Nnedi Okorafor 'The Mythmaker'

By: Zilli

Nnedi Okorafor has given fantasy fiction a terrain with deep roots in Africa.

Nearly 25 years ago, Nnedi was visiting relatives in Isiekenesi, Nigeria, when she asked her grand uncle a sensitive question.

What could he tell her about Nsibidi, an old and often very secret symbolic script?

''His response was, 'you should not be asking me about these evil things!'' Ms. Okorafor recalled.

Predicatably, his chiding only fueled her curiosity. She learned everything she could about the script and, many years later, incorporated it into her fantasy books.

''There's a secretness that was really intriguing,'' said Ms. Okrafor, who has tattoo on her arm with  Nsibidi symbol that means ''storyteller''.

Magic, ritual and secrecy are threads that run through Ms. Okorafor's wildly imaginative young adult fantasy series, which features a head-spinning menagerie of the worldly spirits and deities drawn from Nigerian myths and legends.

''Nigeria is my muse. The idea of the world being a magical place, a mystical place, is normal there.''

Nnedi Okorafor, who now lives in a Chicago suburb, within about a decade has published a dozen science fiction and fantasy novels.

All students of the world would enjoy reading her master works.