Before I get started, just a reminder – if you’re reading this on or before September 7, 2024, you still have a little bit of time to apply to be a Cybils judge! I found many of the books below reading them for the Cybils or because they were Cybils finalists.

Several months ago (time got away from me), my parents brought a Nigerian grad student over to my sister’s house for dinner. As is usual for me, the topic of books came up, and it turned out that she hadn’t heard of any of the Nigerian-based fantasy books I’d read. I passed my copy of Daughters of Nri, one of the few of these books that I owned personally, on to her and promised her a list. I’m hoping that I’m just scratching the surface of what’s out there, so if you have any recommendations, please mention them in the comments. I haven’t read enough adult Nigerian-based fantasy to recommend anyone but Nnedi Okorafor, so if you have, again, please comment!

Middle Grade

• Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark – Abeni must learn magic from a witch she doesn’t trust to save the other children of her village, who have all been called away by a mysterious piper.
• Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans by Isi Hendrix – Orphan Adia has always wanted to learn magic, but her aunt and uncle follow the new religion of the Bright Father and think she’s cursed. She runs away to work at the traditional school of magic – where things aren’t much better.
• Children of the Quicksands by Efua Tratore – Simi has grown up in modern Lagos, so she’s shocked when she must move in with her grandmother in a rural village. Then she hears stories of the goddess Oshun, and children trapped forever in the nearby quicksand.
• Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor – Nnami is filled with rage over his father’s unsolved murder. A year after his death, his father’s spirit gives him an Ikenga, a powerful statue, which gives Nnami superhero powers. But a superhero powered by rage is dangerous indeed.
• Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun by Tọlá Okogwu – Living in England, Onyeka has always been told that her hair is too big, and too much. Then her hair magically saves her life, which brings her to the attention of a high-tech magical school in Nigeria.
• Tristan Strong books by Kwame Mbalia – this series from Rick Riordan’s imprint involve a modern-day kid caught up in adventures with the gods and heroes of West African and African-American folklore. It has won many awards and deserves them.

Teen

• Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor – Sunny, who is albino, learns when she moves back to Nigeria after growing up in the US that her difference gives her magical powers. Soon, she and other magical teens are joined in a coven to stop the evil magician who is murdering children. This was the first Nigerian-based fantasy I ever read, and I still love it.
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi – In a West Africa of mythic past, siblings Zélie and Tzain fight to preserve magic in the face of a government determined to wipe it out. Filled with gods and traditions of Nigeria, forbidden romance, and lots of blood.
• Daughters of Nri by Reni K. Amayo – Two twins, separated at birth – one raised in a small village and the other in the palace – both believing they’re human. But they are goddesses, and they will need to discover themselves and each other to end the violence that started when the gods left the earth.
• The Gilded Ones  by Namina Forna – When 16-year-old Deka bleeds gold instead of red at her coming-of-age ceremony, she’s recruited to join an army of other girls like herself to fight monsters attacking the empire. This Cybils finalist has lots of military strategy and battle scenes with limited romance.
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (Link to a review at Falling Letters, as I still need to read this one.) “Raised in isolation, Tarisai yearns for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11, but her mother, The Lady, has magically compelled Tarisai to kill the Crown Prince.”