Kosawa

The village of Kosawa is the primary setting of the novel, where most of the action occurs between the years 1980 and 2020. It is the birthplace of the Nangi family, which includes all five of our first-person narrators: main character Thula, her uncle Bongo, mother Sahel, grandmother Yaya, and brother Juba. The corruption of the village’s water supply because of the drilling of American oil company Pexton is what provides the impetus for the story, and the novel tracks the forty-year fight against Pexton to reclaim and restore Kosawa. In the beginning of the novel, the village operates much in the same way as it has for generations, with villagers living in huts, hunting and gathering, and living in a harmonious community. At the novel’s end, His Excellency has caused the village to be burned to the ground, and Pexton has begun drilling for oil on the...