Sankofa

May 1, 2021

Her husband gone, her daughter grown, and her white English mother dead, the biracial Anna goes on a quest to learn what she can about the African father she never knew. Soon she discovers that after engaging in radical politics in 1970s London, he became the president (and perhaps dictator) of a small, imaginary nation in West Africa. What's more, he is still alive. Roughly translated as "to return and get it," the term Sankofa comes from the Akan people of West Africa and is symbolized by a mythological bird turning its neck to retrieve an egg off its back. Multi-award-winning British Nigerian author Onuzo follows up the acclaimed Welcome to Lagos.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 16, 2021
A middle-aged, mixed-race woman struggles with several crises in Nigerian writer Onuzu’s spellbinding latest (after Welcome to Lagos). Anna Bain is a 46-year-old Londoner whose mother, Bronwen, has just died, whose husband has been unfaithful, and who has been leading a lackluster life as a housewife. Following her white mother’s funeral, she stumbles upon a diary written in the 1960s by her West African father, Francis Aggrey, hidden in a trunk. Francis left London before Anna’s birth, and Bronwen raised her. Anna learns that her father was an international student who had boarded with Bronwen’s family and became part of a group of West African students agitating for freedom from colonial rule. After leaving London, Aggrey became a guerrilla fighter, independence leader, and eventually the first president of Bamana following independence. Anna then finds Francis’s memoir (published under his new name, Kofi Adjei) in a university archive, meets with his biographer in Edinburgh, and eventually meets Kofi in Bamana, where she seeks to resolve her conflicts over her racial and cultural identity. Onuzu’s spare style elegantly cuts to the core of her themes (“I felt at peace, as if indeed two warring streams had finally merged,” Anna reflects). The balancing of Anna’s soul-searching with her thrilling discoveries makes for a satisfying endeavor. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Assoc.

August 15, 2021
A biracial British woman begins a quest to find her African father. Anna Bain was raised in London by a single White mother, never knowing her African-born Black father. Now she's going through a kind of midlife transition: She's separated from her White husband, her daughter is grown, and her mother has just died. When she discovers her long-missing father's diary among her mother's effects, Anna sees an opportunity to reconnect with her African heritage. Her father, Francis Aggrey, was an international student in London when he met her mother, Bronwen Bain, in 1969. Francis and Bronwen began a passionate affair, but Francis returned home without ever realizing the Welsh teenager was pregnant. Anna becomes something of a detective, taking the diary to a renowned professor in Edinburgh for authentication and tracking down people mentioned in it. Eventually, she discovers that her father changed his name to Kofi Adjei and was later elected prime minister of the newly formed (fictional) country of Bamana. Anna's journey to Bamana to meet her father tests her mettle after decades of complacency as a self-described housewife dependent on her husband to make the decisions in their comfortable life. Some plot twists veer toward the melodramatic--Anna is asked to help a girl who's been accused of witchcraft; she has an encounter with corrupt police--and seem designed to explain stereotypes about African culture to Western readers. Anna's experiences growing up in Britain as a woman of color are also underexplored. However, Francis Aggrey/Kofi Adjei is a fantastic, charismatic character, and every scene he's in crackles with energy. The title refers to a mythical bird that "flies forwards with its head facing back," a potent symbol for Anna, who must learn to embrace the new opportunities that come with change. An engagingly written journey of self-discovery.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2021
After the death of her Welsh mother, Anna Graham, whose own daughter is grown, stumbles on a diary written by her father, an African named Francis Aggrey. Francis was a student in London in the 1960s when he met Anna's mom. The diary consumes Anna. She reads about the racism that her father faced and his growing belief in the need to eradicate the stain of colonialism. Anna learns that Francis returned to Africa before he knew of her existence. He reinvented himself as Kofi Adjei, and became the first prime minister of a new country, Bamana. Kofi was a dictator, yet Anna still hopes for closure as she travels to meet him. Onuzo (Welcome to Lagos, 2017) paints a blocky portrait of Anna and her complex relationships. Additional plotlines lack texture, and Anna's seesawing feelings for her father can be frustrating. Kofi tells her that the sankofa is a mythical bird that "flies forwards with its head facing back. It's a poetic image but it cannot work in real life." Anna is earnest, but her father has a point.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2021

Six months after her mother's death, Anna Bain delves into her mom's old brass trunk and meets her father for the first time. Francis Aggrey's diary details his years in London, where he studied, dabbled in African politics, and fell for Anna's mother, Bronwyn. He returned home to Bamana in West Africa before he learned of the pregnancy. As a biracial child raised by a white mother who dismissed the racially motivated slights that her daughter endured on the streets, in shops, and at school, Anna recognizes in her father a kindred spirit and wonders again why her mother never wrote to Francis to tell him of their child. Research leads Anna to discover that her father, now named Kofi Adjei, had become the prime minister, then controversial president of Bamana. At a crossroads, an empty nester in the process of divorce, Anna travels to West Africa in search of her roots, but can she distinguish the mythic Francis from the reality of Kofi? VERDICT Themes that Onuzo visited in 2018's Welcome to Lagos, including unscrupulous politicians, irresponsible journalism, and the yawning gap between rich and poor, feel deeply personal as Anna's journey unfolds. Though the quest for identity has become a conventional staple of contemporary fiction, it feels fresh and new in Onuzo's capable hands.--Sally Bissell, formerly at Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.