Furo's Change In Blackass By Igoni Barrett

Furo’s Change
Furo Wariboko, a thirty three year old black man living with his family in Lagos, Nigeria one day awoke to find his appearance had changed in his sleep to resemble that of someone Caucasian. The book, Blackass by Igoni Barrett, in which this takes place tells of Furo’s journey that resulted from this transformation by emphasizes his decisions and the overall changes he undergoes. From beginning to end we read of the events following this event that guide Furo on the path of life he chooses to walk. As readers, we see over the span of the book the changes he undergoes from what surrounds him to how he behaves or in others words how he begins to act like a “white man”. Furo goes from being a humble, passive man whom is grateful
Furo has begun his work at the company that sells business books and is now feeling more confident in his future as a white man. I would say the starting point of this change is when he yells at his driver and threatens to get him fired due to his poor manner of speech towards him (a higher level employee). In his defense the driver was acting out of line, but the readers could tell this was where he started to notably change in his actions regarding others since he even surprised himself with that tone since it was not in character for him. When he goes to his first assignment of selling books to a firm, he learns that the corporate world is really impulsive and belligerent but that people only want him for the color of his skin. The reason he encounters this truth is when the boss of that company, a alleged friend of Furo’s boss, offers him a job but then demands him to leave after not accepting the offer right away. Readers can also see he is becoming more possessive over Syreeta despite there being no label on their relationship (and based of the text it appears he sees her more for the sex and a source for nursing). How we choose to interoperate these actions we still have to keep in mind the cultural differences and how we should keep in mind African literature as a whole (Edoro). Consequently this is the point where Furo is making choices to change as a person thus our feelings towards him also start to