Once Upon a Time in Afrika

by Balogun Ojetade, Balogun Ojetade, Valjeanne Jeffers (Editor)

An exciting Sword and Soul tale by Balogun Ojetade, Once Upon a Time in Afrika Tells the story of a beautiful princess and her eager suitors. Desperate to marry off his beautiful but "tomboyish" duaghter, Esuseeke, the Emperor of Oyo, consults the Oracle. The Oracle tells the Emperor Esuseeke must marry the greatest warrior in all Onile (Afrika). To determine who is the greatest warrior, the Emperor hosts a grand martial arts tournament inviting warrior from all over the continent. Unknown to the warriors and spectators of the tournament a powerful evil is headed their way. Will the warriors band together against this evil?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Speculative Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2012

About the author

Balogun Ojetade is the author of the bestselling non-fiction books Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within, The Afrikan Warriors Bible, Surviving the Urban Apocalypse, The Urban Self Defense Manual and The Young Afrikan Warriors’ Guide to Defeating Bullies & Trolls.
He is one of the leading authorities on Afroretroism – film, fashion or fiction that combines African and / or African American culture with a blend of “retro” styles and futuristic technology, in order to explore the themes of tension between past and future and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. He writes about Afroretroism – Sword & Soul, Rococoa, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk at http://chroniclesofharriet.com/.
He is author of sixteen novels and gamebooks – MOSES: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman (Books 1 & 2); The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman: Freedonia; Redeemer; Once Upon A Time In Afrika; Fist of Afrika; A Single Link; Wrath of the Siafu; The Scythe; The Keys; Redeemer: The Cross Chronicles; Beneath the Shining Jewel; Q-T-Pies: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 0) and A Haunting in the SWATS: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 1); Siafu Saves the World; Siafu vs. The Horde; and Dembo’s Ditty – contributing co-editor of three anthologies: Ki: Khanga: The Anthology, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk and contributing editor of the Rococoa anthology and Black Power: The Superhero Anthology.
He is also the creator and author of the Afrofuturistic manga series, Jagunjagun Lewa (Pretty Warrior) and co-author of the Ngolo graphic novel.
Finally, he is co-author of the award winning screenplay, Ngolo and co-creator of Ki Khanga: The Sword and Soul Role-Playing Game, both with author Milton Davis.
Reach him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Afrikan.Mart... and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Baba_Balogun. Find his books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Balogun-Ojetad....

Reviews

[Kate Sherrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sword and Soul" is a sub-genre I had yet to explore -- had yet even to have heard of -- before my good friend and fellow bookfreak EssJay mentioned it, and this book, to me. Ever ready to try something new, especially if it's cheap, I decided to take a chance on Once Upon a Time in Afrika.

I'm very glad I did.

Written like a fairy tale, densely plotted like the conventional epic fantasies it's riffing on, Once Upon a Time in Afrika is a hell of a lot of fun to read. Set in an alternate pre-white-contact version of Africa in which the magic and the gods and demigods of folk tale and legend are real and part of everyday life, the story of badass Princess Esuseeke and her equally badass suitors is packed with action, combat, empowerment and intrigue. Ojetade is a student of African martial arts and it shows; his fight scenes are intricate, plausible, visceral and absolutely breathtaking, but he's writer enough to keep the reader's attention between battles.*

Refreshingly for this reader, Esuseeke is not rebelling when she takes up a sword or drops into an unarmed combat stance, but partaking fully of a culture that expects women to be able to defend themselves and boasts of a proud tradition of women warriors who often outshine the men. Her gender is important only because of her royalty; someone's got to breed successors to the crown, and for that she needs, at some point, a husband.

But her husband can't just be any old blue-blood type; he has to be her equal. And there aren't many of those.

Enter the time-honored device of the tournament. The winner gets to marry Esuseeke -- all nice and straightforward. But it isn't; Esuseeke's father, a politician rather than a warrior, doesn't trust the mechanism to produce a satisfactory result. He has someone in mind for her that will probably win, but daddy wants to be sure, you see. In other words, daddy starts gaming the system even before the system is in place, just to make sure that his daughter marries the right guy.

Of course the right guy is kind a jerk. More than a jerk, actually, a terrifying warlord whose fixation on the Law brings him to commit acts of extreme cruelty towards those less fortunate than he, rather than bend the rules a little.

But wait, there's more! Chiefly one Akin, the son of the unspeakably badass warrior woman who trained Esuseeke, but whom the princess somehow never met. He is the best student at his parents' school but has yet to prove himself anywhere else, but oh is he ready. Packing a pair of wooden swords that once slew a dragon and sporting a bristling mohawk, he is every inch a hero-in-waiting, but the way he finds himself fighting for Esuseeke's hand isn't quite what he might expect.

There's also a magician of intimidating power and wiliness, who just happens to be the sworn enemy of the Jerk. And a vast and skeletal monster only half of which, the left side, exists in our world. And a freaky witch that tricks her way into Akin's stomach. And a giant, pasty warrior who rides an armored albino rhinocerus into battle. And much, much more.

I haven't had this much sheer fun with a book since the first Crown of the Blood novel, if you couldn't tell.

So if you love pulp fantasy but don't love the racism, or the sexism, this may be your new favorite novel, or perhaps novella, for my one complaint about Once Upon a Time in Afrika, it's that it's just too short! But like they say, you want to leave 'em hankering for more.

Mission accomplished, Mr. Ojetade.

*Although there is a bit of tedium in the middle as he sends the kingdom's Prime Minister on a tour of the continent, recruiting warriors for the tournament. It's only a bit tedious, though, because Ojetade's considerable imagination gets free reign on the journey. And he does like a badass warrior-woman, does Ojetade. Oh, yes.

[TK McEachin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Balogun is a fantastic writer who has clearly mastered the craft. He's a master storyteller who utilizes figurative language so effectively. The thing I love the most is that he surprises you & you're on the edge wondering what will happen next. Sometimes it's not what you think is going to happen! The characters are memorable & this is a real page turner! You will not be disappointed!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read this was. Balogun has written an enjoyable tale full of larger than life characters, humour, magic and feats of martial prowess. A nice addition to the "Sword and Soul" genre as well as recommended reading!

[D.K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read of Balogun Ojetade and he's already one of my favorite authors.

[Brandon Pilcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this African-influenced fantasy, but in the end I was let down. The prose is on the tighter side, which makes for a quick read (I was able to finish the whole thing in one sitting), but the editing and formatting could use some serious work. Most common is the tendency for sentences to be split into separate paragraphs, which I presume is a product of the text being processed into Kindle format (though the author should have still gone over it after that process). In addition, the fight scenes make too much use of technical verbiage for body parts that don't really fit the story's atmosphere. What's with all the references to the "solar plexus", for instance?

As for the storyline, it is a disjointed mess of subplots that don't have any connection between them whatsoever, and many are unresolved. The main plot thread has to do with a competition over a warrior woman's hand in marriage, but then we had pointless diversions like the witch who takes residence in the male lead's stomach (and the heroine's fight with a hyena-man on the way to driving that witch out), the back-story of a domineering general who kills a gorilla dude, and the repetitive enlisting of fighting champions across Afrika (or is it Onile?) for the main contest. Even the final battle between the heroes and the invading Urabi (Arabs) has next to nothing to do with the main storyline, unless you count one of the Urabi fighters getting angry at the heroes' king for not letting non-black men participate in the contest.

Speaking of which, what WAS up with that anyway? The story provides no rationale whatsoever for this exclusion of non-black men from the contest, and I can't help but wonder that this reflects an ugly subtext of racial separatism on the author's part (a lot of black men in the so-called "Afrocentric" subculture have the same disapproval towards "their" women dating interracially that you see among male white supremacist). There's also an implicit claim that homosexuality was widespread in historical Europe and the Middle East but unheard of in Africa, never mind that homosexual orientations can appear in all human populations and that some African cultures had more tolerant attitudes towards it than Judeo-Christian ones. The author does show intensive research into various African societies, most of all the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, so why didn't he think to research historical African attitudes towards homosexuality? Either way, the subtle homophobic and anti-interracial subtexts ruined this already sloppy and under-edited story even more.

[Tiakall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but it really fell flat for me in parts. First off, it really needed a good edit. Not only were there a number of typographical errors (lots of line breaks in odd places, a character's name misspelled, italics ending in the wrong place, etc.) but the prose itself was so direct that I felt it lacked flow. Fights are described blow-by-blow in clinical fashion, and new concepts or items, if described at all, are done so in the tone of a documentary.

The plot itself I think could've benefitted from either a trimming or a bulking up - it tries to introduce too many characters in too short a plotline and wordcount. We're never really given an opportunity to get behind the characters or really find out what makes any of them tick, so all of the minor characters get their motivations explained to us with the same direct telling without any opportunity for show. The foreshadowing isn't subtle at all ("and then his thoughts turned to vengeance for his dead son!") Even with the two main characters, they get shoved together so quick, I didn't buy their romance. It felt more like two teenagers falling in lust. There were also things that didn't make sense, like why Akin didn't just join the tournament under his own name, or what he thought he was going to do after winning in someone else's name.. And the ending of the book is just too neat and convenient--the "evil" ones all die, and all the good guys are happy and everything is perfect. I like a good happily ever after, but winning one battle solves every single hurdle in the plotline?

This book does try to break away from the "weak women" cliche of fantasy, and while it doesn't fully succeed (the warrior princess is rebellious and needs to be married, most of the warriors are still men) it still does a better job than the lot of damsel-in-distress stories. And there were a couple of moments that were clever and made me smile or laugh (one of them being the couple that sabotages the messenger).

Overall, though, this book felt like a draft that was rushed to print too soon. I feel like a solid, harsh edit would've fixed some of the chaotic pacing and tamped down the cliche aspects. So I probably won't reread this one, sadly.

[BookBlerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book during the summer, but didn't think about adding the review to here until now. This is from my blog artsandyouthlove.

One of the book’s strongest assets is its characters. There is an equal amount of strong female and male characters. For instance, Esusekke is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and using bow and arrow. Matching her combat skills is the male character Akin, who has the makings of a leader and a great warrior. Other examples include Akin’s mother Oyabakin and Akin’s father Geboya, who are wise and skilled fighters in their own right.

Other interesting characters include various creatures in the realm, including witches and wizards, assassins, and half-warriors with either animal or monstrous qualities. These secondary characters brought Onile, the alternate world of Africa, to life. Depending on the character, they either made the story action-packed or humorous.

Besides the characters. the plot is fast-paced and filled with action, adventure, and a little romance. It will hook the reader and make the book hard to put down.

The only flaw in the book is the story’s world. The author did a great job incorporating Yoruba mythology into Onile. However, since the plot is so fast-paced and the story less than two hundred pages, the reader doesn’t have enough time to enjoy Onile. Different areas of the continent are introduced so quickly that the reader may feel disoriented at times.

Overall, this was a great sword and soul book. I recommend it for people getting into the genre for the first time. I also recommend it to black fantasy fiction lovers looking to see themselves in the pages.

[Kirtrina Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Especially how thoroughly written and believable the fight scenes were....so sad it is over. I wish this was a series! AND, I like the glossary at the end with the pronunciation key. It was fun seeing how close or far I was from pronouncing a name right.

[Stephanie Yuzuki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Balogun Ojetade's first novel and not one of my favorites. This is a very disjointed story, suffering from Ojetade having new elements popping up out of nowhere frequently, a problem he has in his other early stories. It doesn't feel natural at all and the story is sidetracked multiple times by irrelevant subplots. The only LGBT characters are evil, with one of them being an effeminate eunuch, which is quite personally offensive. The Kindle edition was edited terribly with a huge number of mistakes, and the Yoruba words and names weren't formatted properly, resulting in misspellings.

The good points are fairly likable protagonists and the good descriptions of fights. The story, when it stays on track, is engaging; if only it could have stayed on track.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. I did wish there was a map, but that might just be me.