46 pages • 1 hour read
Kwame OnwuachiNotes from a Young Black Chef
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Dominoes”
While walking down Bourbon Street in New Orleans as a young man, Onwuachi feels a deep connection to the city. His mother grew up in Louisiana before moving north in the 1960s. Now Onwuachi runs into a childhood friend named Michael, sparking many memories.
At the direction of his father, Onwuachi took a gifted and talented test as a child. His score on the test landed him in a school with a diverse group of students in Baychester. One of these students was Michael Gallagher and his twin brother, Patrick. The two Irish brothers invited Onwuachi to their home, which became one of Onwuachi’s favorite places. Michael and Patrick’s mother served Irish staples with little seasoning, and Onwuachi considered the food inferior to his own mother’s cooking. However, he was amazed at the comfort and ease with which the family members interacted with one another and was especially struck by the easy affection with which Mr. Gallagher treated his sons and wife.
At school, however, he felt like an outsider. Even in second grade, he took note of how his teachers were quick to punish him, a Black student, for infractions that warranted only warnings for white students. He also became more aggressive toward his classmates, throwing one boy “off a jungle gym so hard he fractured his wrist” and calling others “worthless piece of shit” or “stupid idiot” (53). At home, Jewel’s new boyfriend did his best to provide paternal support while understanding that he had not yet earned Onwuachi’s favor. A change in school buildings in fifth grade meant that Michael and Patrick took the bus, which required a yearly fee, while Onwuachi rode the train. There, he saw Black students going to other schools and made friends with them. He found acceptance with these young people. As his behavior deteriorated, Onwuachi’s teachers stopped engaging with him and moved him to the back of the classroom. The twin boys and Onwuachi grew apart.
Running into Michael brings these early memories rushing forward. He invites Michael to his home to see Jewel. At first, she does not recognize him. When she finally remembers his face, the three stay up, talking and laughing together as they reminisce.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Ancestors”
When Onwuachi was 10, his family apartment began to feel small. As summer approached, Onwuachi became increasingly agitated and defiant. The prospect of spending the summer in a cramped apartment with only a closet for a bedroom made him even more irritable. Everywhere he went, Onwuachi felt powerless. His father’s home was a place of terror, and school made him feel like a prisoner. One night, near the end of fifth grade, Onwuachi broke his mother’s cutting board during an argument. She decided to send him to Africa to spend the summer with his grandfather, Patrick’s father.
Kwame’s grandfather was born in Zaria and went to school in Lagos. As an adult, he moved to the United States and became an important figure in the Pan-African movement in the 1950s-1970s. The older Onwuachi taught at Howard and Fisk Universities before returning to Africa to escape the violent treatment of African American activists in the United States. In Ibusa, he secured a position as an elder and lived on a compound with two wives. After the argument between Kwame and Jewel, he flew to the United States to pick up young Kwame and escort him to Africa. At the compound, Onwuachi experienced a completely different way of living and eating. He enjoyed his time and made friends with the chickens running around the compound. When he called his mother in September to ask when he would be returning home, she told him that he would be staying with his grandfather indefinitely—until he could learn respect.
The Nigerian school Onwuachi attended was a stark contrast to his American school. He quickly learned that he did not want to receive punishment; detention had been more palatable than carrying a cinderblock across the playground. Over time, his grandfather taught him about his culture and the important role of ancestors. The older Onwuachi showed Kwame how to butcher a chicken and honor his ancestors in the process. Kwame realized that he had found the space he had been searching for, but it was not about physical space or the size of his bedroom. Instead, he discovered a feeling of belonging and fitting into a heritage. When he made the journey back to the United States, Kwame Onwuachi’s ancestors came with him.
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Block”
When Onwuachi returned to the United States at the age of 12, he quickly set aside the lessons he had learned with his grandfather and embraced his old behaviors. He did not yet understand how hard his mother was working and the financial struggle she faced as she paid Kwame’s tuition to Cardinal Spellman, a private Catholic school. At this new school, Kwame made new friends whose lives differed from his. One of those friends, Jaquan, lived in a rough housing project in the Bronx known as The Webster Houses. When Kwame visited Jaquan, he confronted a desolate and violent way of life. For the first time, he encountered gangs and a flippant use of the n-word.
Onwuachi tried to avoid the gangs but was pulled into one known as B.A.B.Y. at the age of 16. By this point, Onwuachi had been kicked out of Spellman for his behavior. At his new school, he met a girl and had sex with her. The girl’s boyfriend found out and challenged Kwame to a fight. Onwuachi, overpowered and outnumbered, was left unconscious on the ground. A young man who was a member of the gang that dominated Jaquan’s block witnessed the fight but did nothing. Although Onwuachi was not an official member of B.A.B.Y., he was a regular figure in the area and had earned respect. The leader of the gang told Onwuachi that he must fight the young man who failed to intervene on his behalf. If he did not, the leader would beat up Onwuachi.
After the second fight, Kwame secured his place in the gang. His time in the Bronx was marked by violence. He bought a gun for $60 at age 16 and witnessed his first murder, yet he could move back and forth between worlds. He found jobs at fast food restaurants in wealthier neighborhoods and spent time in Manhattan. Selling drugs allowed him to indulge his taste for designer clothes. Jaquan and Onwuachi applied to the University of Bridgeport, where they quickly developed a successful drug and alcohol business and operated it out of their dorm room.
Onwuachi was reckless, skipping class to meet buyers and using his own stock. The dean of undergraduates pulled Onwuachi into his office and showed him a videotape of Onwuachi smoking marijuana. To elicit sympathy from the dean, Onwuachi lied about being the first in his family to attend college and manufactured tears, shame, and guilt. The dean agreed to give him another chance, but Onwuachi was later expelled after a failed drug test. He set up his drug business in a two-story house near campus; although it did well, he quickly began to lose his grip on his personal life. He was abusing the drugs he was selling and surrounding himself with dangerous friends. On the morning that President Barack Obama was inaugurated, Kwame woke up to a house torn apart and filled with unconscious acquaintances. He walked to the grocery store and bought ingredients to make chicken curry. After cooking a meal in the kitchen, he called his mom and asked if he could join her in Baton Rouge.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
In this section, Onwuachi learns about violence. The Anger and Power he saw exhibited at home was everywhere else too. Despite being identified as gifted, Onwuachi struggled with his father’s abuse, which translated into trouble at school as early as the second grade. Onwuachi, though, did not yet have the self-awareness to recognize that his hostility toward classmates reflected the extent to which he had absorbed his father’s aggression. Onwuachi also presents a sophisticated understanding of how anger and power connect to racism. Exertions of dominance trickle down within systems of oppression. As a young Black man, Onwuachi was near the bottom of that system, so violence was all around him. His father was abusive and angry. His peers were desperate and desensitized to violence. Anger and power had made its way to his doorstep.
The effects of anger and power further emerge in Onwuachi’s experiences with the B.A.B.Y. gang. Onwuachi was forced to fight an acquaintance who had violated B.A.B.Y. etiquette, and he unknowingly earned a spot in the gang. When he bought the gun at age 16, it gave him a new feeling: “Talk about power—this was power” (91). Here was an opportunity to subvert the narrative of power that had directed the lives of Onwuachi and other young men. B.A.B.Y. gave its members the opportunity to feel in control while living in a world that had stripped them of their autonomy.
Onwuachi moved in and out of this world of violence easily. Law enforcement officers did not hassle him because he dressed well and was used to code switching. This fluidity reflects the theme of The Discovery of Identity. As a young man, Onwuachi wondered whether his ability to become different versions of himself indicated a lack of identity. Perhaps he was a chameleon, nothing more. However, another way to consider the various versions of Onwuachi is through the lens of collaborative identity. Social constructionists do not view identity as singular or context-free. Instead, they suggest that a person’s personality depends on who is around them and what they are experiencing. The B.A.B.Y. Kwame and elitist Kwame that Onwuachi describes were both parts of his personality; each contributed to his identity. Onwuachi had in fact encountered a variation on this idea while in Nigeria, when his grandfather stressed that Onwuachi was the embodiment of his ancestors as much as a discrete individual. The idea is again that identity is plural: a collage of the experiences one has had and the people one has known. As a young man, however, Onwuachi did not see these commonalities. His time in Nigeria was simply another aspect of himself he struggled to reconcile.
In this section, Onwuachi also affirms his belief in the kitchen as a space of connection. His friends’ mother made their kitchen a central hub of activity. In her kitchen, the family hugged and swapped stories. It was light and full of warmth. The food was not always good, but it was improved by the quality of the atmosphere. Onwuachi was learning some of his earliest lessons about Food as Connection and Story.
