Paper short abstract:

Akwaeke Emezi’s novel Freshwater situates gender nonconformity within an Igbo framework that denies the universality of Western biomedical perspectives. Emezi’s creative use of Igbo cosmology circumvents colonising discourses and offers a provocative representation of gender beyond the binary.

Paper long abstract:

Akwaeke Emezi’s semi-autobiographical novel Freshwater positions its gender nonconforming protagonist the Ada as an ọgbanje, or repeatedly reincarnated spirit child. In this paper I argue that Freshwater foregrounds elements of Igbo ontology as a way of imagining transgender identities which draw from historically liberal conceptions of gender and sexuality in Africa. The novel’s Igbo-centric figuration offers the Ada an empowering alternative to the Western biomedical discourses that typically pathologize transgender and gender nonconforming people. I posit that this move echoes Toyin Falola’s call for pluriversalism, or multiple universalisms which resist assumptions of universal Western experience.

However, I also acknowledge that Freshwater is not without its critics. Despite its provocative possibilities, Emezi’s novel is not always well-received, particularly within parts of the Igbo academic community. Some critics refuse Emezi’s representation of ọgbanje, arguing that their novel undermines the credibility of Igbo traditions. While these criticisms may be justified, I posit that such critiques possibly insist on an essentialism that Emezi actively seeks to avoid. I argue that Emezi purposefully claims and creatively refashions the ọgbanje concept to demonstrate that Igbo and other African ontologies are mobile, flexible and adaptable. By refiguring the typically malignant ọgbanje as an empowering identity, Freshwater imagines a tentatively hopeful, open-ended future for the Ada. Thus while Emezi’s use of ọgbanje may pose some problems for readers, it nonetheless gestures toward broad gender nonconforming horizons rooted in African ontologies.