Amaechi.: The Past, the Present and Tomorrow is an anthology of short stories with themes of police/military brutality, espionage, re-imagined folktales and African traditional religious beliefs such as the mythology of the Igbo gods, and reincarnation. The genres explored in the anthology range from African folklore and mythologies, whodunit as well as heist thrillers, to Africanfuturism.
It is a book heavy with tales of the supernatural. Yet, its charm mostly lies in its ordinariness – the way the material effortlessly collapses into the immaterial – like life itself.
Quite intriguingly, a cultural awakening is sweeping through Africa. Our people are turning to indigenous imaginaries, or at least daring to question dominant, European-style ideologies and life-ways. Amaechi. has emerged as both an arsenal and pacifier to fold the modern into the traditional; the real into the magical; the past and the future.
The Past, the Present, and Tomorrow: this subtitle accurately captures the message of Amaechi. In Igbo Ontology, the past lives through the present. People carry in them the spirits of their ancestors. The present is a canvas, already dotted with trails of the past, but available for the making of a future. The universe is enveloped in energy, guided by forces sometimes familiar, other times alien and untamable. This is the foundational idea that undergird the broad themes explored in the stories that make up the book.