History Literature / WhoFearsDeath

* MagicalNegro: According to Prof. Okorafor (who wrote a short story and an essay about the trope), Sola is a deliberate inversion, being a Magical Caucasian.

* BeigeProse: The writing style is very straightforward and to the point, using short and simple sentences to describe events. Possibly intentional, given the story is told from the perspective of a young teenager in a post-apocalyptic setting.

* RealitySubtext: Okorafor started the book shortly after her father's death in 2004, hence the opening lines being about Onyesonwu's father's death.

* KillEmAll: By the end of the story, [[spoiler:Onyesonwu, Mitwa, Luyu, and Binta are all dead. Diti and Fatasi abandon the journey specifically because they don't want to die, but it's unknown if they actually made it safely back to Jwahir.]]

* KillEmAll: The Nuru's intent toward the Okeke.

* MixedAncestry: The ''Ewu'', being born from the union of Okeke and Nuru people. Looking surprisingly like neither tribe, the ''Ewu'' have sand-colored skin and hair, with light eyes, like albino Africans.

** Also Onyesonwu's fate: part of her initiation as a sorcerer is to confront her own death. [[spoiler: but that doesn't mean she has to ''stay'' dead]]

''Who Fears Death'' is a 2010 fantasy novel by NnediOkorafor which takes place in an alternate or AfterTheEnd [[spoiler: Sudan]]. Its heroine is Onyesonwu Ubaid-Ogundimu, a young woman who is an ''Ewu'', the product of the rape of a woman of the Okeke tribe by a man of the Nuru tribe. Because of this she is shunned by the villagers in the town she grows up in, and haunted by the spirit of her biological father, a powerful sorcerer who wants her dead. However, Onyesonwu discovers that she has a talent for magic, especially shapeshifting, and under the tutelage of Mwita, a slightly older ''Ewu'' boy, and his master, the somewhat JerkAss TricksterMentor Aro, she begins to cultivate her magical ability. However, Onyesonwu's father is still out there, and she has a special destiny ahead of her...

* MagicalNegro: According to Prof. Okorafor (who wrote a short story and an essay about the trope), Sola is a deliberate subversion, being a Magical Caucasian.

''Who Fears Death'' is a 2010 fantasy novel by NnediOkorafor which takes place in an alternate or AfterTheEnd [[spoiler: Sudan]]. Its heroine is Onyesonwu Ubaid-Ogundimu, a young woman who is an ''Ewu'', the product of a rape of a woman of the Okeke tribe by a man of the Nuru tribe. Because of this she is shunned by the villagers in the town she grows up in, and haunted by the spirit of her biological father, a powerful sorcerer who wants her dead. However, Onyesonwu discovers that she has a talent for magic, especially shapeshifting, and under the tutelage of Mwita, a slightly older ''Ewu'' boy, and his master, the somewhat JerkAss TricksterMentor Aro, she begins to cultivate her magical ability. However, Onyesonwu's father is still out there, and she has a special destiny ahead of her...

* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied. Onyesonwu and Mwita have ties because [[spoiler: her father was Mwita's master for a time]], but they are not actually brother and sister.

* ChildSoldiers: part of Mwita's background is that he was forced to be one.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Eleventh Year Rite (aka female circumcision) is this both in and out of canon: Onyesonwu's mother is horrified when she discovers what her daughter has done (the practice having been banned in her home village), for instance, whereas it's common practice in Jwahir. Indeed, Onyesonwu subjected herself to it in order to fit in, and by doing so she gains a set of TrueCompanions in Binta, Diti and Luyu.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: a lighter-skinned tribe repressing a darker-skinned one through rape, murder, and enslavement? Even before it's revealed[[spoiler: this takes place in Sudan]], the parallels are fairly easy to see.

* GoodBadGirl: Luyu loves her sex, with as many men as possible. But she's also the most fiercely loyal to Onyesonwu.

* KillEmAll: The Nuru's belief about the Okeke.

* MixedAncestry: The ''Ewu'', being born from the union of Okeke and Nuru people. Looking surprisingly like neither tribe, the ''Ewu'' are sand-colored, skin and hair, with light eyes, like albino Africans.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent; They're called Kponyungo, and are desert-dwelling creatures who occasionally befriend travelers in the desert.
* OurSpiritsAreDifferent: Masquerades, which are not to be confused with {{Masquerade}} or MasqueradeBall. They are spirit creatures, and they will hurt you.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The party questing west to defeat Daib. [[spoiler: Subverted in that traveling together drives them apart rather than pull them together.]]

* TrueCompanions: Onyesonwu, Luyu, Diti, and Binta become this thanks to all undergoing the Eleventh Year Rite together. Later on, they, along with Mwita and Diti's husband Fanasi decide to accompany Onyesonwu on her quest West. [[spoiler: somewhat subverted in that after a few weeks of walking in the desert they start getting on each other's nerves, especially Diti and Onyesonwu]]

A prequel explaining TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, ''The Book of Phoenix'' was published in 2015.

* MagicalNegro: According to Prof. Okorafor (who wrote a short story about the trope), Sola is a deliberate subversion, being a Magical Caucasian.

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler: Onyesonwu's purpose in life is to kill her father.]]

* ProphecyTwist: It is revealed that a Nuru Seer has prophesied that a tall Nuru male sorcerer will come and change the Great Book to make life better for both Nuru and Okeke. It is revealed, however, that he changed the prophecy because he refused to believe what it actually said: that the prophesied messiah would be [[spoiler:an ''Ewu'' sorceress]].