“He’s carrying this post-colonial sense that many Black people, many Nigerians and Africans feel. Like, we feel we are subservient - we are not good enough as white people.”

Andrew Aziza is a 15 year old boy growing up in Kontagora in Northern Nigeria, wrestling with issues of politics, identity and spirituality. Faced with a feeling that Africa is “cursed”, he finds himself longing to be with a blonde, white woman from the West.

Stephen Buoro is the author of The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, a coming-of-age story that follows an intelligent and highly emotional teenager on a journey of self discovery in the shadow of colonialism and communal violence. In this episode we discover how, among a backdrop of religious violence and turmoil, Andrew turns into the ‘superhero’ Andy Africa to save his continent, seemingly becoming a metaphor for Christ.

In this episode, you will learn:

• To consider the duality and conflict between the themes that you tackle in your writing.
• How you can break the mould and experiment with new writing styles.
• Why using unique, local language can allow you to paint an authentic portrait of life within a community.

Find out more about Stephen here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

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