A Particular Kind of Black Man by Tope Folarin

Tope Folarin’s A Particular Kind of Black Man is a deeply interior and haunting novel that chronicles the life of Tunde Akinola, a first-generation Nigerian American, as he navigates a childhood of displacement, a family fractured by mental illness, and a lifelong struggle to define his own identity against the rigid templates of “blackness” offered by American society. The narrative is defined by its exploration of “double memories” vivid recollections of events that never happened which mirror Tunde’s fear that he has inherited the schizophrenia that claimed his mother,.

Part I: 1987–1988 – The Utah Origins and the Disappearing Mother

The story begins in Ogden, Utah, where Tunde’s father, Segun, settled in 1979 to study mechanical engineering at Weber State University,. Segun chose Utah specifically because he “didn’t want to be where anyone else was,” craving isolation from the Nigerian diaspora clusters in cities like Houston or London,. Tunde (born 1981) and his brother Tayo (born 1983) were raised in an environment where they were often the only black children for miles,.

A defining early encounter involves Mrs. Hansen, an elderly white woman who accompanies five-year-old Tunde to school and tells him he can “serve her in heaven” if he is a good boy,. Segun is infuriated by this, explaining later that she was referencing an old Mormon belief that black people could only enter heaven as servants a notion Tunde’s mother, Theresa, counters by insisting they will all be equals in heaven,.

The “ordinary” joy of Tunde’s first five years is shattered when Theresa’s mental illness (schizophrenia) begins to manifest after a move to Bountiful, Utah,. Tunde recalls the terror of seeing his mother standing over his naked, bleeding father, having physically assaulted him during a “mood”,. Theresa becomes paranoid, locking herself in her room and asking her sons if they “see” entities that aren’t there,.

Eventually, Theresa abducts Tunde and Tayo, taking them to a YWCA homeless shelter in Salt Lake City,. Life at the shelter is a blur of tutoring sessions on African American history and physical abuse; Theresa, believing “silence is love,” pinches and slaps Tunde for the slightest perceived transgressions, often calling him by his father’s name as if he were an extension of the man she hates,,. The ordeal ends in a courtroom where a judge allows the boys to choose where they want to live. Both Tunde and Tayo choose to stay with their father, and Theresa returns to Nigeria shortly after, disappearing from their lives for sixteen years,,.

Part II: 1988–1991 – The Interregnum and the New Mother

Following Theresa’s departure, Segun becomes a “superhero” figure, working long hours as a mechanic to keep the family afloat while maintaining a facade of relentless optimism,. However, he eventually reveals that Theresa is “too sick” to ever return to America,. Seeking stability, Segun travels to Nigeria to find a “new mother,” leaving Tunde and Tayo with an elderly white couple, the Devlins,.

For a month, Tunde experiences an “impossible” life of middle-class white American comfort karate classes, puppet shows, and big turkey dinners,. This fantasy collapses when the Devlins discover Segun lied about his legal status or previous marriage, and they abruptly hand the boys over to foster care, where they remain for two days until Segun returns with a new wife,.

The “New Mom” arrives in August 1991 with her two sons, Femi and Ade,. She immediately transforms the messy Akinola apartment into a “spotless” home, but she remains emotionally distant from Tunde and Tayo, saving her warmth for her own biological sons,,. Tunde yearns for her love but eventually decides she is “selfish” and “cruel” after she slaps him for folding laundry incorrectly,. He takes to heart his grandmother’s advice over the phone: that he is a “young man” and must learn to “focus on yourself” because he cannot depend on anyone else to take care of his heart,,.

Part III: 1991–1992 – The Ice Cream Business and the Performance of Success

In Hartville, Utah, Segun becomes obsessed with the “American Dream” of entrepreneurship after being fired from Kodak following a racist incident where a coworker hung a drawing of an “evil monkey” in his cubicle,. He quits his job at Layton Rental and purchases a retired US Postal Service truck, converting it into an ice cream truck,.

The ice cream business becomes a family endeavor. Segun forces the boys to work long hours, alternating between selling treats and reading piles of books to improve their “professional English” and American accents,,. Segun believes that if his sons learn to “speak better than them,” white racists will be unable to hold them back,.

A major plot point involves the Hartville City Fair. Segun is initially denied a vendor’s license but eventually secures one. The fair is a moment of fleeting triumph; the family makes record sales, and Tunde sees his father “in the sun,” proud and in control,. However, this is undermined by Tunde witnessing white men mocking Segun’s accent, a reminder that they remain “foreigners engaged in an inspection tour of newly conquered territory”,.

Part IV: 1995–1996 – The Move to Texas and the Quest for Blackness

The family eventually moves to Cirrilo, Texas, and then to Dallas, chasing better jobs and a larger Nigerian community,. In Texas, Tunde realizes he has “no idea how to be black” at least, not the kind of “African American” blackness he sees on television,. While Tayo successfully “cracks the code,” adapting the slang, walk, and popularity of their peers, Tunde remains a “nerdy-looking kid” who feels like he doesn’t fit in his own skin,,.

Tunde attempts to learn from AJ Reynolds, a popular black classmate, even practicing a complex handshake to feel included,. He attends an NAACP conference in Dallas with AJ’s mother, where he hears the Black National Anthem for the first time and feels a “wild sense of triumph” as he learns about black history,.

The domestic peace is shattered again in Dallas when the second mother leaves the family, taking Femi and Ade with her,. She reveals she has found someone else who “treats me better than you,” leaving Segun devastated and the Akinola household fractured once more,.

Part V: The College Years – Morehouse and Bates

Tunde enrolls at Morehouse College in Atlanta, the prestigious HBCU he first learned about as a child in the shelter,. However, he continues to feel like an outsider, an “in-betweener” who is neither Nigerian enough nor black American enough. He begins to experience “double memories” vividly recalling parties he didn’t attend or walks he didn’t take which leads him to fear he is “losing himself to confusion, depression, and paranoia”,.

To cope, Tunde starts writing his life story, hoping that transcribing his memories will provide “control” over his own narrative,. He spends a semester on exchange at Bates College in Maine, where he meets Noelle, a black student with whom he has his first major relationship,,. Noelle eventually challenges Tunde to confront the “robot” he has become the “particular kind of black man” who is always driven and successful but emotionally unreachable,. She urges him to use his internship money to visit his biological mother in Nigeria,.

Part VI: 2004 – The Nigerian Homecoming

The novel concludes with Tunde’s journey to Lagos, Nigeria. He arrives to find that his beloved Grandmother has died just two weeks prior, a secret his family kept from him until his arrival,.

Through his cousin, Tunde is finally taken to see Theresa. He finds her living in an impoverished, dark room, looking “so thin” and vacant,. Initially, she does not recognize him, asking “Who are you?” with fear,. When she finally recognizes him as her “son,” she collapses to the floor,.

In a surreal and tender final sequence, Theresa leads Tunde on a walk through the streets of Lagos to the home of a woman where she buys him a Fanta,. They sit on the sidewalk amidst “car parts strewn all over the place,” and Theresa whispers the same story about a turtle wanting to fly that she told him as a child,. As she falls asleep on his shoulder, Tunde feels “safe” for the first time in years. He lifts her into his arms, carrying his mother home through the debris, resolving that he will “get us back home”,.

Major Themes

1. The Malleability of Identity: Tunde creates templates for himself based on figures like Sidney Poitier and Hakeem Olajuwon, trying to be “nonthreatening and well-behaved” to be accepted by mainstream America,.
2. The Weight of Memory: The “double memories” represent the trauma of a child who had to “dream constantly” at the shelter to survive, blurring the lines between reality and coping mechanisms,,.
3. The Immigrant Father’s Burden: Segun is a “walking, talking smile” who survives Utah by “staring ahead always” and “kicking the pain and heartache away,” but he ultimately passes the pressure of his “American Dream” onto his sons,,.
4. Displacement and Home: Tunde’s “home” is a “jumble” of Utah, Texas, and Nigeria a place that “did not even exist” leading to a lifelong feeling that he is “supposed to be somewhere else”.