I went to the library the other day and did a search for “apocalyptic fiction” because I was in that kind of mood. I picked a couple of titles. One was a trilogy set in post-nuke Arizona—and well, there were the usual cannibals and crazies. I made it through the first book but it was chewy and without much flavour. So, I tossed it out the window as I was driving by a herd of walkers.
But my
second pick, Who Fears Death, is the
kind of novel you just don’t want to put down. The story is set thousands of
years in the future, in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nnedi Okorafor evokes a society in
conflict, with warring groups divided by clan, skin-colour* and historical
enmity. However, it is her depiction of
life in the village of Jwahir, the coming of age struggles of Onyesonwu, and richly
detailed, complex characters and nuanced layers of relationships that are so
rewarding to read. When you feel you’re reading about a real place and people,
the storyteller has hit the mark! It should be noted that Okorafor’s
depictions of inter-tribal warfare are graphic and difficult to read, and bring
to mind the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the recent attacks by Boko Haram cultists
in Nigeria, and warfare in Sundan. Her writing has a visceral effect on the
reader.
Onyesonwu
is a child of rape, a “Ewu”, whose mother, after her ordeal, escapes the brutal
campaign led by a cohort of Nuru attacking her village. She later gives birth
in the desert to a daughter, whose distinctive, tan-coloured skin will mark her as a societal
outcast. The story is told in the first person by Onyesonwu (her name means
“Who Fears Death?”) She dictates her story
to an unnamed scribe during what we learn are her final days before she is to
be executed.
I can’t
say enough about the ease with which young Onyesonwu’s tale is told. Okorafor's voice
is that of a true story-teller—simple, direct, calm, like someone saying: “Here
is what happened. Let me tell you.” Even her descriptions of horrific inter-tribal
carnage, rape, genital mutilation, as well as Onyeswu’s terrifying visions
and transformations, are done with a stoic voice that reveals how and why such
things happened, and then says: “Let me tell you what happens next.”
 |
| Nnedi Okorafor |
The story
of Onyesonwu is set in a time when sorcery and “ju-ju” magic exist alongside
elements of modern technology—there are some computers, cellphones, electricity
and amenities such as running water—but on a more limited ‘village-scale’. One
passage relates a tale from the “Great Book”, the Okeke bible. It is a creation
story describing how a great civilization was destroyed because of the hubris
of the Okeke, who thereafter are relegated to the status of slaves for their
punishment. Consequently, the dark-skinned Okeke live on the edge of destruction and adopt a
fatalism that may doom them. As Onyesonwu matures and discovers her latent
magical powers under the tutelage of Aro, the village sorcerer, she rebels
against such fatalism. As a young adult, she leaves Jwahir, accompanied by
Mwita, her “life’s companion” and a group of her childhood friends. She embarks
on her quest with two purposes in mind: The first is to discover the truth around
a prophesy telling of a saviour who will liberate the Okeke people. Her second
purpose is to find the man who raped her mother—her birth father—and kill him.
Her
journey is like those found in many spiritual quests: A small group accompanies
an anointed saviour, who we learn is Onyesonwu, herself. They travel through
desert lands**, where Onyesonwu undergoes hardships and is tested by
supernatural powers, and at last arrives at the place where she will be
sacrificed, something she has seen in a vision. Her subsequent death is to signal a great change in the world.
Okorafor
draws on myth and legend, as well as from Islam, Christianity and other traditions to
create a richly evocative and magical journey one woman makes to fulfill her
destiny.
Cheers, Jake.
*I am
reminded of Rwanda, and the divisions between the light-skinned Tutsis and the
darker Hutus. In Okorafor’s future, the Nuru and Okeke are the equivalent of
these groups, with the Nuru more war-like and bent on a campaign of genocide,
and whose goal is the eventual eradication of the Okeke people.
** Nnedi
Okorafor provides the reader with little back-story as to the setting of this
future time. Much later in the book we are given a detail: As they journey west, Onyeswu muses that most of
the world was now desert and the oceans have all dried up.)
[In her Afterword, Okorafor states that she was
inspired to write the story of Onyesonwu after she read an account of organized
rape by combatants in Sudan. She calls it “weaponized rape”, a truly reprehensible
practice and a war crime in anyone's book.]
Some reviewers of her book have compared
Nhedi Okorafor's writing to Octavia Butler's. I’d agree with that assessment, and I would
add that her book, in its details of people, their thoughts, temperaments,
relationships , etc., as well as the creation of Okeke village life, reminds me
of Ursula K. Le Guin’s seminal Always
Coming Home, with her portrayal of life in a post-apocalypse California
(and which I reviewed in an earlier post. Ed.)
Nnedi
Okorafor, Who Fears Death, Daw books,
Inc. New York, 2010.
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