She names her daughter Onyesonwu, which means “Who Fears Death?” in an ancient African tongue. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and instinctively knows that her daughter is different. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the desert. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and exterminate the Okeke. In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues one region. It’s a rare and lucky thing for me to start my year of reading with such an excellent and compelling tale as Who Fears Death At times heart-warming, and at others, absolutely heart-wrenching, Who Fears Death is both a testament to hope, and an elegy for all those who have been through the struggles of the Okeke as a people. From her roots as a child of an Okeke mother and a brutal Nuru rapist, through her realization of her role as a sorceress, and potential place in a prophecy of world-changing consequence, Onye’s journey is one of struggle, joy, despair and hope. Who Fears Death is the fourth novel by Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor, and tells the story of a young woman Onyesonwu.
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