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Spirit of Language That Held Us is a luminous, interwoven narrative of remembrance, heritage, and the sacred role of language in holding communities together.
In this poignant novel, Jack Ndem Oduu transports readers to the Ogoni homeland of Nigeria's Niger Delta, where the silence of an abandoned village calls to a boy named keenye booh, his name meaning "to remember" or "to return." Guided by ancestral echoes and a destiny rooted in his very name, he discovers an elder who has kept a solitary fire alive through years of displacement and cultural erosion.
Through vivid encounters, communal meals, proverbs, and storytelling, keenye booh learns that language is more than words, it is a vessel of history, a moral compass, and the spirit that binds generations. Each chapter immerses the reader in the rhythms of Ogoni life: yam festivals, sacred markets, gendered rituals, the governance of Bina kingship, and the masked mysteries of the Amanikpo society.
Oduu's narrative is both a work of art and a cultural archive. Drawing on ethnographic detail, sociological insight, and philosophical reflection, the story preserves endangered traditions while speaking to universal themes-identity, belonging, and the moral obligations we inherit from our past.
Part oral history, part literary fiction, and part cultural preservation project, this book appeals to readers of Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Ben Okri. It is a call to remember that every language carries a universe, and when one is lost, a part of humanity is diminished.
Spirit of Language That Held Us will resonate with anyone who has felt the pull of ancestral memory or the urgency to protect cultural heritage. It is a novel that nourishes the heart while serving as a testament: as long as the words are spoken, the spirit that held us will endure.
Audience: Adult general readers, literary fiction audiences, cultural studies readers, African and diaspora literature enthusiasts, educators in anthropology and heritage studies.
