Cell One
The narrator recounts earlier household robberies: neighbor Osita’s theft of a TV and VCR, and brother Nnamabia’s staged break‑in that stole his mother’s gold jewelry. Nnamabia admits the theft, is forced by his father to write a detailed report, and the family learns that campus thefts are rampant among the sons of university staff. The narrative then shifts to Nnamabia’s popularity, his looks, his mother’s indulgence, and a series of minor misbehaviors she covers up.
When cult violence erupts on the Nsukka campus—shootings, axe attacks, and rival gang clashes—Nnamabia is arrested along with other alleged cult members at a bar. His parents drive to Enugu, bribe two desk‑policemen with money and jollof rice, and secure a brief meeting with Nnamabia in his cell. Nnamabia describes the prison hierarchy, referencing “General Abacha” and how he hid money in his anus to avoid confiscation. He also recounts the police’s orderly cell system, the threat of being sent to “Cell One,” and his fear of it.
Over the next week the family visits daily, observing Nnamabia’s deteriorating condition: cramped, bug‑infested spaces, limited food, forced to defecate in a waterproof bag, and a broken toilet that is only flushed on Saturdays. He describes other inmates, including an elderly man detained for his son’s alleged robbery, who is humiliated by police.
After another campus cult attack, the family learns that an informer has cleared Nnamabia, and they prepare to collect him. However, a police officer informs them that Nnamabia has been transferred because he “misbehaved.” The parents drive to a remote, dilapidated police compound, where they find Nnamabia beaten, his left arm swollen, dried blood on his nose, and his torso marked with welts. Nnamabia tells his mother that he was beaten for defending the old man and that the abuse led the police to move him to Cell One. He does not elaborate further on what happened inside Cell One. The chapter ends with the family returning home, still unsettled by the brutality and the opaque prison system.