Narrated from the point of view of Seun, an orphan from the Niger Delta, Stillborn is not only a tale of turmoil and tragedy ; desperation and despair ; but also one of optimism and opportunity. It revolves around the lives of five characters : Seun, his mother Ranti, herself a girl of limited privilege ; Seun's lover, Aisha, a refugee from the religious clashes in the North ; and Emeka from the South-east, a war deserter who becomes an unlikely hero.
Their lives intersect in the residence of Dolapo, a civil rights lawyer from the South-west. And the five lives come together to paint a vivid picture of Nigeria since its infancy fifty years ago, meandering into the complexity of the lives and communities of present-day Nigeria. In the end, Stillborn traverses the various political epochs that have shaped Nigeria, and by extension, Africa in general, right from the pre-independence period and through the fears, frustrations, hopes and dreams that have characterized this fragile continent.
Narrated from the point of view of Seun, an orphan from the Niger Delta, Stillborn is not only a tale of turmoil and tragedy ; desperation and despair ; but also one of optimism and opportunity. It revolves around the lives of five characters : Seun, his mother Ranti, herself a girl of limited privilege ; Seun's lover, Aisha, a refugee from the religious clashes in the North ; and Emeka from the South-east, a war deserter who becomes an unlikely hero.
Their lives intersect in the residence of Dolapo, a civil rights lawyer from the South-west. And the five lives come together to paint a vivid picture of Nigeria since its infancy fifty years ago, meandering into the complexity of the lives and communities of present-day Nigeria. In the end, Stillborn traverses the various political epochs that have shaped Nigeria, and by extension, Africa in general, right from the pre-independence period and through the fears, frustrations, hopes and dreams that have characterized this fragile continent.
