Amma
The novel begins by introducing Amma as she contemplates the fact that her play, The Last Amazon of Dahomey, will premiere at the National Theatre in London, and that she has recently assumed the role of the theater's director. She reflects on all that she has faced in the lead-up to this moment: in her youth, she struggled to navigate the world of theater as a black lesbian woman. Faced with rejection after rejection as a young black actress, she started her own theatre company, the Bush Women Theatre, with another aspiring actress and good friend, Dominique. Amma reminisces on past rejections, but concludes that times have changed, and people like her are being welcomed into the "mainstream." She also reflects on significant life events, like squatting in abandoned buildings, friendships with the "alternative" folk of Brixton (in south London), a series of transient sexual relations with women, her current polyamorous relationships, the deaths of her parents, and finally, deciding to have her daughter Yazz with the help of a male friend's sperm. All of these experiences have molded her worldview, and have allowed her "alternative" politics to evolve into one that allows her to comfortably be the director at a large cultural institution in London.
Yazz
Yazz is Amma's university-age daughter. Brought up unconventionally under the principles of Amma's hyper-feminist philosophies, Yazz is, ironically, not a feminist like her mother. In fact, Yazz believes that "the older generation has RUINED EVERYTHING and her generation is doooooomed unless they wrest intellectual control from their elders." Accordingly, her attitude towards her mother, father, and Amma's other friends is bitingly cynical, though arguably still loving. Yazz's life primarily revolves around the university and her "squad," her friend group composed of Waris, Courtney, and Nenet. The members of the squad all come from different backgrounds, but they get along because none are afraid to speak their minds.
Dominique
Dominique is Amma’s good friend, and was also the co-founder with her of Bush Women Theatre. Dominique, like Amma, is a black lesbian woman, but unlike Amma, she prefers monogamy over polyamory. In her twenties, Dominique meets an older African American woman, Nzinga, by chance at the train station. The two have a whirlwind romance, and Dominique ends up following Nzinga back to America to live on Spirit Moon, a lesbian-only commune in Long Island. Quickly, however, the magic of this love affair with Nzinga dissolves into a manipulative, controlling, and finally, emotionally and physically abusive relationship. After three years, Dominique escapes Nzinga with the help of the other women of Spirit Moon and eventually establishes herself in the creative scene in California. There, she finally meets her long-term partner, Laverne, and the two marry after the legalization of gay marriage.
Carole
When we meet Carole, she is already a workaholic vice president at an investment bank. She’s also engaged to Freddy, whose lineage “could be traced back to William the Conqueror.” She appears well-dressed, physically fit, and has everything going for her, but we soon discover that this complete devotion to high achievement stems from a need to bury a traumatic history of sexual assaults. At 13, she was raped by a group of university-age men, and later on as an adult, her work leads her to a foreign country where local officials violate her body under the guise of security measures. Determined to rise above her circumstances nonetheless, she aces her secondary school exams, is accepted to study mathematics at Oxford, and eventually becomes a successful banker. At Oxford, she is one of only a “handful” of dark-skinned students, and she is the darkest of them all, but she finds a way to fit in. At work, despite others’ prejudices about her as a black woman, a lecherous boss, and a case of imposter syndrome, she quickly finds herself rising in the ranks.
Bummi
Bummi is Carole’s first-generation, British-Nigerian mother. Carole’s father, Augustine, passed away of a heart attack when she was young, leaving Bummi a single mother. Before emigrating to the UK, Bummi faced numerous hardships: as a child, Bummi’s own father was killed by an explosion at his oil-drilling job, her own relatives evicted her mother and her, and finally, at 15, Bummi’s mother was also killed in freak work accident. Then, her Aunty Ekio takes her in, but rather than treating Bummi like a beloved relative, this aunty turns the young woman into something of an indentured house servant. At university, Bummi meets Augustine. The two fall in love and marry, but decide to emigrate to the UK for better job prospects. Rather than finding economic success, however, the two are faced with a grim reality where no employers want these two foreigners with “third-world-country degrees.” Augustine becomes a cab driver despite his Ph.D. in economics and Bummi works as a cleaner despite her degree in math. When Augustine passes away, Bummi does what it takes to support herself and her daughter—including sleeping with a corrupt churchman for a loan to fund a business. In time, she befriends another Nigerian woman from church, Omofe, and the two develop a romantic relationship. Ashamed at her own homoerotic feelings, she ends the relationship. Finally, she meets Kofi, a Ghanaian-British man, who becomes the ultimate confidante that she can share life with.
LaTisha
LaTisha and Carole were schoolmates and part of the same “crew,” or friend group. It was at LaTisha’s party that Carole was gang raped. However, encouraged by a teacher to consort with “better influences,” Carole ends her friendship with LaTisha and the crew. While Carole’s career and personal life advance, things continue to go downhill for LaTisha. Her father leaves the family for another woman, and at 18, she falls pregnant with a man who dumps her and leaves her to parent the child alone. At 19, she meets another man, who coaxes her into a one-night stand with promises of something longer-term. Another child results. At 20, LaTisha is raped by the same man who raped Carole. A third child results. At 30, LaTisha has reflected and learned: she no longer tolerates the behavior modeled by men in the encounters of her youth. She works as a shift supervisor at a grocery store and is simultaneously getting a university education through night classes. The vignette closes with LaTisha’s father returning home, having tired of his mistress. She realizes, watching her children interact with their grandfather, that they need a father figure.
Shirley
Shirley is also known as the tyrannical Mrs. King, introduced in Carole & LaTisha’s stories as an unrelentingly strict teacher, despised by the whole student population at Peckham (the school for working-class children that Carole and LaTisha attended where Shirley is a teacher). Shirley is also Amma’s good friend—the two met in grammar school, and quickly became friends as the only two black students. Unlike the comparatively free-spirited and opinionated Amma, Shirley is reserved, and holds conventional values and aspirations. She earns a university degree in teaching and decides to teach children from low-income families at Peckham. She begins this job young, idealistic, and happily married to Lennox King, whose educated, progressive, and even-tempered personality meshes well with Shirley’s practical one. Unfortunately, government-enforced changes to the education system turn the enthusiastic Mrs. King into the jaded, strict “School Dragon” that Carole meets.
Winsome
Winsome is Shirley’s mother. She immigrates to the UK from Barbados, and there, meets her husband Clovis. The two travel across England to find work, and eventually settle in London with their three children. Though she marries Clovis and holds a deep love for him, Winsome never finds her husband attractive. So, when Shirley brings home a young and handsome son-in-law, Winsome falls hard. Lennox reciprocates, and the two have a sexual relationship behind Shirley’s back. Winsome views Shirley depreciatingly throughout Shirley’s life, and appears to harbor jealousy that Shirley has grown up middle-class (while Winsome had to work as a ticket collector on a bus), had an education, and of course, that her daughter has Lennox as a husband.
Penelope
Penelope is the first white character detailed in the book. She is the grouchy, older schoolteacher at Peckham that victimizes Shirley when Shirley first arrives. Having been born in the generation of second-wave feminists, she is somewhat more conservative in her values than Amma, though still a feminist in her own right. By modern standards, Penelope’s views would be deemed conservative and racially biased, but within her context, she was a feminist who had to fight hard for a place in a man’s world. After years of childrearing, teaching, and two failed marriages, Penelope becomes jaded, unhappy, snappy, and unpleasant. Though Penelope holds racist opinions throughout the novel, she eventually finds out that she is half-black, and begins to rethink her biases.
Megan/Morgan
Morgan was born as Megan, but realized in adolescence that they were actually a genderfree person—an identity where gender is not present, or is insignificant or irrelevant to the individual’s personhood. The process of becoming Morgan, however, was filled with challenges from their parents, peers, and society at large. As such, they quickly fell into vices like fast food and hard drugs. At 18, they had a revelation—they needed to clean up their act and discover themself. To do so, Morgan uses the internet to research gender identity, and in the process, meets their long-term partner, Bibi.
Hattie
Hattie is Morgan’s 1/4th Ethiopian great-grandmother, also known as GG. She is the only adult in Morgan’s childhood that supports them behaving “like a boy.” Hattie is born on and inherits the Rydendale family farm along with her husband, Slim, after her parents pass away. She has two official children with Slim—Ada Mae and Sonny—and, as we discover later on, had one child that was given up for adoption when she became pregnant at 14. That child ends up being Penelope.
Grace
Grace is Hattie’s mother, or Morgan’s great-great-grandmother. Grace is the result of an encounter between her mother and an Abyssinian (now known as Ethiopian) sailor. Grace’s father sails away before she is born, and is never to be heard from again. Grace’s mother raises her alone, but dies when her daughter is only eight, leaving Grace orphaned at a girls home. Eventually, Grace meets Joseph Rydendale, heir to the Greenfields farm. They fall in love, try for children, have considerable difficulty doing so—they give birth to four children who do not survive—before finally having Hattie.
Roland
Roland is Amma's good friend since youth and is also her sperm donor—in other words, he is Yazz's father. To others in Amma's circle of friends, Roland is somewhat of a "sellout": he has his own show on the BBC, is an author, and lectures at universities for extra income. He belongs squarely within institutions, a fact that some of Amma's more radical friends disdain. From his own side, he reflects that just because he is black and gay does not mean that he needs to carry the entire burden of the black or queer identity. To him, neither his race nor his sexuality were his choice, and should be "footnotes" rather than entire chapters in his story.
