Book Launch - "The Extinction of Menai"

11.10 AM - 12.45 PM, Saturday 21st October. Venue: Courtyard. Launch of the Ghanaian edition of Chuma Nwokolo's novel, The Extinction of Menai.

At the height of their illustrious civilisation they ruled Ancient Egypt, but this is the 21st century and the Menai are on their last legs. With their global population in the hundreds, they are reduced to their Niger delta homeland of Kreektown. There, their destiny is sealed by a rogue drug trial by a multinational, with genocidal consequences for the community.

In a gripping narrative that pits governments and multinationals against a minor ethnic nation, Mata Nimito leads a choir of voices from the living and the dead to sing an indelible epic for the times. Other Principal characters include ‘excommunicated’ Menai daughter, Sheesti Kroma, identical male twins, Zanda Atturk and Humphrey Chow, and the infamous vigilante, Badu. As their clock runs down, the imperative of history drives the last of the Menai from their creeks, across desert and continent, just a step ahead of their Apocalypse. The themes explored in the novel include language and culture loss (a quarter of the world’s 7000 languages will die in a century) and power relations (between multinationals, communities, and governments).