Science-Fiction Writer Nnedi Okorafor rolls out "Who fears death"

Multiple award-winning author and Professor at Chicago state University, Nnedi Okorafor, is only just out with her latest novel "Who Fears Death" (DAW Books). Yet the title is already amassing the usual starred reviews which trail her characteristic use of Afro-Asian Science fiction and fantasy, as a tool to critique the world we live in.

It will be remembered that her first book "Zahrah the Windseeker" (2005), a young-adult fantasy tale about an African girl who could fly, won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Nigeria, while her other works which include "The Shadow Speaker", and "The Long Juju Man" have won various international awards, nominations and recommendations respectively.

Who Fears Death is about a mysterious, predestined girl messiah, Onyesonwu (translated: "who fears death" or "who follows death" depending on the Igbo language context you prefer), who must muster her magical strengths to find and defeat a racist warlord.

The unraveling story critiques Africa's endemic poverty, gender prejudices, female circumcision, and the twin plagues of Islamic and Christian fundamentalism.