Ebele Chizea’s Aquarian Dawn is a Mother-Daughter Tale of Escape and Hope

Nigerian writer Ebele Chizea released her YA debut novel Aquarian Dawn on October 25 last year and readers were absolutely blown away by the mesmerizing writing and strong female characters. Published by Three Rooms Press, the novel features a dynamic mother-daughter duo who flee civil war in West Africa to settle down in 1960s America.

It is hard to believe that Aquarian Dawn is Chizea’s debut novel considering the depth and emotion with which each of the characters have been portrayed. In the book, 15-year-old Ada and her mother live in a fictional West African country Nabuka. However, the impending civil war forces them to immigrate to America. What follows is a heartfelt coming-of-age story as Ada experiences the many facets of American culture while struggling to connect with her emotionally distant mother.

Once they reach small-town Pennsylvania, Ada immerses herself in US culture, specifically the counterculture movement where she is passionate about the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war activism after her own experiences in Nabuka. She protests against the Vietnam War, makes friends with other non-conformist youth, discovers romance, experiences racism, and exercises autonomy with respect to sex and drugs. Through this process, she seeks to become independent from her mother and strives to find her true self.

The novel begins to speed up when Ada and her mother return to Nabuka to bury Ada’s ex-stepfather who dies in 1970 while fighting in the civil war. Here, Ada sets off on a search to find her biological father and becomes a budding activist. Read the novel to find out what happens next.

Chizea’s novel is unique in the sense that it is not a simple coming-of-age story. Ada is a complex teenager going through major upheavals in her life from the outset of the novel including civil war and culture shock. Yet despite the loss and grief that she faces, she does not lose hope in herself and emerges as a strong female protagonist with the potential to become a true leader and brave activist.

Ebele Chizea was born in Nigeria, moved to the United States at the age of 16, and currently resides in California. Since graduating with honors in 2004 from Thiel College, she has published fiction, poetry, and essays in The African, The Sentinel, The Nigerian Punch, as well as her own online publication Drumtide Magazine. She has written a nonfiction book How to Slay in Life: A Book of Proverbial Wisdom (2022).

Chizea remarks that this book is a must read for those who are nostalgic for the time period of the 1960s and 70s and the music, vibes, colors, and history of Civil Rights activism. If you’re a fan of African narratives of immigration during this fascinating period in history, then Aquarian Dawn needs to be added to your Amazon cart ASAP!