Freshwater|Akwaeke Emezi

Freshwater is interesting in unusual ways. It takes neat, impressive dips into the spiritual, exploring the inner workings of Ada, an ogbanje. The story is narrated by three spirits (multiple personalities?), with minimal input from their human host. “We” feature prominently in the early phases of her life, driving Ada to bursts of anger while restlessly awaiting their return to the other side.

“We did not mean to hurt the Ada but we had an oath and our brothersisters were pulling at us, shouting at us to come back,” they explain.

Meanwhile, Ada resorts to cutting herself to appease them since gods generally demand a blood sacrifice.

In Igbo cosmology, ogbanje are children prone to die young only to come back again, and invariably plague their family with grief. Regarded as half-human, half-spirit, they’re cut at death to prevent their return, and those who do bear the scars. It’s on this foundation that Akwaeke Emezi’s autobiographical debut novel rests.

Ada walks the razor’s edge between life and the afterlife, swayed by the whims of her spirits. Following a traumatic event in her late teens, the aggressive and prurient Asughara takes over from We as protector of Ada’s fragile heart. Unlike We, who sulkily begrudge Yshwa (Yahweh) for barely lifting a finger to ameliorate Ada’s plight, Asughara fiercely fights off any interference from him.

Asughara manically treads the path of self-destruction, dragging her host from one sexual encounter to another until another ordeal leaves Ada lost and searching. A third calmer spirit manifests in the form of Saint Vincent, dressing Ada in masculine attires, binding her chest and using her mouth to “kiss women.”

With the gods pulling Ada in all directions to the brink of madness, she is compelled to take drastic measures to quell them.

Like the author, Ada is biracial, sports a large band tattoo on her lower arm, where razors and mirror shards once sliced skin, and undergoes breast reduction surgery in keeping with the ogbanje’s aversion to reproduction.

“How many times had Asughara allowed a wash of sperm into the Ada’s body?” gripe We. “Fertility was a pure and clear abomination to us.”

Transcendent and sober, Freshwater examines the imbalances between flesh and spirit. It presents the battles waged in the unseen world for the corporeal and rejigs what it is to be human: spirits encased in flesh—or flesh embodying spirits?

You may Also Like

Stories

Four Books Guaranteed to Expand Your Understanding the World

Here are four books guaranteed to illuminate your mind and broaden your world.

Ayòbámi Adébáyò|A Spell of Good Things

Adébáyò’s second novel, A Spell of Good Things, is an invigorating dive into the ramifications of poor governance on a working class family and middle class one, which would fatally and ultimately bind them.

Daughter in Exile|Bisi Adjapon

Daughter in Exile by Bisi Adjapon is a pacy, character-driven novel that surveys the many burdens of living as an irregular migrant in the US.

Double Review: How Beautiful We Were|Imbolo Mbue; The Dragons, the Giant, the Women|Wayétu Moore

Moore’s memoir and Mbue’s novel celebrate and centre women as subjects of their own stories, capable of propelling and making history just like their male counterparts.

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls|Mona Eltahawy

In this searing, unapologetic treatise, Mona Eltahawy presents seven tools women and girls can use to “defy, disobey and disrupt the patriarchy,” and free themselves from the claws of gendered beliefs and expectations.

Five Books Guaranteed to Expand Your Understanding of the World 2022

Here, a list of five fiction and non-fiction books to illuminate your mind, tickle your curiosity and expand your understanding of the world.

When We Were Birds|Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

One part magical realism, one part crime thriller, one part romance, and rendered entirely in patois, Banwo's debut novel—set in a fictional Trinidad—follows Emmanuel Darwin and Yejide St Bernard on separate paths to self-discovery that eventually lead them to each other, thanks to their disparate connection to death.

The Book of Night Women|Marlon James

Women lead the way in this historical novel set in eighteenth century Jamaica, which follows Lilith—the youngest and newest addition to the group of rebellion-plotting enslaved women who meet under the cover of darkness—as she strives to reach beyond the boundaries of the brutish life reserved for slaves on the sugar plantation of Montpelier.

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English|Noor Naga

Noor Naga’s debut novel explores the tensions around identity and othering through the eyes a destitute Egyptian man living in Cairo and a middle-class Egyptian-American “returning” to Egypt, a country she’s visiting for the very first time.

Born in Blackness|Howard W. French

Just exactly how did pre-colonial Africa develop the world is the question historian and former New York Times journalist Howard W. French sets out to answer in this captivating, revelatory read that dismantles widely but erroneously held beliefs about the continent's relevance and influence prior to the arrival of Europeans and thereafter.

Book ReviewShayera Dark2 March 2019Akwaeke Emezi, Ogbanje, Igbo Cosmology, African Literature, Freshwater