One woman's odyssey

MSU graduate Nnedi Okorafor examines life in post-apocalyptic Africa in "Who Fears Death"

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The death of her father pushed Nnedi Okorafor to write “WhoFears Death,” her latest novel.

“The opening scene in the book happened to me,” she said.“That is an emotional look at a young girl attending her father’s funeral. Thebook was therapy for me.”

The dust jacket of “Who Fears Death” is illustrated with theimage of a young woman profiled against a desert scene. Are those angel wingssprouting from her back? Look closer.

That’s about all I will tell you, but the wings will giveyou a hint about what lies inside the pages of this sci-fi fantasy thriller.

This is the first adult novel of Okorafor and, although itis the coming-of-age story of a young African girl, Oneyesunwu, there areenough grisly depictions to make it adults-only.

Horrific scenes of rape, genital mutilation and genocide areplayed out against the struggle of a young woman to create a world worth livingin. Oneyesunwu’s name was chosen carefully by her mother. It means “who fearsdeath.”

Oneyesunwu, a product of genocidal rape, is different — andnot just in a physical sense — with lighter skin and facial characteristicsthat show her cross-tribal parentage. Her mother recognizes she is special in amagical way and destined to confront the genocidal holocaust of Africa.

In many ways the book, set sometime in the future, is analternate gender-bender “Star Wars” with a female protagonist out to change amuch grimmer world. It has a pure science-fiction quest mixed with large dosesof magical realism.

The author admits she has written 15 unpublished novels.“This one was different,” she said. “I felt it was dictated to me — it justcame. It was as if I wanted to find out what happened next.”

She said she had “nightmares” about some of the themes whenshe was editing them. However. one of her biggest fears about her newest bookis her mother’s reaction to some of the more explicit scenes in the book.

“She’s reading it now,” Okorafor said. “She hasn’t saidanything yet.”

Okorafor is a writing professor at Chicago State University,a graduate of the University of Illinois and a graduate of Michigan StateUniversity’s School of Journalism masters program. She is the daughter ofNigerian-born parents and has written two previous young adult novels, “Zaharathe Windseeker” and “The Shadow Speaker.” Although she settled into a writingcareer, that path wasn’t always as clear-cut.

Nnedi said her time on thecampus of MSU was one of her best experiences as a writer.

“The workshop introduced me to(African-American science-fiction writer) Octavia Butler and, while working onmy masters, I did a lot of writing. I admitted to myself that I was a writerand came out of that closet.”

At MSU she credits her discovery of the MSU SpecialCollections and the library’s Africana Collection with influencing her writing,which complemented the African folk tales she heard from family members whilegrowing up.

Okorafor’s science fiction writing may have been stronglyinfluenced by Octavia Butler, but her writing style and dark thematic approachare comparable to horror master Stephen King.

At MSU, she was pondering whether to pursue a career injournalism or literature. She had applied for both an internship with a Chicagodaily newspaper and a slot in the prestigious Clarion Science-Fiction Workshop.Then there was the bad news/good news. She was not chosen for the internshipbut was accepted for the workshop, which was being held in East Lansing at thattime. As it turns out, even the bad news was good news.

She said it was the workshop that thrust her into the roleof a writer, one she has fully embraced. As for that journalism career —there’s no looking back.

Okorafor will be at Schuler Books and Music in the EastwoodTowne Center, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 2.

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