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There’s no other way to say this: sex is happening in Nigeria! As of July 2024, the estimated population of Nigeria was 229.5 million people, and we all know that this country is the most populous in Africa. However, our fruitfulness and multiplication seem not to match how unwilling we are to confront topics that revolve around sex and sexuality. From the lack of adequate sexual education for young people, with parents and teachers being poor sources of information, to the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria, a northern-affiliated film association, banning an actress from future movies for holding hands and cuddling a male performer in a music video, to sex scenes in movies being tagged ‘unnecessary’ and actors facing backlash and regretting their sexual roles years later, to the National Film and Video Censors Board likening media with same-sex content to ‘pornography’ and in the same category as ‘obscene’ material.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books that prove that Nigerians are having sex. From the published accounts of African women on their sex lives to a story with a nuanced portrayal of teenage sexual attraction, the books on this list are all the proof you need that contrary to what many Nigerians would have us believe, they do enjoy a good rumble in the sheets!
Read our recommendations below.
americanah
author: Chimamanda ngozi adichie
Genre: fiction
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where, despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
Even a book about identity and race, set during politically fraught times, does save some space on the page for the characters to indulge themselves and ‘reignite their passion.’
Honey & Spice
AUTHOR: bolu babalola
GENRE: fiction
Bolu Babalola’s dazzling debut novel, full of passion, humour and heart, centres on a young Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about.
Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. As an expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, she has made it her mission to make sure the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of ‘situationships’, players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as ‘The Wastemen of Whitewell’, in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show on the brink. They’re soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures.
A cute romance novel for people with a sweet tooth, and its sex scene is just as honeyed.
you made a fool of death with your beauty
authOR: akwaeke emezi
GENRE: fiction
Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. Fresh and seductive, Akweke Emezi’s You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty explores the story of a young woman seeking joy while healing from loss.
Well, people are definitely having sex in this book.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce the launch of their inaugural $20,000 Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize dedicated to exceptional works by Black women. Deadline: 30th June 2024. Learn more here.
blessings
AUTHOR: chukwuebuka ibeh
GENRE: fiction
Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family—sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when an intimate connection blossoms between Obiefuna and a boy from a nearby village, happiness is fleeting, as his father soon catches them together. Obiefuna’s father banishes him to boarding school. There, he finds and hides who he truly is as he navigates his new school’s strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna’s life, or the life he wants to live, becomes even further out of reach and more dangerous than ever before. Blessings is Moonlight meets Purple Hibiscus in this gay coming-of-age novel set in post-military Nigeria and culminating in the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014.
This book deals with an even rarer phenomenon in Nigerian media: the representation of teenage sexuality. From the highs and lows of sexual attraction and related encounters, to falling in love for the first time, Blessings handles its more intimate scenes with nuance, a book that cares deeply about its teenage characters, even as they stumble through their wants and attraction to each other.
god’s children are little broken people
Author: arinze ifeakandu
Genre: fiction
In nine exhilarating stories of queer love in contemporary Nigeria, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things takes us through a man revisiting the university campus where he lost his first love, aware now of what he couldn’t understand then; a young musician who rises to fame at the price of pieces of himself, and the man who loves him. In God’s Children Are Little Broken Things Arinze Ifeakandu explores with tenderness and grace the fundamental question of the heart: can deep love and hope be sustained in spite of the dominant expectations of society, and great adversity.
The sex scenes in this book are passionate and tender, raw and filled with hunger. Queer people love, and they want, just like everybody else.
nearly all the men in lagos are mad
AUTHOR: damilare kuku
GENRE: fiction
Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad is a collection of twelve short stories featuring characters with unique voices and stories that represent the diverse class, gender and ethnic melting pot that is Lagos. There’s a story of a young lady who tries to find her ‘oyibo’ soulmate on the streets of Lagos; another of a pastor’s wife who defends her husband from an allegation of adultery; a wife takes a knife to her husband’s penis; a night of lust between a rising musician and his Instagram baddie takes an unexpected turn. Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad underscores with wit, humour, wisdom and sensitivity, the perils of trying to find lasting love and companionship in Africa’s most notorious city.
The sex scenes in this book were gritty, explicit and very delightful.
the sex lives of african women
authOR: nana darkoa sekyiamah
GENRE: non-fiction
Thanks to her blog, Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. For this book, she spoke to over thirty African women across the globe while chronicling her own journey towards sexual freedom.
The Sex Lives of African Women centres the experiences of women of colour: a mellifluous chorus celebrating the liberation, individuality and joy of African women’s multifaceted sexuality. In these confessional pages, women control their own bodies and pleasure and assert their sexual power. Capturing the rich tapestry of sex positivity, The Sex Lives of African Women is a singular and subversive book that celebrates the liberation, individuality, and joy of African women’s multifaceted sexuality.
Real stories from real Nigerian/African/Black women breaking the culture of silence and shame surrounding sex⎈
