Laye Can't Hurt the Black Snake (Situational Irony)
In the memoir's first chapter, Laye recounts an early memory of playing with a snake. When the adults near him see he is not afraid, they intervene by scooping the child up and reprimanding him for being careless. Laye's mother tells her son about the danger of snakes, and from then on, Laye alerts her whenever a snake approaches their huts. In response, she swiftly beats the snakes to a pulp. However, Laye learns there is one snake—a shiny black one—that he must never kill. His father says this snake is "the guiding spirit of our race," a supernatural creature who curls up like an obedient pet and informs Laye's father about future events, sometimes via dreams. In this instance of situational irony, Laye learns that a magical being belongs to the species he has been taught to fear and destroy.
Gold Smelting is Bad for Health (Situational Irony)
Although Laye's father works with many types of metal, Laye is most interested in his gold-processing ritual. It begins when a woman hires a cora player to sit in the workshop and sing Laye's father's praises. Having had his ego stroked, Laye's father agrees to melt down the scraps of gold the woman brings him and shape it into a trinket. All his apprentices drop what they are doing to take part in the mystical smelting process, which involves Laye's father cleansing himself with potions before getting his forge hot and melting the gold. He speaks incantations while turning the metal to liquid and shaping it into a piece of jewelry. It ends with celebration in the workshop and the eating of cola nuts. Laye relishes in the ritual of gold smelting his father engages in, but his mother deflates his jubilation when he leaves the celebratory atmosphere of the workshop, reminding her son that gold smelting is damaging to Laye's father’s lungs and eyes. In this instance of situational irony, the mystical, sacred smelting process contrasts with the belittling attitude of Laye's mother, who reveals that playing around with gold has harmful consequences.
Supper Invitation (Dramatic Irony)
In the chapter about the rampant bullying that goes on at Laye's school, Laye details how his friend Kouyaté finally tells his father about the beatings he has been suffering. To retaliate against Himourana, the older boy who picks on Kouyaté, Kouyaté's father devises a plan that involves tricking the boy into an ambush. At school the next day, Kouyaté invites Himourana to supper, saying his father wants to meet the older boy who has been kindest to his son. Himourana gladly accepts, not stopping to question why the boy he is cruelest to would hold him in high regard. In this instance of dramatic irony, the reader understands before Himourana that he is about to receive a violent dressing-down at Kouyaté's father's home.
We'll Be Outnumbered (Verbal Irony)
In the last chapter of The Dark Child, Laye is given an opportunity to continue his studies in France. Fiercely protective of her son, Laye's mother reacts to the news with anger and denunciations. In private, Laye confides to his father that he already accepted the offer. Laye's father supports his son's decision, but he knows Laye's mother will be difficult to convince. He tells Laye they will tell her together, to which Laye asks if he wouldn't prefer to tell her by himself. Laye's father replies: "By myself? No, my son. Believe me, even if we both go we'll be outnumbered." In this instance of verbal irony, Laye's father injects humor into a tense moment by joking that the two of them are no match for Laye's mother. Even though they amount to more people, Laye's mother is so powerful that she alone will outnumber them.
