This novella is the first in a duology centered around the mother of Onyesonwu, protagonist of Who Fears Death. Nnedi Okorafor’s work is generally something I enjoy, though never quite as much as I expect that I should or will. This was the exception to that rule; I loved it.
My memories of Who Fears Death are pretty hazy, and I don’t remember anything at all about Onyesonwu’s mother. So while I might have gotten more out of this story if that were different, I never felt the lack. (Mostly. I’ll get to that.) So I’d say this works just fine if you’ve never read anything else Okorafor has written. I’d actually say this is an excellent entry point to her work: Who Fears Death is an excellent, excellent book, but a book written on the theme of “rape as a weapon of war” isn’t exactly light reading.
Anyway, this book is set in the future of what is presently Sudan, though it’s long enough after the apocalypse that name doesn’t come up any time. Najeeba is a girl on the cusp of womanhood, and living in a village with fellow members of her untouchable caste. The village survives on the salt trade; nearby is the remains of a lake long since dried up, leaving behind a vast field of salt crystals. Once a year, the men of her village will receive a kind of supernatural calling, and know that it’s the time to go to the lake and harvest salt. This happens one-family at a time; there is never overlap, and no one besides these untouchables can ever find the salt lake. None of this is explained, it simply is.
I said “the men of the village” deliberately; it’s the men who do this. Women aren’t exactly forbidden, but they never receive the call and do not go. Except Najeeba does receive the call and her father permits her to come. This starts Najeeba off on a path where she pushes the boundaries of both her gender and her caste, bringing both prosperity and persecution. Najeeba also discovers her own powers as a sorceress, but that aspect of things isn’t thoroughly explored though it’s highly present. I expect it’ll be a big role in the sequel. Very much Afrofuturism, like everything Okorafor does.
So what about my earlier comment about how Who Fears Death “mostly” isn’t relevant to this? This is, as I said, about Onyesonwu’s mother, and as such is a prequel. But there’s a little coda scene at the end that takes place after the end of Who Fears Death that leaves me suspecting that the events of that book will matter very much going forward. Might have to reread before the sequel to this comes out.
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