Proudly Nigerian

When a Nigerian woman falls for a man she knows will break her mother’s heart, she must choose between love and her family.

At twelve years old, Azere promised her dying father she would marry a Nigerian man and preserve her culture, even after immigrating to Canada. Her mother has been vigilant about helping—well forcing—her to stay within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and…white.

When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother. Soon, Azere can’t help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.

Peter Idenala’s stable but uninteresting life, as an ambitious young banker, is disrupted when he comes across a book, published as fiction, recounting the torrid experiences he lived through during his days in the university. He is shaken because the writer is Neta Okoye, a girl who broke his heart and dumped him six years before. Peter is forced to revisit his past, to relive his once complicated relationship with Neta and the mistakes that marred their years in school; the friendships they found and lost.

When the book leads him directly to her, they are faced with a difficult decision: Continue with their emotionally-empty lives, independent of each other, or be together again and confront the trail of past misfortunes that binds them. For Neta, accepting Peter again comes with a promise of happiness, but it also carries the risk of uncovering the secrets she has carried throughout her life. Secrets involving a brother she used to sleep with.

Their relationship faces a battle against this past blighted by pain and loss, by youth and stupidity, by unprotected sex and incest, by betrayal and heartbreaks, by manslaughter and suicide.

A trio of teenage girls, Imabong Nyang, Tonye Femeiya and Ivie L’di, are casualties of the Warri Crisis of 1997. All three were close friends and classmates who lived in the same neighbour-hood at Lower Erejuwa in Warri South Local Governmeni Area of Delta State. Calamity struck when the crisis heightened in 1997, which took a toll on their families, with each of them losing a blood relative in the most disheartening
way. They reconnect twenty-two years later, in the most awkward circumstances, each nursing the scar from the wounds the crisis inflicted on them.

The story begins with the scene of Mr Femeiya’s butcher in the presence of his only child; Tonye Femeiya at the school of the trio where he went to rescue them, the subsequent separation that occurred as a result of the killings of members of each of their families and then cascades down to Imahong Nyang, now 37, who woke up to a nightmare that recaptured her past during the crisis. That same day she reconnects with Tonye Femeiya at trespitai where she works as a neurosurgeon, and days later, she reconnects in the lie Udi in another situation.

The writing captures the trio’s life journey from their teenage days to their present day. It shows their love lives, career and family life and details how each casualty was able to navigate the difficult hurdles of life while nursing the wound they each sustained from the 1997 crisis.

THE SPIRIT OF DANFO, a story of class, power, the legacy of civil war, and maverick gods in Nigeria.
In DANFO, Ebulu, a brilliant student, longs to restore his mother, Nkoli, ostracised by the village at his father’s death. Ebulu makes a tragic mistake and tempts fate by switching majors from medicine to philosophy.

The choice is the first mistake in a chain that imperils his family and his promising career. The gods are saboteurs. Ebulu will learn hard lessons on the streets of Lagos, where the pace is set by the city’s pushy, death-defying, and improvisational danfo drivers.

DANFO is an intimate portrait of Nigerian city life, illustrating the resilient kindness and humanity of everyday people like Binta and striving to capture the voice of Lagos–most dialogue is in local
patois, including Yoruba and Igbo- while aiming a critique at the city’s notorious patronage and corruption.