Stephen Buoro's comic novel follows a young Nigerian man's obsession with whiteness

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro is one of our favorite books of 2023. It focuses on a 15-year-old boy, Andy Aziza, who lives in Kontagora and uses the framework of superheroes and villains to grapple with the systemic issues in his home country of Nigeria and the African continent as a whole. In today's episode, Buoro speaks with NPR's Camila Domonoske about his protagonist's difficult feelings about his identity and country of origin, and how he balances the darkness of postcolonial violence with light-hearted, teenage issues like high school crushes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaung. I love teen drama soap operas. You know, give me a dust and screak or the OC and, you know, I'm good, you know, I'm set. And what's so appealing about that time in your life is that you're so consumed and conflicted by your desires, you know, particularly your sexual desires. And you're so confused about
0:21.6	trying to make it all fit with your life as it was, you know, your family, your faith, heck,
0:25.9	even your hobbies. And that's what's plaguing Andy Aziza in the book, The Five Sartful
0:31.2	Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Burrow. It's one of NPR's books we love this year,
0:36.2	one of our staff picks.
0:43.9	My colleague Melissa Gray recommended it and wrote, quote, Andy will make you laugh, and then he will break your heart.
0:48.2	Listen to the author Stephen Burrow, talk about it to NPR's Camilla Dominovsky after the break.
0:53.8	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:58.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:00.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:05.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:08.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.3	In Stephen Burroughs new darkly comic novel, a Nigerian teenager named Andy dreams about his father.
1:21.1	Maybe I'm like Papa. I really want to know who the hell he is.
1:26.7	His dusty feet, his booming voice, his grip on my shoulder.
1:32.3	The 15-year-old doesn't know his father. It's a secret his mother keeps from him.
1:37.3	The secret he keeps from her? A secret that's very obvious to his two best friends?
1:43.3	That Andy dreams of white women,
1:46.4	blondes, to be precise.
1:48.0	A Marilyn Monroe, who has never had mosquitoes sink in her ears and suck her blood,
1:55.7	leaving red swellings as they fly away.
1:59.2	A princess Diana, who has never woken up at midnight with hunger,
	...

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