Jollof Rice And Other Revolutions

“I couldn’t put this book down and I loved spending time in the lives of Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape. Truly this book will grab hold of your heart and mind and everything in between.”—Roxane Gay, author of Hunger and Bad Feminist Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling novel which explores her homeland’s past, present, and possible future through the interconnected stories of four fearless globe-trotting women. Moving between Nigeria and America, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions is a window into the world of accomplished Nigerian women, illuminating the challenges they face and the risks they take to control their destinies. Students at an all-girls boarding school, Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape forge an unbreakable sisterhood that is tempered during a school rebellion, an uprising with repercussions that will forever reverberate through their lives. The children of well-to-do families, these young women have been raised with a thirst for independence, believing a university education is their right—a legacy of ambition and hope inherited from their foremothers. Leaving school and adolescence behind, the women grapple with the unexpected possibilities—and limitations—of adulthood and the uncertainties of the world within and outside of Nigeria. A trip to Ghana opens Nonso’s eyes to the lasting impact of the transatlantic slave trade, she falls in love with an African American, and makes a new home in the United States. Remi meets Segun, a dynamic man of Nigerian descent from Yonkers whose own traumatic struggles and support gives her the strength to confront painful family wounds. Aisha’s overwhelming sense of guilt haunts her, influencing career and relationship decisions until she sees a chance to save her son’s life and, through her sacrifice, redefine her own. Revolving around loss, belonging, family, friendship, alienation, and silence, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions is a moving, multifaceted portrait of lives shaped by hope and sorrow—of women who must contend with the ever-present and unsettling notion that moving forward in time isn’t necessarily progress. “I truly loved this linked short story collection. The narrative takes us into the intimate workings of friends and families. Omolola explores their complex lives in astoundingly beautiful language. If, like me, you enjoy stories that take you out of your reading chair to worlds that follow you back to your own, then this is the book for you.”—Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, award-winning author of A Woman of Endurance

When South Africa's golden girl of broadcasting, Tracy Going's battered face was splashed across the media back in the late 1990s, the nation was shocked. South Africans had become accustomed to seeing Going, glamorous and groomed on television or hearing her resonant voice on Radio Metro and Kaya FM. Sensational headlines of a whirlwind love relationship turned horrendously violent threw the "perfect" life of the household star into disarray. What had started off as a fairy-tale romance with a man who appeared to be everything that Going was looking for - charming, handsome and successful - had quickly descended into a violent, abusive relationship. "As I stood before him all I could see were the lies, the disappearing for days without warning, the screaming, the threats, the terror, the hostage-holding, the keeping me up all night, the dragging me through the house by my hair, the choking, the doors locked around me, the phones disconnected, the isolation, the fear and the uncertainty." the rosy love cloud burst just five months after meeting her "Prince Charming" when she staggered into the local police station, bruised and battered. A short relationship became a two-and-a-half-year legal ordeal played out in the public eye. In mesmerising detail, Going takes us through the harrowing court process - a system seeped in injustice - her decline into depression- the immediate collapse of her career due to the highly public nature of her assault and the decades-long journey to undo the psychological damages in the search for safety and the reclaiming of self. The roots of violence form the backdrop of the book, tracing Going's childhood on a plot in Brits, laced with the unpredictable violence of an alcoholic father who regularly terrorised the family with his fists of rage. "I was ashamed of my father, the drunk. If he wasn't throwing back the liquid in the lounge then he'd be finding comfort and consort in his cans at the golf club. With that came the uncertainty as I lay in my bed and waited for him to return. I would lie there holding my curtain tight in my small hand. I would pull the fabric down, almost straight, forming a strained sliver and I would peer into the blackness, unblinking. It seemed I was always watching and waiting. Sometimes I searched for satellites between the twinkles of light, but mostly the fear in my tummy distracted me." Brilliantly penned, this highly skilled debut memoir, is ultimately uplifting in the realisation that healing is a lengthy and often arduous process and that self-forgiveness and acceptance is essential in order to fully embrace life. - Bookseller's description.

Short Fiction Prize-winning collection of short stories that use science fiction to explore immigration, diaspora, and the concept of otherness.

Kinky Roots: A Memoir - The memories, ruminations and vignettes of growing up in Southern Africa. Written from the life, wisdom and experiences of Ingrid Arlington, 'Kinky Roots' is an uplifting, poignant and reflective journey alongside the author. From a tumultuous upbringing in Zimbabwe, where violence and sexual assault was rife - to Ingrid meeting her husband in South Africa before starting an arduous new life in the UK. It's a story that explores how identity, excuses, religion, relationships, self-worth and family heritage all ultimately lay life's crazy pathway. United Kingdom - When Ingrid Arlington looks back on her life, it's been a rollercoaster defined by adversity, poor relationships with men, a move to the other side of the world - and some bold life lessons that have ultimately made Arlington a fearlessly strong woman. 'Kinky Roots' invites readers to step alongside her as they rise from the ashes of loss and harassment in Zimbabwe, to a new life in the UK. No step has been without its challenges, yet Arlington steadfastly defines each as a vital part of her story. From the introduction: That day, I felt lost, aimless, purposeless. I had received a rejection from an employment agent saying I didn't get the 33rd job that I'd applied for, whilst sitting on the couch watching NCIS reruns and stuffing my face with all sorts of snacks. I felt like a black Bridget Jones - except I wasn't trying to quit smoking and I already had the man. Now, you might ask how I got myself into this unemployed situation, feeling all sorry for myself. The easy answer is that I moved from South Africa to the UK with Alex (my husband of nine years), to pursue happiness and the European dream but without a plan of how to do this. The difficult answer, I guess, starts a year after arriving. "I started re-evaluating my life when I hit unemployment rock bottom in the UK," explains the author. "It was a very raw process of questioning myself and my identity, and reliving my tough upbringing in Zimbabwe - a place where my mother chose her new husband over me, and where I'd been sexually harassed by the age of fourteen. I took a long, hard look at how I'd always chosen controlling men, and felt powerless in every relationship I'd gotten into. As I unraveled things, I began to figure out who I really am." Continuing, "My biggest life change was meeting my husband in South Africa, only to find him relapsing on a drug habit - fiercely challenging my Christian upbringing. After our separation, I began to mull over everything from excuses, my beliefs, biases around religion, the LGBTQ community, my emotions and how music connects it all - and the definitions I devised are now all shared in this volume". It's going to leave people with plenty to think about.

Destiny of the Dead is the second novel in a genre-bending series from New York Times bestselling author Kel Kade. One of Amazon's Best of the Month Books! The God of Death is tired of dealing with the living, so he’s decided everyone should die. And he’s found allies. The Berru, an empire of dark mages, has unleashed a terrifying army of monstrous lyksvight upon everyone with a pulse. While the wealthy and powerful, the kings and queens, abandon the dying world, one group of misfits says no more. Through dogged determination and the ability to bind souls to their dead bodies, Aaslo and his friends fight on. In the mountains of the far north, another bastion of defense is opened. Cherrí, the avatar of a vengeful fire god, has united the survivors amongst her people and begun her own war on the invaders. Now, Aaslo and Cherrí must find a way to unite their powers, one divine, the other profane, to throw back the monsters of the Berru, and challenge Death itself. The Shroud of Prophecy Series: Fate of the Fallen Destiny of the Dead At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When Lerato Mogoatlhe left South Africa for a planned three-month break to West Africa little did she know that those three months would turn into five years. Vagabond is her hilarious and honest account of her five years of living as a drifter in Africa. In between the borders, foreign architecture and interesting new ways of life, Mogoatlhe found passion, love, laughter and heartbreak. On these pages you will find capsules of time spent in 21 countries in five regions of Africa. You will be regaled by the tales of how she tries to worm herself into hotels when she has no money because of unpaid invoices back home. You will be mortified and proud of how she navigates herself out of difficult situations like being misread by a man who tries to force himself on her. Mogoatlhe's book is a travel memoir driven by the belief that whatever else Africa is, it is first and foremost a home. It is punctuated with a deep urge to know the continent differently.

Ogadinma Or, Everything Will be All Right is a tale of departure, loss and adaptation; of mothers whose experience at the hands of controlling men leave them with burdens they find too much to bear. After an unwanted pregnancy leaves her exiled from her family in Kano, thwarting her plans to go to university, seventeen-year-old Ogadinma is sent to her aunt's in Lagos. When a whirlwind romance with an older man descends into indignity, she is forced to channel her strength and resourcefulness to escape a fate that appears all but inevitable. A feminist classic in the making, Ukamaka Olisakwe's sophomore novel introduces a heroine for whom it is impossible not to root and announces the author as a gifted chronicler of the patriarchal experience. Illuminates a fascinating time in Nigeria's recent past, as the novel's heroine struggles against the shackles of a Church-dominated patriarchal society amid rising political turmoil · Written by a rising star of Nigeria's vibrant literature scene, a finalist for the 2019 Brittle Paper Award for Creative Nonfiction and established screenwriter · An exquisitely written bildungsroman that will appeal equally to readers of literary fiction and a new adult audience

'A very funny, intelligent, deliberately and engagingly resistant, and moving piece of writing' Amit Chaudhuri A 'recovering writer' - his first novel having been littered with typos and selling only fifty copies - Frank Jasper is plucked from obscurity in Port Jumbo in Nigeria by Mrs Kirkpatrick, a white woman and wife of an American professor, to attend the prestigious William Blake Program for Emerging Writers in Boston. Once there, however, it becomes painfully clear that he and the other Fellows are expected to meet certain obligations as representatives of their 'cultures.' His colleagues, veterans of residencies in Europe and America, know how to play up to the stereotypes expected of them, but Frank isn't interested in being the African Writer at William Blake - any anyway, there is another Fellow, Barongo Akello Kabumba, who happily fills that role. Eventually expelled from the fellowship for 'non-performance' and 'non-participation, ' Frank Jasper sets off on trip to visit his father's college friend in Nebraska - where he learns not only surprising truths about his father, but also how to parlay his experiences into a lucrative new career once he returns to Nigeria: as a commentator on American life... Seesaw is an energetic comedy of cultural dislocation - and in its humour, intelligence and piety-pricking, it is a refreshing and hugely enjoyable act of literary rebellion.