by H. J Golakai
She had resigned from her job in good grace and liquidated a few assets of her own. She had even consulted a divorce lawyer, but knew she wouldn’t go through with it. After the hubbub had died down, she planned on returning to Germany to stay with her mother, for a while at least. There was no love lost there, but at least they understood each other.
Dr Alan Weir got the appointment as chief of the cardiothoracic and lung health unit at the Wellness Institute. Dr Ian Fourie shook hands like a good sport, congratulated Weir and wished him all the best.
Shortly afterwards, a section of the oncology unit was renamed the Sean Fourie Paediatric Cancer Trust. The subdivision included a revamped playroom and gaming centre for the ailing children.
Ian stared at the sign bearing his son’s name above the door of the centre for a long time. Then he went outside, sat in his car and wept, for everything he had squandered, lost and would never have.
Ashwin Venter did a short stint in Pollsmoor Prison for aggravated assault. Upon release, he went back to managing his father’s garage with his sister, Marieke.
On a night in early November, a man, woman and two girls waited at a border post between South Africa and Namibia. The man presented brand-new identity books for his family, and explained in a soft French accent that he had arrived on a provisional work visa. Minutes later, the group entered Namibia.
THE END
Acknowledgements
I doubt anyone undertaking the transition from writer to published author imagines the amount of labour involved in the process. Breathing new life into a novel years after its debut is even more taxing, and for their patience, expertise and advice I appreciate the following:
As always, I thank God, for keeping the mystery, madness and method of me going.
For the love, encouragement and material for my work: endless praise to my parents, Prof. Vuyu Golakai and Ms Inez Dunbar, and my siblings Nessie, the twins Kwame and Kanda, and particularly my sister Fasia for every push. To Mrs Erika Bülck, thank you for your loving presence. To my uncle and aunt, John T. Woods and Catherine Woods, bless you always for providing heart and home to a ragtag bunch of refugees when we lost ours.
For career and personal guidance: many thanks to the Gates Immunology team of Stellenbosch University. Especial gratitude to my work dad Prof. Gerhard Walzl and mentor Dr Gillian Black, for unwavering dedication to my education, in far more than just science. This is probably the only PhD I will ever write.
My boundless gratitude to my new publisher, Cassava Republic Press, for the exciting journey we’ve just begun. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and Emma Shercliff, I am grateful and awed by the attention to detail put into this new manuscript. Thank you for your keen insight and energy invested in my book. To my ‘old’ publisher Kwela Books, high-five for bringing this collaboration to pass.
For language and translation, thank you to: Jekwu Ozoemene, Jite Efemuaye and Jumoke Verissimo (for Naija lingo and pidginisation), Fiona Snyckers and Roela Hattingh (for Afrikaans) and Helen Moffett, for great editing advice.
And finally, and quite absurdly, this book is (still) in part dedicated to my musical muse and crush, Chris Martin of Coldplay, without whose magnificent genius I would struggle to write a single word. Chris, my feelings haven’t changed …
To anyone I may have forgotten, mea culpa.
CASSAVA CRIME
Easy Motion Tourist – Leye Adenle (April 2016)
Guy Collins, a British hack, is hunting for an election story in Lagos. A decision to check out a local bar in Victoria Island turns out badly – a mutilated female body is discarded close by and Collins is picked up as a suspect.
In the murk of a hot, groaning and bloody police station cell, Collins fears the worst. But then Amaka, a sassy guardian angel of Lagos working girls, talks the police station chief around. She assumes Collins is a BBC journo who can broadcast details of the city’s witchcraft and body parts trade that she’s on a one-woman mission to stop.
With Easy Motion Tourist’s astonishing cast, Tarantino has landed in Lagos. This page-turning debut crime novel pulses with the rhythm of Nigeria’s megacity, reeks of its open drains and sparkles like the champagne quaffed in its upmarket districts.
The Carnivorous – City Toni Kan (October 2016)
Rabato Sabato aka Soni Dike is a Lagos big boy; a criminal turned grandee, with a beautiful wife, a sea-side mansion and a questionable fortune. Then one day he disappears and his car is found in a ditch, music blaring from the speakers.
Soni’s older brother, Abel Dike, a teacher, arrives in Lagos to look for his missing brother. Abel is rapidly sucked into the unforgiving Lagos maelstrom where he has to navigate encounters with a motley cast of common criminals, deal with policemen all intent on getting a piece of the pie, and contend with his growing attraction to his brother’s wife.
Carnivorous City is a story about love, family and just desserts but it is above all a tale about Lagos and the people who make the city by the lagoon what it is.
The Score – HJ Golakai (2017)
Voinjama Johnson and her assistant Chlöe Bishop are back. They have been banished to Oudtshoorn in the Karoo, the last place on earth to expect them to get mixed up in any danger. But no sooner have they checked into their lodge when two dead bodies crop up at a business convention, throwing them under suspicion. Once again the two women dive in way over their heads, into the I.T. world of cybercrime, corruption and a shrewd killer that drags them ever closer to a perilous edge.
Navigating a sphere of sex, drugs and empowerment, The Score moves with breathtaking pace over South Africa’s fading rainbow.
OTHER TITLES BY CASSAVA REPUBLIC PRESS
Born on a Tuesday – Elnathan John
Dantala lives in Bayan Layi, Nigeria and studies in a Sufi Quranic school. By chance he meets gang leader Banda, and is thrust into a world with fluid rules and casual violence. In the aftermath of presidential elections Dantala runs away and ends up living in a Salafi mosque. Slowly and through the hurdles of adolescence, he embraces Salafism as preached by his new benefactor, Sheikh Jamal. But as political and religious tensions mount, he is torn between loyalty to his benefactor, Sheikh Jamal, and adherence to the Sheikh’s charismatic advisor, Malam Abdul-Nur, a choice that tests Dantala to his very limits.
In this raw, authentic and deceptively simple novel, Elnathan John explores boyhood in the wake of extremism and fundamentalism. Born on a Tuesday delves behind the scenes of the media’s portrayal of Boko Haram and tells of one boy’s struggle to find a purpose.
Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun – Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Dr. Morayo Da Silva, a cosmopolitan Nigerian woman, lives in San Francisco. On the cusp of seventy-five, she has a zest for life and makes the most of it through road trips in her vintage Porsche, chatting to strangers, and reminiscing about characters from her favourite novels. Until she has an accident, crushing her independence. Without the support of family, she relies on friends and chance encounters to help keep her sane. As Morayo recounts her story, moving seamlessly between past and present, we meet Dawud, a charming Palestinian shopkeeper, Sage, a feisty, homeless Grateful Dead devotee, and Antonio, the poet whom Morayo desired more than her ambassador husband.
A beautifully uplifting story about ageing, friendship and loss.
Season of Crimson Blossoms – Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
A story of love and longing in conservative Northern Nigeria, featuring Binta, a 55-year-old widow yearning for intimacy after the sexual repression of her marriage, and Reza, a 25-year-old weed dealer. Brought together in unusual circumstances, Binta and Reza faced a need only they can satisfy in each other.
Through Binta, we follow the intimate daily life of a Muslim Hausa family - where life revolves around domestic disputes and divorces, friendship and whispers, and religious instruction at the madrasa. By contrast, Reza is the self-pronounced Lord of San Siro, an urban cesspit that is home to a gang of misfits, outcasts and thugs.
The situation comes to a head when these two worlds collide, with disastrous consequences. This moving novel unfurls gently, revealing layers of emotion that defy age, class and religion.
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About the Author
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Hawa Jande Golakai spent a vibrant childhood in Liberia. After the civil war in 1990 she bounced around the continent. Having lived in several countries she considers herself a modern-day nomad and cultural sponge. Hawa is currently a laureate of the Africa39 Project, celebrating 39 of the most promising contemporary authors under the age of 40 on the continent. She enjoys performing autopsies and investigating peculiar medical cases for her storylines. In addition to writing, she works as a medical immunologist and health consultant. She lives between Monrovia and anywhere else she finds herself.
Copyright
First published in 2016 by Cassava Republic Press
Abuja – London
www.cassavarepublic.biz
Copyright © HJ Golakai, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transported in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book.
The moral right of HJ Golakai to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the National Library of Nigeria.
Nigerian ISBN: 978–978–953–514–6
UK print ISBN: 978–1–911115–08–3
E-book ISBN: 978–1–911115–09–0
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow.
Distributed in Nigeria by Book River Ltd.
Distributed in the UK by Central Books Ltd.
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