This month we are travelling to Nigeria via Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. Emezi is an Igbo and Tamil writer who goes by the pronouns they/them/theirs.

Freshwater is a somewhat autobiographical coming-of-age story and explores the idea of a fragmented self through the story of Ada, a young Nigerian woman who is inhabited by several Ogbanje.

“An ogbanje is an Igbo spirit that’s born into a human body, a kind of malevolent trickster, whose goal is to torment the human mother by dying unexpectedly only to return in the next child and do it all over again.” - Akwaeke Emezi [1]

I was drawn to this story because I remember coming across an Ogbanje in Chinua Achebe’s acclaimed Things Fall Apart and being rather fascinated with the supernatural entity. Here I feel like Emezi is going to use the Ogbanje as a device to explore cultural and individual identity and gender dysphoria, which are such compelling and important subject matters. Especially, as we are still living in a time where transphobia rife.

It’s undeniable that literature is a powerful tool in the road to normalisation and through reading, I have become a more understanding and accepting person, and for that reason that I why I have selected Freshwater as our March book.

Where to purchase your copy of Freshwater

Audio: Audible

Secondhand: Abebooks

New: Bookshop.org 

Just check back here at the end of each month to discuss the book and find out what we’ll be reading the following month.

The Journey So Far…

[1] Emezi, A., (n.d.) Transition My surgeries were a bridge across realities, a spirit customizing its vessel to reflect its nature.. [online] The Cut. Available at https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/writer-and-artist-akwaeke-emezi-gender-transition-and-ogbanje.html [Accessed 6 March 2021].