A review by alexchig
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
I can't give this an accurate star rating so I will just explain my thoughts. Ever since I read Vivek and Freshwater I have been enthralled with Akwaeke's writing, but I didn't know much about them as a person. Naturally, I was excited to read the memoir of someone as fascinating as them. It completely exceeded my expectations as it actually challenged some preconceptions that I didn't know I had. The memoir starts off with Emezi identifying themselves as an African ogbanje spirit, a God-like rather than human being. I immediately tried to rationalise what I had read; "you mean metaphorically right?". I had read Freshwater with the assumption that the ogbanje was a metaphor, but Akwaeke specifically calls out people for believing that (oops!). I think that as Westerners many of us (myself included) want things to be palatable, in sync with our own realities, simplified even. Akwaeke wants us to just accept indigenous realities the way that they are. Reading this has pushed me to explore my own prejudices more than anything else. 
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