Ben Igwe

A Matter of Identity Ben Igwe

Jamike Nnorom, an only male child of his family, was educated in the United States of America. He returned to his village in Africa on what he hoped would be a brief visit to see his widowed mother after years of absence, with the hope of coming back to America. Under circumstances he least expected, he could not return, but instead started a family. A male child with an unusual body mark is born to the couple and the oracle offered divination on behalf of the offspring.

A Matter of Identity is a sequel to Ben Igwe's Award winning debut novel, Against the Odds. With interest in human and national relationships, cultural growth, and assimilation, he adroitly weaves history and cultural ethos, particularly the philosophical tenets of reincarnation in Igbo traditional society, into this novel. The author's synergistic plot arrangement, and the capsular density of its thematic construct, with myriad settings strewn together by their subject affinity, and rendered with spellbound imagery and folksy narrative, compel the reader to unconsciously surrender to an enchanting rhythmic prose.

A Matter of Identity is anthropological in scope and reach; foreshadowing with nostalgic relish, yet projecting a new horizon of mutual reintegration symbolized in Ahamefule to underscore and affirm the inextricable nexus in the afro-diasporic continuum.