Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi (born 1987) is Nigerian-born writer and video artist of Igbo and Tamil descent.

Quotes

I think multiple realities exist. Most colonised countries had their cosmology, their ontology, their metaphysics colonised too. They’ve been told that what was there before wasn’t real. My dad’s a pretty conservative Christian, but he’ll still get a pastor to come to the hospital [where he works as a doctor] because someone’s been working black magic. I say to him: “If you don’t believe in it, why is the pastor there?” He says: “You don’t need to believe in something for it to be real.”
- On whether she believes in the spiritual world in “Akwaeke Emezi: ‘I’d read everything – even the cereal box’” in The Guardian (2018 Oct 20)

…I read literally everything I could get my hands on – the shampoo bottle, the cereal box. My mom didn’t let us have books at the table or we’d all have read. We didn’t always have electricity, so I read by candlelight. I read really fast too. My parents realised I’d run out of things to read and were like: “We need to buy you way more books.”
- On being a voracious reader as a child in “Akwaeke Emezi: ‘I’d read everything – even the cereal box’” in The Guardian (2018 Oct 20)

…The novel is autobiographical, so I used my life as a chronological skeleton for the story, which meant revisiting a lot of things that were immensely painful. It was also a process of discovery – I had no outline for Freshwater, no idea how it was going to take shape, but it built itself as I was writing it.
- On her work Freshwater in “AKWAEKE EMEZI | IN CONVERSATION” in Granta Magazine (2018 Oct 31)

…Whenever you write something biographical, everyone in your family doesn’t share the same memory. So your version of the story is not necessarily their version of the story, and part of the flexibility in having it fictionalized is that there’s not really a need to adhere to the strict facts. Because everything is colored by memory, especially when you’re pulling from childhood memories. There’s a little bit of wiggle room. This is my story of these events, as I remember it, as I experienced it…
- On including biographical details in “A SPIRIT BORN INTO A HUMAN BODY: TALKING WITH AKWAEKE EMEZI” in The Rumpus (2018 Feb 21)

This was before Vivek, before the fire, before Chika would discover exactly how difficult it was to dig his own grave with the bones of his son.”
- Chapter 2, Page 17

There was nothing boiling in him, just a loud and clear exhale, a weight of peace wrapping around his heart.”
- Chapter 2, Page 20

Osita wished, much later, that he’d told Vivek the truth then, that he was so beautiful he made the air around him dull, made Osita hard with desire. ‘Take it off,’ he snapped instead, his throat rough. ‘Put it back before they catch us.’”
- Chapter 2, Pages 25-26
That morning, she was wearing an orange cotton dress; she looked like a burning sunset, and Chika knew immediately that his story would end with her, that he would drown in her large liquid eyes and it would be the perfect way to go.
(chapter 2)

Meanwhile, Ala continued to watch her child. After all, the Ada was her hatchling, her bloodthirsty little sun, covered in translucent scales.”

(Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 45)
The main problem was that we were a distinct we instead of being fully and just her.”

(Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 18)
We bled a lot and Saul gave us the injection himself, but the Ada has no scar so perhaps this is a memory.”

There shouldn’t be any monsters left in Lucille. The city used to have them, of course—what city didn’t? They used to be everywhere, thick in the air and oﬀices, in the streets and in people’s own homes. They used to be the police and teachers and judges and even the mayor; yeah, the mayor used to be a monster.”

(Chapter 1, Page 9)
Bitter knew her name was heavy, but she hadn’t minded, because it was honest. That was something she’d taught Jam—that a lot of things were manageable as long as they were honest […] But Jam trusted her mother for those brutal truths, and that’s why home was the ﬁrst place she brought the books with the angels in them.”

(Chapter 1, Page 14)
Her mother focused on her, cupping her cheek in a chalky hand. ‘Monsters don’t look like anything, doux-doux. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole problem.’”

(Chapter 1, Page 18)
Angels aren't pretty pictures in old holy books, just like monsters aren't ugly pictures. It's all just people, doing hard things or doing bad things.”
(chapter 1)
As Jam watched, its fur softened and it shifted its stance just a little, draining the menace away. Well, little girl, it replied, I supposed you can call me Pet.”
(chapter 2)

Feyi had already decided who she wanted to be that night, so she stared right back at him, unabashed, drinking in his terra-cotta skin and dark copper beard.”

(Chapter 1, Page 5)
“I think we’re just figuring out how to survive a world on fire…that it’s okay to be alive.”

(Chapter 1, Page 6)
For a moment, there was the scream of tires and the mad chime of broken glass, the soft petals of white lilies, and a clod of dirt breaking apart in Feyi’s hand, but she brushed it all aside like smoke.
(chapter 1)

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Akwaeke Emezi