![]() ![]() This week, Viking published “Akata Warrior,” the second book in the Akata series, a dark, sprawling epic that some fans and readers have labeled the “Nigerian Harry Potter.” The story centers on Sunny Nwazue, a Nigerian-American girl who moves to southeastern Nigeria from New York, and learns that she belongs to the secret Leopard Society, a group of people with magical abilities. Okorafor’s wildly imaginative young adult fantasy series, which features a head-spinning menagerie of otherworldly spirits and deities drawn from Nigerian myths and legends. Magic, ritual and secrecy are threads that run through Ms. Okorafor, who has a tattoo on her arm with Nsibidi symbols that means “story teller.” “There’s a secretness that was really intriguing,” said Ms. ![]() She learned everything she could about the script and, many years later, incorporated it into her fantasy books. Predictably, his chiding only fueled her curiosity. “His response was, ‘You should not be asking me about these evil things!’” Ms. ![]() ![]() What could he tell her about Nsibidi, an old and often secret symbolic script? Nearly 25 years ago, Nnedi Okorafor was visiting relatives in Isiekenesi, Nigeria, when she asked her grand uncle a sensitive question. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |