Who Fears Death
Who Fears Death is Nnedi Okorafor's 2010 novel, winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, set in a post-apocalyptic Sudan where the lighter-skinned Nuru have organized a genocide against the darker-skinned Okeke. Onyesonwu, whose name means Who Fears Death, is born to an Okeke mother who survived a mass rape and fled into the desert, and is therefore Ewu, the visibly mixed-race child of that violence, marked by sand-colored hair and the prejudice of every village she enters. Adopted by a kind Okeke man and raised in the village of Jwahir, she discovers in early adolescence that she has a powerful natural magic, and persuades the reluctant local sorcerer Aro to take her as an apprentice. As her training advances she begins to receive visions of the Nuru sorcerer who orchestrated the slaughter, and slowly accepts that her purpose is to cross the desert and end him. Okorafor writes Africanfuturist epic fantasy that refuses Western fantasy's familiar pseudo-medieval Europe.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Who Fears Death
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a far-future post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa, the dark-skinned Okeke and the lighter-skinned Nuru are at war again. Onyesonwu is an Ewu, the child of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru general, and her sorceress training points east toward Daib, the warlord father she has come to kill.
Yes. Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2011.
Yes. The novel deals with genocide, sexual violence, and female genital cutting in unflinching terms. It is for adult readers.
HBO acquired the rights in 2017 with George R.R. Martin attached as executive producer. As of 2026 the project remains in development.
Who Fears Death was written by Nnedi Okorafor, published in 2010 by DAW.
Who Fears Death is 401 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Who Fears Death takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Who Fears Death is a standalone novel by Nnedi Okorafor, not part of a series.
Who Fears Death is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.