Yet Onyesonwu persists.Įventually her magical destiny and her rebellious nature will force her to leave home on a quest that will be perilous in ways that Onyesonwu can not possibly imagine. But, even among her mother's people, she meets with frustrating prejudice because she is Ewu and female. During an inadvertent visit to this other realm she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.ĭesperate to elude her would-be murderer, and to understand her own nature, she seeks help from the magic practitioners of her village.
As Onye grows, so do her abilities-soon she can manipulate matter and flesh, or travel beyond into the spiritual world. But these amazing abilities are merely the first glimmers of a remarkable and unique magic. By the age of eleven, she can change into a vulture. As a child, Onye's singing attracts owls. She is Ewu-a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by both tribes.īut Onye is not the average Ewu.
It doesn't take long for her to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her violent conception. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different-special-she names her child Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient tongue.įrom a young age, stubborn, willful Onyesonwu is trouble. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. An Okeke woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert hoping to die. After years of enslaving the Okeke people, the Nuru tribe has decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke tribe for good. In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways, yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. Literature with a powerful story of genocide in the far future and of the woman who reshapes her world. International award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor enters the world of magical realist
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