First published 2021
This multimedia narrative follows two powerful Nigerian families, the UmuEze Amara Clan and the House of Obafemi, in an alternate world where colonial powers and the slave trade never touched their homeland. Through four illustrated chapters, Ojih Odutola creates life-size portraits in charcoal, pastel, and pencil that reveal the private moments and hidden tensions within these aristocratic households. The families navigate questions of identity, social position, and inherited power while maintaining their status in a society that developed along entirely different lines. Each figure appears both familiar and unknowable, their expressions suggesting secrets and unspoken conflicts that span generations. The artist constructs a complete fictional universe where wealth and class operate according to different rules, where African nobility flourished without interruption. This speculative vision examines how race, privilege, and family legacy might have evolved in the absence of historical trauma, offering an intimate look at characters who embody both the benefits and burdens of unbroken tradition.
Genres: art, historical-fiction, african-literature, 21st-century, alternate-history, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, hidden-secrets
Setting: Nigeria
Period: Alternate History
248 pages · Hardcover · Rizzoli Electa