An Ex-Mas Feast Summary Uwem Akpan’s story, “An Ex-Mas Feast” is a story of the struggles that one family goes through to give gifts on their upcoming Christmas season. Akpan introduces the reader to the struggles of the main characters, which directly ties into the details of impoverished town that they live in. Jigana, one of the story’s main characters, starts off as a naïve 8 year old little boy who was anxious to start going to school. In a stark contrast, Maisha, the eldest sister at 12 years old, held her own and prostituted to bring in money for her family. The second oldest, Naema, was closer to Maisha than any of the others, and Maisha gave her tips and tricks of her trade. Akpan begins the story by saying that the
Later, Baba and Jigana start arguing when the school situation is brought up. Jigana adamantly claims that he will never go to school, and Baba gets angry that he is so stubborn. Baba says his normal “because I said so” routine as to why he needs to go to school, but the usually submissive Jigana stood his ground and refuses to go. Although he didn’t want to go to school for reasons being said, he still romanticized school because of the lack of information he was given by his parents.
Finally, Maisha comes home with her bag of food to her awaiting family, but there is something different about her. She looks drained and sloppy, her hair a patchy mess and her eyes swollen and reacting to her numerous skin creams. When Maisha pays the driver of the old car she was dropped off in, Baba causes a little commotion and he ends up pick pocketing the driver of the money he was just given; however, the driver notices before he leaves and Maisha screams at Baba and orders him to return the money. When Jigana tells Maisha that is she leaves full time, he will run away, Baba immediately gets angry and calls him stupid for thinking he could do that. Amidst all the chaos, Mama and Maisha seem to have a slight breakthrough when she thanks her for canceling their debt and in return, Maisha