WATCH | Feyisayo Anjorin’s Novel, Kasali’s Africa, Has Book Trailers

May 21, 2018

Feyisayo Anjorin’s new novel Kasali’s Africa has a book trailer. A book trailer does what a film trailer does: offer the reader visual engagement with, or a visual representation of, the book’s story.

The book trailer came about as a clever marketing and publicity tactic to hook readers and potential book buyers. In these ones for Kasali’s Africa, actors play out different scenes from the book.

Kasali’s Africa was published by Lifescripts Publishing on May 3, 2018.

Here is a description of Kasali’s Africa on Amazon:

Kasali Adebayor, a prominent farmer in the city of Akure, a husband of five wives, fancies himself as an activist for good governance while wielding the big stick of patriarchy over his family members. In the fast changing African political landscape Kasali’s family comes under the spotlight; an exposure which – initially appealing and addictive – threatens everything he holds dear and secret. Kasali’s daughter who has been a secret rebel in her father’s Akure enclave visits her aunt in Monrovia, gets drunk on her freedom, and is soon caught in the web of violence that engulfs Liberia’s Glay presidency. Kasali Adebayor, weak against the subtle feminism-inspired request of his of beloved wife Mojisola, ends in a dead end that brings out the worst in him, and begins the end of Kasali’s Africa.

Feyisayo Anjorin was born in Akure, Nigeria in 1983. He was trained as a filmmaker at AFDA Johannesburg and as a broadcaster at Damelin College, Johannesburg. His writings has appeared in Bella Naija, African Writer, Fiction On the Web, and Bakwa Magazine. He has worked on film and TV projects in South Africa and the UK. Anjorin’s short story, “There’s No Danger in a Single Story,” and his short story series, “The Night My Dead Girlfriend Called,” were published in Brittle Paper.

In an email to Brittle Paper, Anjorin explained how he came to write the novel:

The first part of Kasali’s Africa was the chapter “A Family Affair” (2013), which was inspired by my contact with some conservative residents of Akure and their defiance in the face of 21st century savvy ideas that could have been tolerated, if not embraced, in
cities like Lagos and Johannesburg. After writing it I was intrigued by Kasali; I loved him and I hated him, but I got curious and couldn’t stop there.

Then I wrote the “Kasali’s Love” (2014), which then appeared online in Fiction On the Web. Professor Briggs was inspired by the feminist movement in Nigeria and their friends and their opponents; and the typical reaction of the patriarchal society to feminism.

The parts set in Liberia is inspired by the stories I heard through a friend whose father was one of the Nigerian soldiers deployed to Liberia during the first Liberian civil war. As childhood friends she would share her fears that her father could soon be brought home in a flag-wrapped coffin. When her father came back, he came back with stories too. It took three months of writing every night on weekdays for three months to finish the story.