After becoming the mother of my third child, my grandmother in Nigeria gifted to me the cloth that would start it all. Then though, I was actually scared of it. When she gave it to me, she told me of the long-held traditional power of the design: whoever wore it will have many more children. I rushed—quickly—to hide it away deep in a box in some corner of our house. Needless to say, I didn’t have any more children. I only rediscovered the cloth when my grandmother passed at the age of 114. She was strength, my example, and my mentor. And I was her Amade, the ancient name she bestowed to me...