The Nigerian Underworld

The twentieth century saw the meteoric ascent of Nigerian literature to global recognition. Writers like Amos Tutuola (1920-1997), Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), Flora Nwapa (1931-1993), and Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017) placed Nigeria on the global literary map. Their powerful and evocative portraits of their homeland and its diverse voices were encapsulated in widely recognized works such as Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), Achebe’s The African Trilogy, Nwapa’s Efuru (1966), and Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood (1979). As a testament to Nigerian literature’s place in the global literary map, it has produced a Nobel Laureate in Literature in Wole Soyinka. These highly-heralded writers passed the proverbial torch to the succeeding generation which included Ben Okri, Sefi Atta, and Irenosen Okojie.  

The recent years also saw the remarkable rise of young Nigerian writers to global recognition whose works are gaining the interest of many global readers. Among them are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chigozie Obioma, Oyinkan Braithwaite, and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀. These up-and-coming writers are taking the world by storm with their own brands of prose and distinct storytelling. Their works have swept the literary world and have earned acclaim from across the globe. Adichie’s second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, for instance, won the Orange Prize for Fiction. This is on top of several longlisting and shortlisting at the Booker Prize for Fiction. Obioma’s first two works were shortlisted for these awards while Adébáyọ̀ was longlisted once and Oyinkan was shortlisted once. Okri earned the distinction of being the first Nigerian writer to win the award when his novel The Famished Road was awarded the prize in 1991.

In the 21st century, among the young Nigerian writers making waves is Akwaeke Emezi. They – Emezi identifies as nonbinary, hence, the pronoun – made their literary debut in 2018 with the semi-autobiographical novel Freshwater. It was a remarkable debut that catapulted them to both critical and commercial success. Building on this momentum and striking while the iron is hot, they followed up their debut novel with The Death of Vivek Oji (2020), and You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty (2022). Each of the three books captured various facets of contemporary Nigerian life and even history, with each book underlining Emezi’s status as a rising star in both Nigerian and global literature. These novels were complemented by a memoir, a poetry collection, and two works of young adult fiction.

“Maybe this was all a lesson, that because she hadn’t formalized it in God’s house, that’s why she wasn’t getting her happy ending? Maybe she had been rash, careless to think that she didn’t have to do things the right way. Maybe she should have known that if he didn’t love God the way she did, then he couldn’t have been the real answer to her prayers. This could have all been a false faith, and now her eyes were being torn open.”

~ Akwaeke Emezi, Little Rot

In 2024, Emezi made their literary comeback with the publication of their fourth novel, Little Rot. Set mainly in a city called New Lagos, Little Rot commences with a breakup. Aima and Kalu are young upper-class Nigerians who first met and fell in love in Houston but found themselves returning to their homeland. Born to affluence, Kalu had to look after a family-run business, prompting their return. Their return, however, was not the homecoming they expected. The new setting and environment started to expose the fault lines in their relationship. As the ground shifts underneath them, seminal questions float to the fore. Is the person before me still the person I fell in love with four years before? Despite wanting to be a modern man but upon his return to Nigeria, he had no scruples flaunting his privileged lifestyle.

The more palpable change can be noted in Aima. Returning to Nigeria made her settle into the conventional lifestyle her upbringing afforded. An important element of their breakup was Aima’s rediscovery of Christianity; she previously abandoned it when she started living abroad. Her fervent religiosity made her believe that they were living and son. This also prompted her to demand a proposal from her boyfriend. Kalu unexpectedly refused because he wanted to wait until they were ready to get settled. In anger, Aima exploded: You’re never going to marry me! Viewing her relationship from the lens of religion, she grew tired of waiting for commitment. Aima booked a ticket to London and it was at this juncture that the story started, Kalu took Aima to the airport. For his part, Kalu wanted to beg her to stay but words got stuck.

The crux of the story charts the weekend following Aima’s supposed flight out of the country. Things headed south as pandemonium loomed and the story pivoted toward a different direction. Rather than flying to London, Aima instead sought comfort in the company of her best friend Ijendu who took her out to a night of dancing at a high-society nightclub. Kalu, on the other hand, was cajoled by his best friend Ahmed into attending one of the exclusive sex parties he organizes. For the former couple, it was supposed to be an opportunity to wash away the pain of their breakup. For one night, Aima and Kalu, in the company of the individuals they trusted the most, were to cut loose and douse themselves in alcohol, drugs, and other acts of debauchery. The pretenses of high society were undone as they gave in to the leisure of partying.

It was supposed to be a carefree night, a night brimming with fun and untethered from the realities and pains of the world. But then things took a darker turn. At the sex party, Kalu came across a nauseating scene. He barged into a locked room where he witnessed a group of masked partygoers with an underaged sex worker. Disgusted by the scene, Kalu attacked one of the men. Unbeknownst to him, the man he attacked is the type of man that one should not be messing with at all costs because he is a man who has the means to pull all strings and retaliate. In the process, Kalu made an enemy of Thomas Okinosho, or Daddy O, one of the richest and most powerful and respected pastors in Nigeria. Daddy O has a flock of millions. He also has an untold influence in New Lagos’s underworld. Kalu’s action would set into motion a series of events that ignited one of the novel’s primary conflicts.

“Over the gospel music she was playing, she’d heard ghosts – snippets of his voice trying to get to her, timid and weak attempts at connection, tendrils dying in the air between them, It was all small talk, nothing she could hold with both hands, meaningless chatter that avoided the truth of what they had both become.”

~ Akwaeke Emezi, Little Rot

Transpiring over the course of a weekend, the fast-paced narrative takes the readers on a literary journey across the labyrinthine Nigerian underworld. It runs high with tension, permeating with alcohol, drugs, and its valuable currency, sex. The underworld blurs the lines of morality. It was a character of its own. The characters referred to it as the “rot,” hence, the book’s title. One woman tells Kalu: “You think you’ll never be a part of things you hate; you think you’re protected somehow, like the rot won’t ever get to you. Then you wake up one day and you’re chest deep in it.” Sure enough, Kalu was dragged into this hellhole. But Kalu was not alone in his venture as he dragged along with him into this tangled web Ahmed, Ijendu, and Aima. Also getting dragged into the mess were Ola and Souraya, Kuala Lumpur-based sex workers who were flown to New Lagos by one of their clients.

New Lagos then transforms into the titular rot where hypocrisy abounds. The rich and the powerful exploit the weak, rendering them voiceless. They were muted by the rampant abuses. Violence was ubiquitous. The novel also captures the follies of a highly patriarchal society where men are the primary voices. Without second thoughts about the consequences of their actions, they sleep around rampantly. They cheated on their wives and partners with little remorse. The plot was driven by men acting up. To top it all off, corruption’s pervasive presence was palpable. It is a world where everything and everyone can be bought. One only has to have power and money. It was a world run by the morally corrupt. It was a society where to fit into the mold of society, everyone was choosing superficiality. The rot was coming from the inside, slowly undermining New Lagos and swallowing everyone whole.

Beyond moral and political corruption, spiritual corruption was highlighted in the novel. The complicity of the Church was subtly underscored by the story which is a thinly veiled commentary on Nigeria’s powerful churches. Daddy O was a representation of these churches and pastors. Nigeria is home to some of the richest pastors in the world. The power and influence they wield pervades every strata of modern Nigerian society. By integrating traditional beliefs with conventional religious ideals, they managed to cajole a large flock of followers who believe everything these pastors say, even if they spout the most outlandish things. Aima’s sudden marriage obsession further underlines the pervasive influences of religion on modern Nigerian society. The novel also captures how society values women. Women’s sexuality was suppressed by society.

Emezi was undeterred in confronting discomfiting realities. Like in her previous work, Little Rot explores issues dealing with and stigmas surrounding the queer community. Over the weekend, the characters make several discoveries, mostly about themselves and the people around them. Their individual narratives capture their struggles in acknowledging their same-sex attractions. They were gripped in internal turmoil as they confronted their desires, some of which were long suppressed while some were newly discovered. This was exacerbated by the fact that queerness is frowned upon in Nigeria. Members of the queer community live under the constant threat of violence and reprisal for their mere existence.

“It was always fun to see how people would react; a quick way of weeding out those who weren’t serious, those who wouldn’t be able to afford her or keep up with her, those who didn’t understand the game or thought they could implement their own kind of game. That’s not how it worked. The world was too big; there were too many people in it to waste time with the useless ones.”

~ Akwaeke Emezi, Little Rot

Sex is prevalent in the story; it grabs the readers’ attention. To the characters, it was the highest form of empowerment. It was also liberating but, ironically, sex work seems to be the only recourse for women who year for financial independence. The novel’s depiction of sex, however, can be graphic, almost the rot of the title. Despite the spells of darkness and the sense of filth that permeated above the narrative, it was occasionally disrupted by glimmers of hope. In stark contrast to the other characters, Ijendu is a proudly bisexual woman who freely embraces her sexuality. The writing was at its most affectionate capturing the characters’ love stories. Their longing and desires provide the novel textures of tenderness. It was an act of defiance in a world where explicit displays of softness are considered a weakness.

However, even the power of love does not suffice to contrast the looming above the story. Kalu’s concluding words capture the essence of the novel: “She said this city changes us so slowly that we don’t notice, little by little. Until it’s too late. And we’re part of everything we always hated.” The little rot in the title slowly consumes the characters and the city they are living in. Sex, violence, drugs, and hypocrisy permeate the story, eroding conventions of morality as the characters and, by extension, the denizens of New Lagos descend into moral corruption. Spiritual and political corruption further undermine the foundations. It was a little rot that grew into filth. While love has redeeming qualities, it does not bail the characters out of the abyss they found themselves in. Little Rot defies categorization, a characteristic it shares with Emezi’s earlier works. Fast-paced and relentless, it is a complex but compelling read that offers little reprieve.

“She made it, made it out, made her life into what she wanted it to look like. Being able to do that, that was power. That was freedom. Justice wasn’t simething she looked for or believed in, and how useful would it be anyway? People didn’t understand that. They wanted revenge; they wanted people to be held accountable in a world where that just didn’t happen. It was like expeting a rotten tree to bear edible fruit. It was never going to give you that.”

~ Akwaeke Emezi, Little Rot
Book Specs

Author: Akwaeke Emezi
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publishing Date: 2024
No. of Pages: 274
Genre: Literary, LGBTQ

Synopsis

Aima and Kalu are a longtime couple who have just split. When Kalu, reeling from the breakup, visits an exclusive sex party hosted by his best friend, Ahmed, he makes a decision that will plunge them into chaos, brutally and suddenly upending their lives. Ola and Souraya, two Nigerian sex workers visiting from Kuala Lumpur, collide into the scene just as everything goes to hell. Sucked into the city’s corrupt and glittering underworld, they’re all looking for a way out, fueled by a desperate need to escape the dangerous threat that looms over all of them.

About the Author

To learn more about Akwaeke Emezi, click here.