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When I pick up a novel, I usually look out for a couple of things. Subject matter, of course, is important. The author’s style, dexterity with language, and plot are equally important. However, none of that means much for me without compelling characters. I once dumped a beautifully written book set in the Taliban’s Afghanistan because I found one of the main characters unbelievable. On the other hand, I have returned to several books many times just for the opportunity to spend some more time with characters I love.
Great characters are like good friends you visit from time to time. But more than that, they make the stories in which they appear linger in your mind long after you’ve read the last word. And that is why in our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books with characters you will never forget. From an African American conjure-woman to an overbearing Nigerian polygamist, these characters will etch themselves on your memory for years to come.
Read our recommendations below.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
AUTHOR: CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
GENRE: FICTION
CHARACTER: KAINENE
Adichie’s masterpiece is set against the backdrop of the Biafran War. Told from the perspectives of three main characters, the story takes us through the lives of each character, detailing their experiences before and during the war.
There is Ugwu, a young boy from the village who is brought to work for Odenigbo, a university professor in Nsukka. Soon afterwards, Olanna, one of the twin daughters of a wealthy businessman, and girlfriend of Odenigbo, comes to live with them. Her twin sister, Kainene, is romantically involved with Richard, a British expatriate and writer. Unlike her sister, Kainene is pragmatic and emotionally guarded. She is a businesswoman, with a sharp wit and a biting sense of humour.
They all live happily in the pre-war era. But then the war comes and tears them apart, leaving them all forever changed—and the enigmatic Kianene forever lost.
THE JOYS OF MOTHERHOOD
AUTHOR: BUCHI EMECHETA
GENRE: FICTION
CHARACTER: NNU-EGO
When an elderly chief’s first wife, Agunwa, sees the chief sleeping with young Ona, she takes ill and subsequently dies. At the funeral, according to tradition, a slave is supposed to be buried alive with Agunwa. However, the chosen slave jumps out of the grave and begs for her life. Angry at the disrespect to his mother’s corpse, Agunwa’s eldest son strikes the slave on the head with a cutlass, and she falls dead into the grave.
Shortly after the incident, Ona delivers a baby girl for the chief. The girl, Nnu-Ego, is born with a mark on her head just like the one Agbadi’s son’s cutlass made on the slave’s head. It is later revealed that the slave is Nnu-Ego’s ‘Chi.’ This Chi prevents Nnu-Ego from having children for a while. Eventually, when she marries Nnaife, she gives birth to nine children.
The Joys of Motherhood details Nnu-Ego’s journey as she struggles to provide for her nine children. Though poor, she manages to see her children through school, and even further studies abroad. However, despite all her troubles, she is abandoned by her children and dies alone in the village.
SIZWE BANSI IS DEAD
Author: ATHOL FUGARD (WITH JOHN KANI, WINSTON NTSHONA)
Genre: DRAMA
cHARACTER: sIZWE BANSI
It is apartheid South Africa. Light falls on photographer Styles’s studio in Port Elizabeth where a man comes to have his photograph taken. The man is Sizwe Bansi, the unforgettable eponymous character. After Styles takes his picture, Sizwe Bansi proceeds to compose a letter to his wife, narrating the events leading up to the declaration in the play’s title.
We learn that he travelled from King William’s Town to Port Elizabeth to find a job. After many failed attempts to land a job, he found himself with only three days left before he had to return to King William’s Town. He became desperate and eventually stole the identity of a dead man with a work permit.
Sizwe Bansi is so memorable and important because his experiences shed light on the plight of Black South Africans who were segregated and oppressed in their own country. Particularly, the drama focuses on the reality of a law that required all Black and coloured citizens over 16 to carry an identity book limiting their travels within the country and the types of jobs they could have.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce the launch of their inaugural $20,000 Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize dedicated to exceptional works by Black women. Deadline: 30th June 2024. Learn more here.
THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN
Author: MARLON JAMES
Genre: FICTION
CHARACTER: LILITH
Jamaican author Marlon James takes readers all the way back to slavery in Jamaica with this 2009 book published to much critical acclaim. He takes us to a sugar plantation where we meet a host of intriguing characters like Circe, Tantalus, Homer, and, of course, the protagonist Lilith.
Lilith is a young slave girl orphaned from birth. From her childhood, she is precocious and unconventional, standing out from other slave children for her headstrongness and her green eyes. Though full of life at first, she quickly learns the brutal reality of slave life. Still, she is determined to get more than her meagre allotment in life. Things get complicated when a group of slave women, called Night Women, ask her to join their plot to revolt against the slave owners.
SONG OF SOLOMON
AUTHOR: TONI MORRISON
GENRE: FICTION
CHARACTER: PILATES
This bildungsroman is the story of Macon Dead Jr, (aka Milkman), an African American man in Michigan. Born to a dysfunctional family, Milkman grows up introverted and uninterested in his family affairs. Rather, he is obsessed with a desire to fly and subsequently becomes enraptured by the life of his Aunt, Pilates—a bootlegger and Hoodoo practitioner.
Pilates is a larger-than-life character who sparks Milkman’s interest in his family’s past. She tells him about a bag of gold she and her brother, Macon Dead Sr, had found in a cave when they were younger. Milkman is interested in this bag of gold and journeys south to Pennsylvania to find it. The journey is essentially a hero’s journey, leaving him forever changed. In the end, he says of Pilates, ‘…without ever leaving the ground, she could fly.’
THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES
AUTHOR: LOLA SHONEYIN
GENRE: FICTION
CHARACTER: BABA SEGI
Baba Segi is a wealthy polygamist living in Ibadan, Nigeria with his four wives. The fourth wife, Bolanle, is a fresh university graduate and his current favourite, and Baba Segi is determined to have children with her. But try as he may, she is unable to conceive. On the advice of his friend, he takes Bolanle for a hospital checkup, believing her to be infertile.
Though Baba Segi is an overbearing man, he is nonetheless oblivious to the deep secrets his wives and other members of his household are keeping from him. When Bolanle’s results come out alright, the doctor calls Baba Segi himself for a checkup. That is when he finds out about his infertility. Apparently, all his children have been fathered by different men, some of whom work within the household.
THE LION AND THE JEWEL
AUTHOR: WOLE SOYINKA
GENRE: DRAMA
CHARACTER: BAROKA
On the surface, this 1959 play is a humourous account of the tussle between an elderly chief, Baroka (the titular Lion), and Lakunle, a schoolteacher in his twenties, for the affection of the village damsel, Sidi (the eponymous Jewel.) But Soyinka’s interests are much deeper than that.
An elderly Yoruba chief and traditionalist to the core, Baroka represents traditional Yoruba culture and values, standing in stark opposition to the influences of modernization and the West which Lakunle embodies. Despite his age, Baroka is cunning, charismatic, and still very much in control of his faculties and his village. The struggle between the two men is, thus, essentially a struggle between tradition and modernity.