2010 science fantasy novel by Nnedi Okorafor
Who Fears Death is a science fantasy novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, published in 2010 by DAW, an imprint of Penguin Books. It was awarded the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel,[1][2] as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity."[3] Okorafor wrote a prequel, the novel The Book of Phoenix, published by DAW in 2015.[4]
The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic Africa, where the light-skinned Nuru oppress the dark-skinned Okeke.
In 2023, Okorafor announced her upcoming novella trilogy She Who Knows which would serve as a prequel and sequel to Who Fears Death and would focus on the life of Najeeba, Onyesonwu's mother. The first novella is scheduled for publication in 2024.[5]
Plot
The novel follows the protagonist, Onyesonwu (Igbo for "who fears death"), who is an Ewu, i.e. the child of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru man. On reaching maturity, she goes on a quest to defeat her sorcerous father Daib using her magical powers. The novel is narrated by Onyesonwu to a journalist who interviews her before her execution. It is divided into three parts.
Part I
The novel opens with the death of Onyesonwu's Father, which occurs when Onyesonwu was sixteen. The plot shifts back to her arrival in Jwahir. Onyesonwu is a product of rape, her mother Najeeba's was raped alongside other Okeke women by a Nuru man when her village was attacked and destroyed by the Nurus.
Onyesonwu grows up in Jwahir after spending six years in the desert alone with her mother. She doesn't fit with the town people and is often ostracized because she is an Ewu. Onye meets a blacksmith named Fadil Ogundimu who treats her well, and eventually marries her mother. Onyesonwu undergoes female circumcision at eleven in an attempt to become normal and accepted by the community against her parents wishes, giving her biological father the chance to haunt her. She bonds closely with the three other girls who undergo the rites, Binta, Diti, and Luyu. Soon after the rite, an Ewu boy named Mwita arrives at school. Mwita and Onyesonwu befriends each other because of their shared status and shared powers, but Onyesonwu is skeptical about him because Mwita is trained by Aro, the local sorcerer, who refuses to coach her because she is a girl. After Onyesonwu father's burial Aro decides to coach her.
Part II
Onyesonwu's return to school days later after her father's death. She goes through a terrifying initiation which is literally her own death. She bonds with Mwita and develops her powers of shape shifting, resurrecting creatures, traveling to the ‘wilderness’ (spirit world) and she regrows her clitoris.
Onyesonwu's apprenticeship ends when she is mocked at the market and uses her abilities to make the mockers relive her mother's rape. After this, she leaves Jwahir and moves to help the Okeke in the west of the desert. Mwita, Binta, Diti, Luyu, and Diti's fiancé Fanasi decide to travel with her. On the way, Onyesonwu asks for direction to find the Nuru man prophesied by a Seer to rewrite the Great Book and she discovers that it was she who has been prophesied to rewrite the Great Book which justifies the oppression of the Okeke people and stop the Nuru attack in the west. The Seer was afraid to admit that an Ewu woman will change everything so he switched the race and gender.
Part III
Tension grows among the group due to the harshness of the desert and Luyu and Fanasi begin to have an affair after Onyesonwu regrows her friends clitoris despite Fanasi's betrothal to Diti. They reach a supply town where Onyesonwu and Mwita are stoned because of their Ewu status and Binta is killed in the process. Onyesonwu, out of rage, blinds everyone in the town. After Binta's death, they encounter the Vah, a tribe who travels in the sandstorm. The Vah invites the group to stay with them for the three weeks they plan on remaining there. Onyesonwu discusses with the goddess Ani and she meets a Kponyungo (dragon like creature) who takes her to the east. Onyesonwu's spirit travels to the west and attacks Diab but Diab uses an evil juju to poison her.
Diti and Fanasi return to Jwahir after the Vah sorcerers heal Onyesonwu and the others continue on their journey. Onyesonwu, Luyu and Mwita reach ruined Okeke villages and people and Onyesonwu heals the sick among them. They reach Durfa, where Onyesonwu attacks Diab and Mwita is killed by him. Onyesonwu uses her ability to move one of her eggs towards Mwita's sperm causing an explosion which injures Diab and eventually leads to his death.
Luyu and Onyesonwu discover that the blast killed all fertile men around the region and impregnated all the fertile women. They both flee to an island where Onyesonwu finds the Great Book. She rewrites it with a magical script called Nsibidi. The remaining Nuru men reach the island, kill Luyu and take Onyesonwu prisoner.
The epilogue, narrated by a Nuru who interviewed Onyesonwu, asserts that she was stoned to death and explains how he worked with his sister to dig her body. While a narration of the last two chapters by Sola describes Onyesonwu escaping execution by transforming into a Kponyungo and flying east to meet Mwita.
Locations/Settings
Jwahir
A desert town In the East populated by the Okeke where Onyesonwu grew up and spent most of her life with her mother.[6] Due to the distance of The Seven Rivers Kingdoms from Jwahir, the town is generally peaceful. In order to be fully accepted into the society, all eleven years old girls are expected to go through their Eleventh Year Rite which basically involves female circumcision. The girls are also given small diamonds called "talembe etanou" which should be in their mouth until death and waist chains. Onyesonwu is ostracized in the community because of her ewu status even after passing through the rite. The town is governed by the Osugbo, a group of elders who keep law and order.[7][6]
Banza
A huge Okeke town of art and culture located in the middle of the desert. It is well developed having a paved highway and residential area, electricity as well as a huge market. Unlike Jwahir, Ewu people are not ostracized and are considered to be prostitutes, a hotel for Ewu women is located in the town. Its residents are known for their lust, evil and wayward ways of life. Onyesonwu was nearly raped in the town and the resident did nothing but watch the events.
Papa Shee
A supplies town where free Okeke and Nuru live together. Onyesonwu and Mwita was stoned by the residents because of their ewu status and in the process Binta was killed. Onyesonwu out of rage made the entire residents blind including children and babies. It is now called "The Town of the Sightless".
Ssolu
The moving village of the mythological Red People, it consists of tents set up by them in the middle of the dust storm of which is controlled by the village chief. The dust storm protects the village from the outside world. There is also a moving school in the village for children. Juju is an important aspect of the community.
Gadi
A war torn village that was previously dominated by Okeke slaves. The Nuru attacked the defenseless Okeke who are trying to defend themselves. The Nuru men also engaged in raping the defenseless Okeke women as part of their plans.
Durfa
A Nuru town which is the base of the Nuru military force. It is also one of the town that makes up The Seven Rivers Kingdom alongside Chassa, Suntown, Sahara, Ronsi, Wa-wa, and Zin and one of the wealthiest town with its residents having electricity and Okada (scooters). Due to its size and wealth it needed Okeke slaves to do its work but with them gone, Nuru from poorer regions did the Job. Ewus are considered to be abominations and would be killed if caught by the residents.
Themes and influences
Nnedi Okorafor started writing the novel after her father's death, the first scene of the novel was inspired by Okorafor's moments at her father's wake.[2] The novel was also inspired in part by Emily Wax's 2004 Washington Post article "We Want to Make a Light Baby," which discussed the use of weaponized rape by Arab militiamen against Black African women in the Darfur conflict. According to Wax: "The victims and others said the rapes seemed to be a systematic campaign to humiliate the women, their husbands and fathers, and to weaken tribal ethnic lines."[8] Okorafor wrote that this article "created the passageway through which Onyesonwu slipped through my world."[9]
Okorafor based most of the traditional mysticism and beliefs on the traditional belief of the Igbo people, which she is a member of.[10] The mythological Vah or "The Red People" was inspired by two red skinned Nigerian women Okorafor saw on two occasions during her visit to her home in Nigeria.[10]
The novel contains several references to Amos Tutuola's novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard.[11]
Reception
The book received generally positive reception from reviewers and readers.[12][13] A starred review from Publishers Weekly called the novel "A fantastical, magical blend of grand storytelling".[14] A review from The Washington Post noted that the book was "both wondrously magical and terribly realistic".[15] Zetta Brown of the New York Journal of Books states that, "To compare author Nnedi Okorafor to the late Octavia E. Butler would be easy to do, but this simple comparison should not detract from Okorafor's unique storytelling gift."[16]
Besides winning the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award, Who Fears Death was nominated for the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2011 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It also won the Best Foreign Novel award at the French Awards "Les Imaginales". Time ranked the novel as one of the 100 Best Fantasy Book of All Time.[17]
The novel includes a graphic scene in which Onyesonwu is subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), which she later learns may affect her magical powers. Steven Barnes of the American Book Review noted some had criticized the scene.[18][19] In a blog post, Okorafor commented that she is proud of her Igbo identity, but that "culture is alive and it is fluid. It is not made of stone nor is it absolute. Some traditions/practices will be discarded and some will be added, but the culture still remains what it is. It is like a shape-shifting octopus that can lose a tentacle but still remain a shape-shifting octopus (yes, that image is meant to be complicated). Just because I believe that aspects of my culture are problematic does not mean I am "betraying" my people by pointing out those problems." She added: "What it [i.e., female genital cutting] all boils down to (and I believe the creators of this practice KNEW this even a thousand years ago) is the removal of a woman's ability to properly enjoy the act of sex. Again, this is about the control and suppression of women."[19]
TV adaptation
In July 2017, Okorafor announced the novel was the basis for an HBO television series in "early development", with George R. R. Martin serving as an executive producer;[20][21][22] Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has been selected as scriptwriter.[23] In January 2021 it was announced that Tessa Thompson's newly formed production company, Viva Maude, had joined the team and Aïda Mashaka Croal is serving as the new scriptwriter.[24][25]
