![]() ![]() Ada begins the book as a “she” and ends as a “they”. “I think multiple realities exist,” they said, but “most colonised countries had their cosmology, their ontology, their metaphysics colonised too”.Įmezi’s novel takes the conversation about female-only spaces and non-binary identities out of an often inward-looking, white, western enclave, to give it new meaning. Last year I interviewed Emezi, who was born a woman, and they (the pronoun Emezi prefers to use) spoke of the ogban je as being rooted in a pre-colonial African belief system. Its central character, Ada, is a Nigerian college student in the US whose inner world is inhabited by ogban je or trickster spirits Asughara, a female, and Saint Vincent, a male. ![]() It is an edgy coming-of-age story about cultural alienation, sexual violence and identity. The prize is about judging the books, not the authors, so when I and fellow panellists read Emezi’s debut, Freshwater, we were struck by its voice, its story and its innovations. Should we put our hard hats on? As one of the prize judges, I hope the book will be seen for what it is and the discussion not hijacked by gender politics axe-grinders. ![]()
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