Who Fears Death
An award-winning literary author enters the world of magical realism with her World Fantasy Award-winning novel of a remarkable woman in post-apocalyptic Africa.Now optioned as a TV series for HBO, with executive producer George R.R. Martin!In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the colour of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different – special – she names her Onyesonwu, which means ‘Who fears death?’ in an ancient language.It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu – a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.
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HarperVoyager
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Nnedi Okorafor 2018
Jacket design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Jacket photography/illustration © Historical image collection by Bildagentur-online/Alamy Stock Photo (bird), © Paper Boat Creative/Getty images (hands), © Shutterstock.com (sun, flaps)
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Nnedi Okorafor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008288709
Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780008288723
Version: 2018-02-13
To my amazing father, Dr. Godwin Sunday Daniel Okoroafor, M.D., F.A.C.S. (1940-2004).
“Dear friends, are you afraid of death?”
—Patrice Lumumba, first and only elected
Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Part I: Becoming
Chapter 1: My Father’s Face
Chapter 2: Papa
Chapter 3: Interrupted Conversation
Chapter 4: Eleventh Year Rite
Chapter 5: The One Who is Calling
Chapter 6: Eshu
Chapter 7: Lessons Learned
Chapter 8: Lies
Chapter 9: Nightmare
Chapter 10: Ndiichie
Chapter 11: Luyu’s Determination
Chapter 12: A Vulture’s Arrogance
Chapter 13: Ani’s Sunshine
Chapter 14: The Storyteller
Chapter 15: The House of Osugbo
Chapter 16: Ewu
Chapter 17: Full Circle
Part II: Student
Chapter 18: A Welcome Visit to Aro’s Hut
Chapter 19: The Man in Black
Chapter 20: Men
Chapter 21: Gadi
Chapter 22: Peace
Chapter 23: Bushcraft
Chapter 24: Onyesonwu in the Market
Chapter 25: And So It Was Decided
Part III: Warrior
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60: Who Fears Death?
Epilogue
Chapter 61: Peacock
Chapter 62: Sola Speaks
Chapter 1: Rewritten
Acknowledgments
About the Publisher
MY LIFE FELL APART WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN. Papa died. He had such a strong heart, yet he died. Was it the heat and smoke from his blacksmithing shop? It’s true that nothing could take him from his work, his art. He loved to make the metal bend, to obey him. But his work only seemed to strengthen him; he was so happy in his shop. So what was it that killed him? To this day I can’t be sure. I hope it had nothing to do with me or what I did back then.
Immediately after he died, my mother came running out of their bedroom sobbing and throwing herself against the wall. I knew then that I would be different. I knew in that moment that I would never again be able to fully control the fire inside me. I became a different creature that day, not so human. Everything that happened later, I now understand, started then.
The ceremony was held on the outskirts of town, near the sand dunes. It was the middle of the day and terribly hot. His body lay on a thick white cloth surrounded by a garland of braided palm fronds. I knelt there in the sand next to his body, saying my last good-bye. I’ll never forget his face. It didn’t look like Papa’s anymore. Papa’s skin was dark brown, his lips were full. This face had sunken cheeks, deflated lips, and skin like gray-brown paper. Papa’s spirit had gone elsewhere.
