Chimamanda: The Adventures of Little Mermaid’s African Cousin

On November 19, 1803, Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, embarked on his second exploration of River Niger in West Africa. He was determined this time to trace the path of River Niger from its origins in the mountains of Fouta Djalon to its end point in the Gulf of New Guinea by the Atlantic Ocean. At Boossa, in the heart of the Yaour Kingdom, his boat slammed into a family of mermaids performing a naming ceremony of their third daughter, Chimamanda. Thinking they had hit a herd of hippopotami, Mungo Park opened fire and killed the beloved patriarch of the River Niger dynasty and his only son. Shrapnel also hit the forehead of the new born. Chimamanda: The Adventures of Little Mermaid’s African Cousin is the story of the young mermaid’s obsession with the scar on her forehead and her search to find a way to erase it. The search places her in conflict with her mother, the river goddess, and her sisters with whom she is in a competition to inherit River Niger when their mother passes away. Her adventure takes her into the world of humans where she helps them to construct the bridge across the Niger, against her mother’s wishes. But life as a human comes with more problems than she bargained for.By dissolving the boundary between the physical world and the spiritual world, this novella gives young adult readers a new interpretation of an old folklore while bringing out the same timeless truth that every generation searches for.