amma has meant being cut off from her “Number One supporter” who would have questioned the facts of her life with Nzinga. The three women are eating one of Nzinga’s tasteless, vegan dinners. When she’s finished eating, Nzinga gets up and violently hurls her bowl across the room. She stomps past Amma towards the bedroom, addressing Dominique: “Sojourner, you coming?” Amma asks who Sojourner is, and Dominique silently follows Nzinga.
With the distance between her and Amma temporarily bridged, Dominique realizes how their separation was critical to Nzinga’s ability to take complete control over her. Even in Amma’s presence, however, Dominique complies in the face of Nzinga’s violence. Nzinga continues to erase Dominique’s identity every time she calls her Sojourner. It’s Sojourner, not Dominique, who follows Nzinga to bed.
Themes
The next morning Amma and Dominique have ten minutes alone while Nzinga showers. Amma wants to get away from “the madhouse,” but Dominique says a walk would make Nzinga too suspicious. On the porch, Dominique hopes the beautiful view will convince Amma that everything is fine. Predictably, she isn’t convinced and instead speaks her mind. She tells her that she and a group of their friends in London are going to launch a rescue mission to get her out from under Nzinga’s control.
The fear that Nzinga has instilled in Dominique leaves her unable to break free, even though she knows Amma sees through her façade of happiness, and even when Amma announces her plan to launch the rescue mission. Nzinga’s anger and power are stronger than what Dominique and Amma once shared, leaving Dominique unable to open up to her best friend who is there to rescue her.
Themes
Dominique defends Nzinga, insisting that she’s helping her live a better life and regurgitating her absolutist views. Amma asks Dominique what’s happened to her, and Nzinga, having snuck up behind, says “nothing’s happened.” Nzinga pushes herself between Dominique and Amma, who were sitting with arms linked. She starts railing against men, with her arm wrapped tight around Dominique’s neck. Amma grabs her bags, announces she’s going home, and tells Dominique to come with her. Dominique shakes her head, thinking she doesn’t need rescuing, and Nzinga holds her tighter, kissing her on the cheek.
Dominique still believes in the lie that Nzinga is her educator and savior, even though Nzinga’s abusive extremism so blatantly contradicts with the Black feminism she claims. Nzinga literally inserts herself between Amma and Dominique, physically dividing them in the same way she’s been keeping them divided from afar. Even with Amma there to help her get away immediately, Dominique has too deeply internalized the belief that she doesn’t need rescuing, still believing that Nzinga is her rescuer.
Themes
Dominique and Nzinga complete their contract at Spirit Moon and have permission to stay in their cabin until they can find more work elsewhere, leaving them with nothing to do but be with each other. Dominique knows she should leave but is so unused to making decisions for herself that she can’t imagine making such a significant one. Nzinga is increasingly obsessed with keeping Dominique away from both men and women, convinced they threaten to end their relationship. Nzinga escalates to physical violence and Dominique can neither leave nor fight back. Dominique hears Nzinga’s voice inside her head all day and spends most of her days sleeping and staring into space.
Now that they are both trapped in the house, Dominique is under Nzinga’s constant surveillance and suffers her abuse without even a brief escape. Nzinga has so broken her down that she doesn’t remember how to make her own decisions. While Nzinga’s violence keeps Dominique physically trapped in the relationship, her ideological aggression and brainwashing are what keep her emotionally and mentally trapped. Nzinga lives completely inside Dominique. Dominique descends into a deep depression, making it even more impossible for her to take action.
Themes
One Saturday morning, Nzinga says she is going to town for the day, which usually means she’ll sneak up on Dominique in a few hours. Nzinga leaves and Gaia approaches the house. She tells Dominique that they’re worried about her. Dominique insists everything is fine, but Gaia says that everyone knows the truth about Nzinga. Dominique doesn’t want to betray Nzinga, but finally admits that she’s trapped. Gaia plans to help her escape the following Saturday. Dominique is too embarrassed to return to England, so instead will stay with some of Gaia’s friends in West Hollywood.
Gaia and the other women on the commune step in for Dominique. They become the community she needs to finally escape. In betraying Nzinga Dominique is rediscovering how to be true to herself. Dominique has internalized the blame and shame that women often feel when they’ve been trapped in an abusive relationship. Dominique blames herself and can’t face her community back in England as a result, even though they’d welcome her back without judgement. Nzinga’s abuse has therefore robbed her of that home and community she once had.
Themes
For years after she escapes from Nzinga, Dominique beats herself up for losing three years of her life to her. She is grateful to recover her strong identity. Gaia’s friends in California care for her as she suffers through nightmares and struggles to get Nzinga’s voice out of her head. Now that she’s finally able to choose what to eat, her roommates treat her to a big barbecue, but after eating Nzinga’s vegan food for so long she throws up the meats. She and the roommates stay up late exchanging stories. This night spent socializing over wine fills Dominique with energetic joy that starts bringing her back to life.
Dominique struggles with her internalized blame for years, and it takes her as long to build herself back up after being psychologically detached from herself for so long. Her nightmares and the fact that she gets sick when she can finally eat what she wants both represent the extent to which Nzinga was able to completely infiltrate her mind and body. Dominique is finding a new home and community now that she is able to socialize again.
Themes
Dominique loves the West Coast and marries a gay man to stay in the U.S. Americans, and especially lesbians, are drawn to her because she’s British and beautiful. She stays with Gaia’s friends for a couple of years until she can afford to move out. As soon as she’s stable, she invites Amma to visit. Amma never rubbed it in that she was right about Nzinga. Dominique starts attending a women’s support group for survivors of domestic abuse, a therapeutic outlet where she realizes she sought mothering from Nzinga that growing up—as one of 10 children— she lacked.
Dominique finds a new and welcoming home and community in L.A. that gives her the love, support, and safety she needs to heal. She’s recovered enough now to let go of the shame that prevented her from reconnecting with her old friends in London. The support group is likewise a new home and community for Dominique. It’s critical in helping her overcome her internalized blame. It’s where she comes to understand that her desire to be “rescued” by Nzinga was rooted in that desire to have the caring home she never had growing up. She was in search of someone who could fill that void in her life.
Themes
Dominique later hears from Gaia that Nzinga went on a violent rampage after Dominique escaped. The police were called and Nzinga was evicted. Dominique starts a Women’s Arts Festival in L.A., and years later meets Nzinga’s last girlfriend, Sahara, there. Sahara was likewise trapped in Nzinga’s cycle of abuse until Nzinga died after suffering a massive stroke. This news leaves Dominique both relieved and sad. Dominique meets Laverne, her wife, at the support group. They share a deep intellectual bond before becoming lovers, careful to respect each other’s free will. They adopt baby twins and marry once it is legal. It’s been 30 years since Dominique arrived in the U.S., the place she calls home.
Dominique creates another community within her larger L.A. community with the women’s music festival. It becomes an affirming, feminist space that reinforces Dominique’s identity as a radical, Black feminist, one that was so central to her understanding of herself and that Nzinga had convinced her she lacked. It’s clear that it’s Nzinga who lacked a true feminist approach to life. Nzinga’s abuse was rooted in the abuse she suffered in her childhood. Those early experiences trapped her in a cycle of violence in her adulthood. She made her lovers suffer the way she did all those years ago. The cycle of violence only ends when Nzinga dies. From a distance of several years, Dominique, who has always been perceptive of life’s contradictions and complexities, can feel both relieved that this cycle of abuse has finally ended but also sad because she knows Nzinga’s behavior was rooted in the trauma she never resolved. Her new community of domestic violence survivors leads her to Laverne, the woman who becomes the true caring and supportive home she’s been searching for ever since she left home at 16.
Themes
