2025 Nommo Awards

In this mesmerizing fantasy rooted in Urhobo and West African folklore, sixteen--year--old Naborhi longs for a life away from her small, traditional clan in Kokori. But as her rite of passage approaches and she is betrothed to an arrogant young man, Naborhi feels her dreams slipping away from her. Then Naborhi becomes bonded to a mysterious animal and begins having harrowing visions of a kidnapped boy. She soon meets Atai, the son of an Oracle from a rival queendom, and learns that she is being guided by the gods. She and Atai, along with Naborhi's eager--for--adventure cousin, Tamunor, set off across the continent to rescue the mysterious boy. But when they find him--and find out his true identity--Naborhi realizes there is more than just her freedom at stake: she must stop a war that has already been set in motion.

A Ghanaian journalist based in the US returns to Ghana with a few friends for the holidays in December 2019. That month is meant to be the climax of the Ghanaian government's year-long "Year of Return" initiative, commemorating 400 years since the first slaves from West Africa arrived in Virginia. The Year of Return takes on a whole new meaning when large numbers of ghosts, formerly enslaved Africans who drowned during the Middle Passage, emerge from the Atlantic Ocean, leading to months of global pandemonium, and concluding with a series of vengeful homicides.

"Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priestess and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood. Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha-any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world"-- Provided by publisher.

"Off the coast of West Africa, decades after the dangerous rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the region's survivors live inside five partially submerged, kilometers-high towers originally created as a playground for the wealthy. Now the towers' most affluent rule from their lofty perch at the top while the rest are crammed into the dark, fetid floors below sea level. There are also those who were left for dead in the Atlantic, only to be reawakened by an ancient power, and who seek vengeance on those who offered them up to the waves. Three lives within the towers are pulled to the fore of this conflict: Yekini, an earnest, mid-level rookie analyst; Tuoyo, an undersea mechanic mourning a tremendous loss; and Ngozi, an egotistical bureaucrat from the highest levels of governance. They will need to work together if there is to be any hope of a future that is worth living-for everyone"-- Provided by publisher.

The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out among the stars. His whole world changes--literally--when he is yanked "upstairs" and informed he has been given an opportunity to be educated at the ship's university alongside the elite. Overwhelmed and alone, the boy forms a bond with the woman he comes to know as "the professor," a weary idealist and descendent of the Chained who has spent her career striving for validation from her more senior colleagues, only to fall short at every turn. Together, the boy and the woman will embark on a transformative journey to grasp the design of the chains that fetter them both--and are the key to breaking free. -- Back cover.

"Dakini Atoll is a fast paced, tech-driven, metaphysical Cyberpunk novel. Set in the near future, in Johannesburg, New York, London, Saudi Arabia and Holographic Reality. Fortunato has made it big, directing the Club Ded sequel. He and Delilah Lex are the dream team. But, Delilah is off the map again. Lost, in extreme technological advances. Mutating from a 're-evolutionary' nerve-implant built by theenigmatic roboticist, Seikichi. In a new era, haunted by doppelganger robots, where the Prion Eyes plague divides cities into zones of safety, Delilah attains messianic status in the trippy Good Morning Delilah!, a game-changing show/realm that spawns its own holographicindustry. Meanwhile Queen Anita begins a perilous journey into thesub-world of ANGELINC - where she finally unmasks the true agenda of the mysterious Oracle..."-- Provided by publisher.

This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid's Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman's right to her own body. Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah's perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret. The truth claws its way into Nelah's life from the grave. As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing--or risk losing everyone. Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana's cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?