To understand Akwaeke Emezi’s memoir, it helps to start with the Nigerian/ Igbo concept of the ogbanje – an evil spirit thought to cause a family ongoing suffering and misfortune. Emezi identifies as non-binary, but they have taken this much further by declaring they must be an ogbanje. They have had breasts and uterus removed. They will break the cycle of misery by not bearing children and risking the spirit affecting the next generation. Further, they don’t identify as human. They are a god – a child of mother goddess, Ala. They have no intention of playing by human rules.
Dear Senthuran is an epistolary memoir, with letters written to family, friends, other gods and writers. Emezi’s rise has been stratospheric and their control of language is exceptional. Emezi is prickly, perhaps respected, seemingly difficult to like. The choice of the letter to Senthuran as the titular piece is intriguing. The letter is headed ‘Gore’ and talks of love being so great as to instil the wish to consume a lover … literally. Through the letters, you’ll learn of their income, home and estrangement from their family.
You could be forgiven for thinking that because the letters are candid and reveal much of the writer’s private life, you would have a greater insight into Akwaeke Emezi. Paradoxically, although you might know much more about them, you may actually understand them less. Such is the unknowability surrounding a god.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Akwaeke Emezi (b. 1987) is an artist based in liminal spaces. Emezi’s art practice is deeply rooted in the metaphysics of Black spirit, using the lens of indigenous ontologies to focus on embodiment, ritual, and rememory. Featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noahas well as on the cover of TIME Magazine as a Next Generation Leader, Emezi has given talks at Princeton University, Meta, MoMA, the Schomburg Center, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
A National Book Foundation ‘5 Under 35’ honoree, Emezi was born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria. They were named one of The New Hollywood Guard: Writers by Vanity Fair.
Emezi was awarded a Global Arts Fund grant in 2017 for their video art, which premiered in 2018 at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in Harlem. They also received a 2017 Sozopol Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction and their short story ‘Who Is Like God’ won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa. Their writing has been published by the Gagosian, the Paris Review, the New York Times, T Magazine, Dazed Magazine, The Cut, Granta, Vogue, and Commonwealth Writers, among others. Their memoir work was included in The Fader’s ‘Best Culture Writing of 2015’ (‘Who Will Claim You?’) and their film UDUDEAGU won the Audience Award for Best Short Experimental at the 2014 BlackStar Film Festival.
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