My dearest Sibling in Diaspora,

I'm writing you these letters from Africa, a place described as a jungle by Pink

people.

It was from there that your great-grandfathers and mothers were shipped away to

lands culturally different from theirs. They were forced into outfits that were

strange to them. They were made to live in a different climate, against their will

They were mullioned, decorated and a new life festered on them. A very different

life. More chaotic than they ever lived; translucently debilitating and quite

horrendous; more often than you would find in the hardship that young people who

are trafficked through Libya to Europe via the Mediterranean experience today.

I am writing to you with a sorrowful and angry soul, because what the Pink people

did to our fathers and mothers must never be forgotten or forgiven. We shall keep

demanding that they apologize, and ceaselessly remind them of their crimes

against humanity.

These are tasks we must discharge daily. If we failed to do those, the Pink people

would continue to manipulate and wound us. The Pink persons are evil; they

constitute an affliction upon the world. Their heartlessness is unrivaled. Therefore,

we must zealously repulse their advance.

I am only writing to you, to apologize for many misdeeds. I apologize to you, my

dearest Sibling in Diaspora, whom we allowed Pink people to take away from us.

They have said that we "sold' you into slavery. I agree. We did, because if we

hadn't, no complicity would have been involved in stacking you on the ships. We

helped them take you away. This is why I am writing this letter to you.

To say, I am sorry and that you must forgive us for allowing them to take you

away.

Forgive us.

A young Haitian, Jean Claude, loses his parents in the earthquake that shattered

Port-au-Prince in 2010.

He is taken to an orphanage in France - a place that will shatter his memory.

Then, he finds his way to the University of Oxford, Where he is arrested for trying to

read at Weston Library.

What is his crime in life?

Nwelue's unusual character explores problems affecting Africa, childhood memories,

religion, colonialism. There's infusion of historical facts, which makes it a delight.

Powerful descriptions and profound imageries deployed all through.

Money is power. When you have power, it can be intoxicating. That is why the power gate-keepers that money spawn like to delight in the broth of infallibility.

But when powerful people are dragooned to their knees, it is always disastrous.

Let's think of Harvey Weinstein-who was the Executive Producer of almost every film you could find on Netflix, when they started. He provided them with all sorts of mooi content as you'd imagine. Still and all when his time was up, his fall was deep, steep, and tragic.

Harvey had the money, so he had the power. Money is magnetic. It brings close to you, the wrong people. As you have the money, you have the power. There are many people hanging around to demystify you and wring that power away from you, for

xiii

    Onyeka Nwelue

themselves. Every powerful person, has someone, willing to take him out.

In the circle of the powerful, it is the least powerful that wants to usurp all the powers. They stay strategically placing themselves where they can take over.

The real owners of Britain are not the 'real' Britons. The real owners of Britain are people, whose ancestors came here long ago. They have now mastered the channels to get to where they want and when they do, they no longer want others, who look like them to come

"Let us start from the beginning of this story when God created the heaven and the earth. Shapeless earth; nothing was real. It looked deep, like a well without water. Everything seemed ordinary. Its extraordinariness was brought about by the omnipotence of God. God solidified everything."

So, begin the opening lines of Onyeka Nwelue's Lemon Grass, where a young patient at the Neuro-Psychiatry Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, tells other patients his story, of how he had travelled from the Biblical Sodom to Lagos.

It is a retelling of the Biblical creation story. But the story soon jumps, to the occasion of Lot, his wife and his daughters. Only that the narrator's story is an escapee of the inferno. 

He is in the police cell when he is rescued by a Catholic priest, Father Ajayi, who takes him to Rome. In Rome, the narrator goes to confession and narrates what life is like living with Father Ajayi. He confesses to witnessing paedophilia and suffering a whole range of sexual abuse under father Ajayi and his mistress, the Irish nun named Sister Mary. 

Set inside the ward at Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Yaba, situated in Lagos, a young nameless narrator unravels a chilling tale of beauty, sexuality, abuse and mystery. 

My dearest Sibling in Diaspora,

I'm writing you these letters from Africa, a place described as a jungle by Pink

people.

It was from there that your great-grandfathers and mothers were shipped away to

lands culturally different from theirs. They were forced into outfits that were

strange to them. They were made to live in a different climate, against their will

They were mullioned, decorated and a new life festered on them. A very different

life. More chaotic than they ever lived; translucently debilitating and quite

horrendous; more often than you would find in the hardship that young people who

are trafficked through Libya to Europe via the Mediterranean experience today.

I am writing to you with a sorrowful and angry soul, because what the Pink people

did to our fathers and mothers must never be forgotten or forgiven. We shall keep

demanding that they apologize, and ceaselessly remind them of their crimes

against humanity.

These are tasks we must discharge daily. If we failed to do those, the Pink people

would continue to manipulate and wound us. The Pink persons are evil; they

constitute an affliction upon the world. Their heartlessness is unrivaled. Therefore,

we must zealously repulse their advance.

I am only writing to you, to apologize for many misdeeds. I apologize to you, my

dearest Sibling in Diaspora, whom we allowed Pink people to take away from us.

They have said that we "sold' you into slavery. I agree. We did, because if we

hadn't, no complicity would have been involved in stacking you on the ships. We

helped them take you away. This is why I am writing this letter to you.

To say, I am sorry and that you must forgive us for allowing them to take you

away.

Forgive us.

A young Haitian, Jean Claude, loses his parents in the earthquake that shattered

Port-au-Prince in 2010.

He is taken to an orphanage in France - a place that will shatter his memory.

Then, he finds his way to the University of Oxford, Where he is arrested for trying to

read at Weston Library.

What is his crime in life?

Nwelue's unusual character explores problems affecting Africa, childhood memories,

religion, colonialism. There's infusion of historical facts, which makes it a delight.

Powerful descriptions and profound imageries deployed all through.

Money is power. When you have power, it can be intoxicating. That is why the power gate-keepers that money spawn like to delight in the broth of infallibility.

But when powerful people are dragooned to their knees, it is always disastrous.

Let's think of Harvey Weinstein-who was the Executive Producer of almost every film you could find on Netflix, when they started. He provided them with all sorts of mooi content as you'd imagine. Still and all when his time was up, his fall was deep, steep, and tragic.

Harvey had the money, so he had the power. Money is magnetic. It brings close to you, the wrong people. As you have the money, you have the power. There are many people hanging around to demystify you and wring that power away from you, for

xiii

    Onyeka Nwelue

themselves. Every powerful person, has someone, willing to take him out.

In the circle of the powerful, it is the least powerful that wants to usurp all the powers. They stay strategically placing themselves where they can take over.

The real owners of Britain are not the 'real' Britons. The real owners of Britain are people, whose ancestors came here long ago. They have now mastered the channels to get to where they want and when they do, they no longer want others, who look like them to come

"Let us start from the beginning of this story when God created the heaven and the earth. Shapeless earth; nothing was real. It looked deep, like a well without water. Everything seemed ordinary. Its extraordinariness was brought about by the omnipotence of God. God solidified everything."

So, begin the opening lines of Onyeka Nwelue's Lemon Grass, where a young patient at the Neuro-Psychiatry Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, tells other patients his story, of how he had travelled from the Biblical Sodom to Lagos.

It is a retelling of the Biblical creation story. But the story soon jumps, to the occasion of Lot, his wife and his daughters. Only that the narrator's story is an escapee of the inferno. 

He is in the police cell when he is rescued by a Catholic priest, Father Ajayi, who takes him to Rome. In Rome, the narrator goes to confession and narrates what life is like living with Father Ajayi. He confesses to witnessing paedophilia and suffering a whole range of sexual abuse under father Ajayi and his mistress, the Irish nun named Sister Mary. 

Set inside the ward at Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Yaba, situated in Lagos, a young nameless narrator unravels a chilling tale of beauty, sexuality, abuse and mystery.