Who Fears Death Analysis

It is an intriguing fictional piece that deals with ethnicity and race. The book takes place in a futuristic version of Sudan after the occurrence of the apocalypse. In the plot, a dark-skinned Okeke lives under the oppression of a light-skinned Nuru. There is a protagonist who is known as Onyesonwu, a bastard daughter of a Nuru man who raped an Okeke woman. She is the main character of the novel. Interestingly, the author does not give the setting a particular real-life geographical location until it comes to a close. This suggests that the issues she addresses are not confined to a specific area of the continent. This essay will focus on how the way in which Ada’s character says about the complexity or simplicity of female empowerment and the concept of feminism.

The main character Onyesonwu Ubaid-Ogundimu, a young Ewu lady is a product of rape, the rape of an Okeke tribe lady by Nuru tribe man. Onyesonwu is one of the women of power called ‘The Ada. These powers moved from her to her step-father’s body causing his chest to start rising with breath. After this event, the villagers’ perception on Onyesonwu became worse. She was viewed as an Ewu sorcerer. In imminent Sudan, magic is very real, and their participants are both feared and admired. Onyesonwu struggled to get a niche in the male-oriented sorcery world as a woman. The author’s depiction of this important scene is very disturbing but very beautifully written. The writer addresses the issue of feminism quite early in the book, she overtly defines an overtly politicized story that weaves its way in every part of the book.

Female Genital Mutilation is a huge controversial problem, that has rarely been featured in fictional narratives (Murray 32). Onyesonwu accepts to experience the 11th Rite anticipating that it will make her dad proud, and probably even cause her acceptance in the society. Putting herself in this torturous and intimate act, she seems to be surrendering to the patriarchal dominance in the most intense way. Onyesonwu has three very close female friends and a strong relationship with her mom. Her close friends are those she was circumcised with. This eleventh rite bound the girls for life. It is a strange positive side effect of the female circumcision. The relationship that Onyesonwu has with her friends play a very critical part in her development.

They must find a means of living in the world that entails giving and take. Regardless of all this, Onyesonwu individual feminist struggle frequently comes to the forefront. Typically, feminists do not frequently have the time, ability or even proper means of communication to defend against all the offensive action or comments. The book addresses the issues of ethnic violence in her virtual world. There are two tribes, the Nuru and the Okeke. The author has used an apparent simple style creating a sense of realism. Onyesonwu is not an easy storyteller to follow because she learns more about the gift that she has and her origin, shifting in and out of reality, it turns out to be a challenge differentiating the truth in her words, nonetheless, she is in not a less than convincing storyteller.

Setting the standards of powerful female protagonists higher, the writer provides her audience a morally ambiguous character to abhor or admire as the reader would want. The book is a captivating proposition. It depicts features of a dystopia, but its outwardly realistic background is thwarted by the rise of the magical realism aspect, from the ability of Onyesonwu to change forms, prediction which come to occur and incantations. She has used interview quotes from Afrofuturists artists, scholars and musicians. The chapters are prefaced by one-page comic-style artwork from Marshall and Jennings and added a futurists combination of black identity and technology. Womack has described the artists, works, and concepts of Afrofuturism with sophistication and ease. Distinct from the contemporary scholarly work, Womack has utilized a dialogue approach.

Afrofuturism is perceived as a positive way to defeat obstacles set by systematic socioeconomic inequality and racism. Even though the author lists various technological inventions that involved people of color, her summary fails to give bedgrounds of the scientists nor provide the detail of the inventors and their condition for production. This book should include the specifics, histories, and struggles undergone by the inventors including the particular places and dates. Overlooking this information leaves the history of the blacks in the shadows (Womack 23-24). In Okorafor’s book, he has been able to put on the pages in a person of Onyesonwu a complete human being who is absolutely believable, complex and deep. Onyesonwu undergoes highs and lows of passion and emotion, makes errors, learns, recovers, endures and eventually wins at a very huge individual sacrifice.