Her name means Who Fears Death

Christopher Farai Charamba The Reader
One of my favourite books by an African author is “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” by Amos Tutuola. It is an absurd piece of literature which tells the tale of a man who so much loved his palm-wine that when his palm-wine tapper fell from a tree and died, he voyaged to the land of the dead in search of him. So it was with great delight that I found this book referenced twice in Nnedi Okorafor’s “Who Fear Death”.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa, “Who Fears Death” is a story of Onyesonwu, which means who fears death, an Esu girl who must go on a journey to end the oppression of the Okeke people by the Nuru.

In the Kingdom of the Seven Rivers which lies to the West, the Nuru, a white race, enslave the Okeke, a black race.

They also seek out Okeke villages pillage them, rape the women and kill the men.

Najeeba is raped by a Nuru man in one of the raids on her village.

Defiant and not willing to die after she discovers she is pregnant, she travels into the desert, births her child, Onyesonwu and lives there for six years.

The two then move into an Okeke town, Jwahir far east from where Onyesonwu’s mother came from.

But because Onyesonwu is born Esu, mixed race, she is shunned by the Okeke people and seen as an outcast.

A few years after living in this village Onyesonwu discovers she has magical gifts of transformation.

After a long time of convincing, she is then trained in the Great Mystic Points by the sorcerer Aro.

She learns that the man who raped her mother, Daib is actually a powerful sorcerer himself and is set on exterminating all the Okeke people.

A prophecy is told about an Esu girl who will end the suffering of the Okeke and rewrite the Great Book and with her companions Mwita, Luyu, Binta, Diti and Fanasi she sets off to fulfil it.

“Who Fears Death” is a simple, but very interesting read.

The author Nnedi Okorafor creates a futuristic African fantasy world staying true to elements of culture, language and tradition.

Throughout the book the Okorafor challenges the system of patriarchy that is so dominant in many African cultures.

For a long time Aro refused to train Onyesonwu as a sorcerer because she is a girl.

Okorafor confronts patriarchal stereotypes and presents a number of the women in the book as strong, determined and clear about who they are and the choices they make like the sexually liberated Luyu.

The book also touches on issues like female genital mutilation a practice which today has affected 200 million living in Africa the Middle East and Asia.

It also challenges religion and how wrong it is that justification for genocide can be sought from what people consider to be holy texts.

Part of the novel was inspired by an article in the Washington Post written by Emily Wax in 2004 titled ‘We Want to Make a Light Baby’ which discussed the issue of weaponised rape by Arab militiamen against black African women in the Darfur conflict.

The issue of race is apparent from the start of the novel and is a theme that runs to the end.

Okorafor makes it a point for one to think of how the difference of skin colour alone can cause there to be hate between people and for one to bring suffering to another.

There is a lot of magic in the book drawn from African culture which is also reflected in the host of different people from varied backgrounds. Okorafor is able to paint an interesting picture of desert life in this post-apocalyptic Sahara.

For a fantasy novel ‘Who Fears Death’ is a great read and to its credit it has been picked up by HBO to be turned into a series which will definitely be worth the watch.

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