Author | Nnedi Okorafor |
---|---|
Audio read by | Ben Onwukwe |
Cover artist | Greg Ruth |
Language | English |
Genre | Fantasy |
Set in | Kaleria, Nigeria |
Published | 2020 |
Publisher | Viking |
Publication date | August 18, 2020 |
Publication place | Nigeria |
Pages | 240 |
ISBN | 978-0-593-11352-3 |
Ikenga is a 2020 middle grade fantasy novel by Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor. [1] [2] [3] It is Okorafor's first book to feature male protagonist and was nominated for the 2021 Edgar Awards. [4] The novel follows Nnamdi, a boy who can access superhuman powers with the help of the Ikenga. [5]
Okorafor's stated that she started writing the novel's first draft in 2009 and based it on Nigerian mythology and the Igbo culture in reference to the Igbo god Ikenga. [5]
Set in Kaleria, a fictional town in contemporary Nigeria, Nnamdi's father who was a chief of police known for capturing criminals was murdered by an unknown group which is rumored to be the Chief of Chiefs and 12-year-old son Nnamdi vowed to avenge him.
On the day his father's memorial celebration, his father spirit soon appears to him and give him a gift of a small figurine known as Ikenga which can transform Nnamdi into a huge black figure with superhuman strength and rage nicknamed The Man by Newspapers. With his newly found powers, he becomes a vigilante and takes out Kaleria's dangerous criminals including the Chiefs of Chiefs.
The book received positive reactions [6] with the New York Times praising Okorafor's characters. [7] School Library Journal in a starred review stated that "this wonderfully fresh superhero origin story offers a look into the shadowy, inexplicable powers that are sudden bestowed in a child". [8]
Kirkus Review noted it for being "a memorable middle grade murder mystery". [9]
Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.
Igbo Americans, or Americans of Igbo ancestry, or Igbo Black Americans are residents of the United States who identify as having Igbo ancestry from modern day Bight of Biafra, which includes Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe & Nigeria. There are primarily two classes of people with Igbo ancestry in the United States, those whose ancestors were taken from Igboland as a result of the transatlantic slave trade before the 20th century and those who immigrated from the 20th century onwards partly as a result of the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s and economic instability in Nigeria. Igbo people prior to the American Civil War were brought to the United States by force from their hinterland homes on the Bight of Biafra and shipped by Europeans to North America between the 17th and 19th centuries.
The Shadow Speaker is a young adult, first-person novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, which takes place in the year 2070. It was a Booksense Pick for Winter 2007/2008, a Tiptree Honor Book, a finalist for the Essence Magazine Literary Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Golden Duck Award and an NAACP Image Award nominee.
Jephthah Elochukwu Unaegbu is a Nigerian writer, researcher, freelance journalist, actor, and documentary film maker.
Who Fears Death is a science fantasy novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, published in 2010 by DAW, then an imprint of Penguin Books. It was awarded the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity." Okorafor wrote a prequel, the novel The Book of Phoenix, published by DAW in 2015.
Akata Witch is a 2011 young adult fantasy novel written by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. It was nominated for the Andre Norton Award and it is the first novel in her The Nsibidi Scripts series; it is followed by two sequels, Akata Warrior (2017) and Akata Woman (2022).
Binti is an Africanfuturist science fiction horror novella written by Nnedi Okorafor. The novella was published in 2015 by Tor.com. Binti is the first novella in Okorafor's Binti novella series.
Binti: Home is a 2017 science fiction novella written by Nnedi Okorafor and published by Tor.com. Binti: Home is the sequel to Okorafor's Binti from 2015, and is followed by Binti: The Night Masquerade, published in 2018.
Lagoon is an Africanfuturist first contact novel by Nnedi Okorafor. It has drawn much scholarly attention since its publication, some of which was written before Okorafor's important clarification that her work is "Africanfuturist" rather than "Afrofuturist." In 2014 it was chosen as an honor list title for the James Tiptree Jr. Award.
Binti: The Night Masquerade is a science fiction novella written by Nnedi Okorafor. The novella was published in 2018 by Tor.com, and it is the final novella in the Binti trilogy that began with 2015's Binti and 2017's Binti: Home. When the full collection Binti: The Complete Trilogy was published, Okorafor added another short story titled "Binti: Sacred Fire".
Africanfuturism is a cultural aesthetic and philosophy of science that centers on the fusion of African culture, history, mythology, point of view, with technology based in Africa and not limiting to the diaspora. It was coined by Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor in 2019 in a blog post as a single word. Nnedi Okorafor defines Africanfuturism as a sub-category of science fiction that is "directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view..and...does not privilege or center the West," is centered with optimistic "visions in the future," and is written by "people of African descent" while rooted in the African continent. As such its center is African, often does extend upon the continent of Africa, and includes the Black diaspora, including fantasy that is set in the future, making a narrative "more science fiction than fantasy" and typically has mystical elements. It is different from Afrofuturism, which focuses mainly on the African diaspora, particularly the United States. Works of Africanfuturism include science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror and magic realism.
Remote Control is a 2021 science fiction novella by Nigerian American Nnedi Okorafor. It is Okorafor's first novella after the Binti Trilogy and is set in the same universe as Okorafor's Who Fears Death and The Book of Phoenix.
Akata Warrior is a 2017 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor. It is a sequel to Akata Witch (2011) and the second book in her TheNsibidi Scripts series; it's followed by Akata Woman (2022). It won the inaugural Lodestar Award in 2018 as well as the 2018 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel.
The Binti trilogy or Binti Series is a trilogy of Africanfuturist science fiction novellas by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. Beginning with Binti and ending with Binti: The Night Masquerade, it follows the heroine Binti as she leaves Earth to attend a prestigious university in space.
The Book of Phoenix is a 2015 science fantasy novel by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. It is a stand alone prequel to Who Fears Death, it won the 2018 Kurd Laßwitz Preis for Best Foreign Fiction Book and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
LaGuardia is a four-issue Africanfuturist comic book limited series by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor and artist Tana Ford. The series was published by Dark Horse Comics imprint Berger Books from December 2018–March 2019, when it was also reprinted in a collected trade paperback format.
The Third Generation of Nigeria Writers is an emerging phase of Nigerian literature, in which there is a major shift in both the method of publishing and the themes explored. This set of writers are known for writing post-independence novels and poems. This generation is believed to be influenced by the western world, politics and the preceding generation of Mbari Club writers, Flora Nwapa and Buchi Emecheta. The emergence of the third generation of Nigerian writers has changed the publishing sector with a resurgence of new publishing firms such as Kachifo Limited, Parrésia Publishers, Cassava Republic Press and Farafina Books. These new writers create new genres and methods that deal with racism, class, abuse and violence.
Akata Woman is a 2022 young adult fantasy novel by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. It is the sequel to Akata Witch and Akata Warrior and the third book in her The Nsibidi Script series. It debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list following its release in January 2022.
Noor is a 2021 Africanfuturist science fiction novel by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. The novel was published on November 9, 2021, by DAW Books and is the fourth adult novel written by Okorafor. It is a finalist for the Locus Award for best science fiction novel.
Kabu Kabu is a speculative fiction short story collection written by Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor with stories in both Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism styles and themes. The collection was first published in 2013 by Prime Books.