Seasoned writer, film producer and scholar, Bunmi Oyinsan, is back with a great tale from the house of the muse. The former Chairman of the Lagos State branch of the Association of Nigerian Authors has released a new novel titled A Ladder of Bones, an ambitious offering described as a bouquet of intertwined stories.
Oyinsan is an avowed feminist, though her ideology is rooted more in deepening equality, justice and inclusiveness for the robust growth of humanity. Her works, both fiction and otherwise, are as a result usually sensitive to women’s situations, aspirations and voices. In, A Ladder of Bones, however, Oyinsan takes the reader across continents as she tracks violent characters and scenarios that are antithetic to micro and macro peace.
One of the novel’s profiles says: ‘A Ladder of Bones tells a series of narratives that take place in West Africa, Canada, the United States and the Caribbean. Siaka becomes a child soldier in Sierra Leone after being compelled to shoot his six-year-old brother. Melvin witnesses the murder of his parents by young Liberian soldiers. As a toddler, Timothy survives by sucking at his dead mother’s breast, while Iona, a rebellious Jamaican girl, narrowly escapes rape at the hands of her drug-addicted mother’s lover. And then there is Enilolobo: a mysterious child who appears on a Canadian street one day with two navels. Their lives become interwoven, but this tapestry unravels as the characters move back to West African soil as young adults. They are forced to relive the nightmare of their earlier existence when one of the characters joins others to hunt them, seeing not human beings but a repository for rage.”
As expected, the light the very promising book has started enjoying is exciting Oyinsan. This is evident in how she reported, online, a reading she recently had. She enthused: “I had an awesome time at the Tartan Turban Readings #44, where I had the honour of reading from my new novel, A Ladder of Bones, published by Guernica Editions. A heartfelt thank you to Gavin Barrett for the opportunity, and to my fellow readers — Khashayar Mohammadi, Priya Ramsingh, and Pratap Reddy — for an evening filled with powerful storytelling, meaningful conversations, and a strong sense of community.
”One of the special highlights of the evening was connecting with Ijeoma Chikwekwem. Ijeoma, thank you for your kind words and continued support. Here’s to more conversations that inspire, connect, and uplift us all.”
An untiring literary soul, Oyinsan, has traversed prose, poetry, drama, radio, television, TV as well as nonfiction. She earned her MA focusing on orature and literature from Saint Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from York University. Beyond her literary practice, she is the writer, producer, and presenter for the Sankofa Pan African Series, which has over 100K subscribers and over 5 million views.
She is a winner of the Matatu Prize for her YA novel Fabulous Four and has been nominated for THEMA’s Best Film Script. Her novel, Three Women, was nominated for the Flora Nwapa Prize for Women’s Literature in 2006. Born in Lagos, the multi-talented artist who lives in Bowmanville, Ontario, is also an educationist, co-founding Lekki Peninsula College (LPC)/Lekki Peninsula Affordable Schools (LPAS) in Lagos.
