FOR SIZAKELE (novel)
Taylor, a queer Nigerian college student, is in a passionate relationship with Lee, a Black American basketball-playing pianist. When Taylor develops romantic feelings for Sy, a Cameroonian photographer whose similarities make them instant family, Taylor battles Lee’s jealousy. As Taylor encounters challenges to her femme and African identities, she finds ways, through the kinship of her friends, to define herself on her own terms. For Sizakele addresses transcontinental identity, intimate partner violence, queer gender and how we love as illuminators of who we are.
Praise for For Sizakele
“For Sizakele is a poetic and intimate journey through the dense thicket of the lives of lovers. Cultural displacement, deep wounds and youthful passion are the backdrop for this vivid series of encounters between women—butch and femme—who must learn to know and trust themselves for love to be possible. Etaghene has created a heartbreaking yet encouraging glimpse at the mountains women of color must climb to see the sunrise.”
—Jewelle Gomez, author, The Gilda Stories
“As African lesbians from South Africa and beyond, especially in places where prejudice, ‘curative rapes’ and brutal murders of us occur in our formative spaces—including our homes, workplaces, churches, schools—we are thirsty for text like [For Sizakele]. Our … communities still lack narratives produced by our own in a manner that we are able to articulate our issues as we choose. [For Sizakele] will help our queers, lesbians, dykes, femmes and trans people and encourage each and every one of us to read, write and be read… not forgetting many who can’t dare to come out due to sexual orientation and gender expression still outlawed in many countries in Africa and around the globe. It is through this writing that many queer generations after us will get an opportunity to reference what she captured. It’s beyond just a moment, this book will live beyond us. This is not just a book, this is life.”
—Zanele Muholi, visual activist, author, Faces and Phases
PURCHASE FOR SIZAKELE HERE ❤
SKIN INTO VERSE (chapbook)
"sometimes you have to write the poem that rips your ribcage open exposes off-beat on-beat polyrhythmic heart murmurings that speaks in tongues" ~Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene
A vibrant collection of poetry & fiction.
Yvonne Onakeme Etaghene 