Abibiman Publishing UK – förlag

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.

In the spirit of James Currey, with his work bringing African writers and their stories to the world, the James Currey Anthology showcases a broad range of literary works, with contributors hailing from Botswana to Nigeria, Ghana to South Africa - writing from the Continent or in the diaspora.

Mlilo, a young isangoma, is forced to call on his friend Dan, a Druid apprentice, to help him retrieve his sacred amathambo (bones) from the clutches of evil. Taking us on an unprecedented journey through the magical realms of his ancestry and traditional beliefs, Mlilo's emerging skills are tested in life or death encounters with beings from the realm of Abaphansi. Amira, a close friend of Dans, has her own independent path to forge but will soon find that her personal quests are inextricably linked to the two men. The three young adults, finding their way in the world, still have much to learn about themselves, their conflicting approaches, and their true callings. They must work together, combine their skills and find the talismans that make up Mlilos bag of bones, the key ingredient to an isangomas abilities and powers in this and the other worlds around us. While the gods, demigods, deities and shapeshifters, all with their own agendas, make navigating Abaphansi a deathly challenge. The solitary isangoma, self-reliant to the extreme, will learn the importance of friendships, alliances and the meaning of living life in the real.

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

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    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

Born in the rural town of Ezeoke, South East Nigeria, Onyeka, a defiantly ambitious boy would drop out of the university to embrace a life of fame and infamy. Excitingly deviant and creatively rebellious, his journey towards self discovery would see him cross paths with elites and legendary figures, both at home and abroad. His struggles are messy and controversy trails his every step. He chases his goals with ruthlessness of a wildling, and most times he steps on many toes unwittingly. His obsession with power, deep and unrelenting will see him rise to Olympian heights and fall to abysmal chasms.

Gabriel Ògúngbadé examines the ignorance of adolescence. He plunges into youth to analyze its repercussions on a troubled mind. This highly-anticipated debut confronts anxiety, alcoholism, quarter-life crisis, starved romance, aloneness, spirituality, existence-- as its title suggests, all the places we don't want to go is a book of poetry that explores the caustic life of a rebel; his exploits, misadventures, cravings, heartaches, his failure to find love and satisfaction. An unrestrained, introspective journey of self-discovery.

"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.