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Francis
Titi is Adah and Francis’s first child, a daughter, with whom Adah gets pregnant shortly after her marriage to Francis. Because Titi is a girl, Adah’s in-laws are disappointed in Adah until she gives birth to another child, Vicky, a boy. After Adah moves to England with Titi and Vicky, Titi stops speaking, frightening Adah. Later, Adah learns that Francis has threatened to beat Titi with a belt unless she speaks English—and since Titi’s English isn’t good yet, Titi has decided to be silent. This incident illustrates both how difficult immigration can be for children and Francis’s violence toward his family.
Titi Quotes in Second Class Citizen
The Second Class Citizen quotes below are all either spoken by Titi or refer to Titi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: A Cold Welcome Quotes
“You must know, my dear young lady, that in Lagos […] you may be earning a million pounds a day; you may have hundreds of servants: you may be living like an élite, but the day you land in England, you are a second-class citizen.”
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Chapter 4: The Daily Minders Quotes
Everybody talked and speculated. The trouble was that Ada was like a peacock, who kept wanting to win all the time. Only first-class citizens lived with their children, not the blacks.
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Chapter 6: “Sorry, No Coloureds” Quotes
This was where she differed from Francis and the others. They believed that one had to start with the inferior and stay there, because being black meant being inferior. Well, Adah did not yet believe that wholly, but what she did know was that being regarded as inferior had a psychological effect on her. The result was that she started to act in the way expected of her because she was still new in England, but after a while, she was not going to accept it from anyone. She was going to regard herself as the equal of any white.
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You come to behave and act like a mad person if you are surrounded by mad people. Was that what people called adaptation? she wondered.
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Chapter 8: Role Acceptance Quotes
But the one thing Adah could not stand was when a group of people took a portion of the Bible, interpreted it the way that suited them and then asked her to swallow it like that, whole. She became suspicious. She did not mind it if Francis believed it, except when it disturbed his studies or if either of the children needed a blood transfusion and he refused.
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Chapter 9: Learning the Rules Quotes
“I brought my children here to save them from the clutches of your family, and, God help me, they are going back as different people; never, never are they going to be the type of person you are. My sons will learn to treat their wives as people, individuals, not like goats that have been taught to talk.”
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Chapter 13: The Ditch Pull Quotes
Francis could kill her child. She could forgive him all he had done before, but not this.
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Titi Character Timeline in Second Class Citizen
The timeline below shows where the character Titi appears in Second Class Citizen. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Escape into Elitism
...After the wedding, Adah is depressed for months—until she and Francis have a baby daughter, Titi, who makes them both happy.
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...present, Adah’s Ma dies at age 38 while Adah is giving birth to her daughter Titi. None of Adah’s relatives come see her, not even Boy: her family is disappointed in...
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From the deck of the boat that will take Adah, Titi, and Vicky to the UK, Adah spots Boy on the wharf, crying over her departure....
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Chapter 4: The Daily Minders
During the summer, Francis watches Titi and Vicky while Adah works. One day, though, he asks Adah who will mind “your...
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...parents left. Adah, trying to be gentle, reminds Francis that he was going to mind Titi and Vicky until they got a nursery spot. Francis accuses Adah of making that decision...
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...sleeps late. Then Mr. Babalola suggests Trudy, a mother of two who agrees to mind Titi and Vicky. Francis begins dropping the children off at Trudy’s after breakfast and picking them...
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Titi stops speaking after a couple weeks of childcare at Trudy’s. Adah, alarmed, starts taking Titi...
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...of makeup, laughing with a man who’s holding onto her. Adah demands to know where Titi and Vicky are; she almost calls Trudy a sex worker but stays quiet, as she...
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Adah, ignoring Trudy, immediately takes Titi and Vicky to the nearest “children’s officer,” Miss Stirling. While Miss Stirling pooh-poohs Adah’s concerns,...
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Adah, still worried about Titi’s silence, prays about it. One day, a Yoruba friend of Adah’s visits and asks Titi...
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Chapter 5: An Expensive Lesson
Vicky fusses as Adah leaves. Titi, who has learned that her suffering changes nothing, doesn’t fuss. Adah comforts Vicky and leaves....
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...virus. She believes that she was much more careful with Vicky than she was with Titi, and so informs Francis she’s going to demand Trudy tell her how Vicky was infected....
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...the family’s money, tells Francis that unless Trudy has a good explanation, Adah will bring Titi home and care for her until Francis agrees to perform childcare or a nursery accepts...
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...how Vicky was born in “the best hospital” under the best gynecologist in Nigeria. Then Titi walks in, very dirty, from Trudy’s backyard. Adah snaps and tries to hit Trudy. A...
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...looks around at Trudy’s house, and tells Adah they’ve found a nursery for Vicky and Titi. Adah realizes that she’s been lied to again: “second-class citizens could keep their children with...
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Chapter 6: “Sorry, No Coloureds”
...and landlady are happy to have humbled them. They start complaining about everything Adah, Francis, Titi, and Vicky do. In Nigeria, it is not uncommon to invent songs to insult people...
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While Janet babysits Titi and Vicky, Adah and Francis walk to the rooms’ address. The neighborhood looks demolished, like...
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Chapter 8: Role Acceptance
...on the platform and let the hospital gas her—but then she resolves to live for Titi and Vicky. While Francis lectures her about “Jehovah God” and “the diligence of the virtuous...
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...children blood in a crucial moment. Then she recalls how Francis gave her blood during Titi’s birth. She thinks that he isn’t an awful person but “a man who could no...
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...return for her children. She wants to give Sue advice on caring for Vicky and Titi in her absence, but she can’t speak.
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...and Adah are sitting on their porch, reminiscing about their awful, long-ago time in England. Titi attends an English convent school and Vicky attends Eton. They have many other children too....
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Chapter 9: Learning the Rules
Regular visiting hours begin. Francis rarely arrives on time because of Titi and Vicky. Adah doesn’t care. She and Francis have little to say to each other:...
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...a course on his accountancy exam. Adah, too outraged to reply to that, asks after Titi and Vicky instead.
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Francis tells Adah that her absence has not bothered Titi or Vicky. Adah asks what would have happened to them if she’d died and demands...
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...secure a home, and that her relatives had understood her educational aspirations better. Thinking of Titi and Vicky as her only friends, she resolves to focus her love on them and...
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...country. She frets that Bubu will have to be wrapped in a hand-me-down shawl from Titi when they leave. She begins wishing she were dead. When they leave, she is convinced...
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...to reciprocate other people’s kindness in the future. Adah also resolves to “love and protect” Titi and Vicky, who greet her happily at home.
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Chapter 10: Applying the Rules
Five days after leaving the hospital, Adah is walking Titi to a play group when she feels so dizzy that her vision fills with “colorful...
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Adah’s boss from the library, Mrs. Konrad, sends presents for Titi, Vicky, and Bubu, which Adah interprets as a sign of God’s understanding and support. She...
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Chapter 12: The Collapse
...singing a Jehovah’s witness hymn to Bubu while Vicky swings his dirty diaper around and Titi watches. Adah, marking the contrast between well-dressed, dignified Okpara and slobby Francis, thinks it will...
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...possession, to work for himself. Francis believes that Adah will never leave him because of Titi, Vicky, and Bubu.
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Chapter 13: The Ditch Pull
...Francis has burned The Bride Price—the basis of her aspirations, which she planned to show Titi, Vicky, Bubu, and Dada when they were old enough.
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A month after moving, Adah learns she’s pregnant again. Then Francis follows Titi and Vicky home from school to Adah’s new address and bashes at the apartment window,...
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