Sacrifices of African Immigrants in Canada Explored in Michael Afenfia’s Leave My Bones in Saskatoon

Nigerian author Michael Afenfia, best known for his novel The Mechanics of Yenagoa and a finalist for the 2022 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature, released a new novel on April 1. Titled Leave My Bones in Saskatoon, Afenfia’s sixth novel is set between Nigeria and Canada and follows the lives and lived experiences, challenges, and triumphs of Nigerian immigrants in Canada.

The novel was published by Griots Lounge Canada. Its theme of immigration is Afenfia’s first encroachment into the territory and closely mirrors Afenfia’s own experiences as an immigrant in Canada. The protagonist is Owoicho Adakole, a TV presenter, who rallies his family – a wife and four children – for a daunting, albeit exciting prospect of greener pastures abroad.

Afenfia’s novel is described by NLNG Prize winner Uchechukwu Peter Umezuruike as “spare, unaffected, and brisk prose, capturing moments of human fragility, duplicity, betrayal, avarice, and fraud.” Spanning two cultures and continents, the novel is an honest and heartfelt portrayal of Owoichu and his family’s immigration journey.

The story begins with Owoicho finding out that their permanent residency application to Canada was successful and picking up six passports stamped with Canadian visas at the consulate. However, before he can tell his family the good news, a murder takes most of his family away from him and threatens to disrupt their plans to immigrate to Saskatoon, Canada. Owoicho’s teenage daughter Ochanya has to deal with the dual shocks of losing her mother and siblings along with undergoing the difficult transition from girlhood to adolescence.

With all the losses the father and daughter have to grapple with, do they still make it out to Canada as planned? Read the novel to find out.

In an interview, Afenfia remarked that his new novel is inspired by his own experiences of migration:

Leave My Bones in Saskatoon is very special to me. It is special, because it tells the story of what many Nigerians – young and old – dream about today. It tells the story of a family leaving Nigeria to start a new life in Canada. You can call it japa, if you want. Isn’t that what it is called these days? (laughs) I know the experiences for immigrants and refugees who embark on these relocation journeys are different, but with this book, I felt compelled to share my perspective on how that experience can be. As a fiction writer, I know there is certain kind of confidence that comes with writing about something you have the lived experience of and I hope that, as readers and fans read the book, they will see that come through in the pages. Leave My Bones in Saskatoon is a work of fiction, but it is very compelling fiction, and that is what makes it so beautiful, and I can’t wait to share it with the world. It is such a beautiful story with important lessons for people wanting to relocate to where the “grass is greener” and even for those who have successfully made the journey and feel like they have integrated.

Michael Afenfia is a diversity, settlement, and inclusion practitioner based in Saskatchewan, Canada. He is the author of critically acclaimed novels When the Moon Caught Fire, A Street Called Lonely, Don’t Die on Wednesday, The Mechanics of Yenagoa and Rain Can Never Know. Afenfia is a graduate of Law and Business Administration. In 2016-19, he was speechwriter to the governor of his home state Bayelsa in Nigeria, while simultaneously serving as a member of the state library board. He also served as Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Bayelsa State Chapter.

If you enjoy reading about African immigrant characters and their unique experiences such as in Saleh Addonia’s The Feeling House and JJ Bola’s The Selfless Act of Breathing, then Afenfia’s Leave My Bones in Saskatoon will definitely inspire you to learn more about the struggles of African immigrants in Canada.