African Fiction and the Paranormal

In his debut novel, The Changing Man, Tomi Oyemakinde places a Black protagonist at the centre of paranormal events, setting a new mark for African writers. However, there is still room for improvement in his work. 

There is a level of believability to paranormal stories. Readers enjoy these stories so much that they want to believe and disbelieve altogether. It gets entangled sometimes, and that is the standard that paranormal writers aim to achieve with their writings. Within the realm of African literature, the paranormal and supernatural subgenres are relatively new. In fact, we only really know about fantasy and magical realism, but we do not have an array of works that are wholly paranormal or supernatural. Authors like Ben Okri, Akwaeke Emezi, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Nnedi Okorafor, Nuzo Onoh and even earliest writers like D.O. Fagunwa and Amos Tutuola have ventured into this field but have not laid claim to the paranormal. Their works, instead, have focused on suspense, fantasy and magical realism. So, one might be quick to say that the paranormal and supernatural subgenres are yet to be fully explored in African fiction. However, with the coming to bookshelves of The Changing Man by Tomi Oyemakinde, we can say that the paranormal subgenre is gradually being reinvented into the field of African literature...