The Lies of the Ajungo is a 2023 novella written by Nigerian-American author Moses Ose Utomi. It is the first book in the "Forever Desert" series.
Long ago, a city whose original name is no longer known was stricken by an unending drought. The oba, or ruler, of the city made a plea to the rich but cruel Ajungo Empire for help, which was given for a terrible price: the Ajungo would provide the city with the bare minimum of water to survive in exchange for the tongues of its people. Since that day, the inhabitants of what the Ajungo renamed the City of Lies would have their tongues cut out upon turning thirteen. Over the centuries, many children would go into the Forever Desert either to escape the cutting or to find help from other empires, never to be seen again, while those who remain in the City of Lies suffer with little relief from the drought.
A boy named Tutu will "celebrate" his own thirteenth birthday in a few days, but he has an even more urgent problem: his mother has fallen ill from severe dehydration, and this "blood drought" will kill her if he cannot find extra water for her very soon. So he makes a deal with the current oba, Ijefi, that she will give his mother water for one year while he seeks a new source of water for the City of Lies in the Forever Desert. Riding his camel into the dunes, Tutu will eventually meet new friends and foes and discover the truth behind the Ajungo's lies.
A sequel titled The Truth of the Aleke was released in March 2024.
Tropes include:
- All Deserts Have Cacti: Tutu and several other characters are described as eating cactus as part of their desert journey provisions.
- Death of a Child: Children are given the option to escape into the Forever Desert to avoid having their tongues cut out. Unfortunately, this usually leads to them dying among the dunes, as Tutu grimly finds out when he comes across their child-sized bones early on in his own journey.
- Ear Ache: The three cousins come from a city that made a deal with the Ajungo for iron to protect themselves from monsters in exchange for the ears of its women. So any girls who come of age have their ears cut off and the leftover holes burnt shut, leaving them all deaf. Asilah and Funme were able to escape before their own deafenings, but they were unable to rescue Lami before her's.
- Eye Scream: Ogoro comes from a city that made a deal with the Ajungo for Seers to protect them from their flooding rivers in exchange for the eyes of its people. So anytime the rivers welled up, the people of the city would have their eyes removed. Ogoro himself had his eyelids stitched shut.
- Kids Are Cruel: As Tutu's thirteenth birthday approaches, his younger classmates taunt him over his impending tongue removal.
- Magical Accessory: God's Eyes are black stone beads worn as bracelets that give their wearers Super-Strength and Super-Reflexes. The three cousins come from a city where God's Eyes are collected and Seers are trained to harness such powers. Lami is one such wielder of God's Eyes, and she wears her bracelet as a hairband when using her powers against an aggressive creature at the oasis.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Funme tells of how her hometown, after the Ajungo killed all its Seer protectors, was besieged by "devilish creatures of the dark, roaming our city year after year after year as we huddled in the dark." This is the most we ever hear about these mysterious monsters.
- Overly Long Name: The full name of Tutu's camel is Shokolokobangoshe. Tutu calls him Bango for short.
- The Reveal: There was never actually an Ajungo Empire oppressing the three Cities of Lies from afar. It was actually the obas of the cities collaborating with each other to remove the tongues, ears, and eyes of their citizens to subjugate them, keep them ignorant of the truth, and prevent them from working together to figure out what was really going on.
- Significant Name Overlap: An imposed example. The drought-stricken home of Tutu, the monster-infested home of Asilah, Lami, and Funme, and the flooded home of Ogoro are all called the "City of Lies" by the Ajungo.
- Thirsty Desert: The City of Lies is a drought-stricken place just barely able to survive on its carefully controlled provisions of water. The Forever Desert beyond its boundaries is even worse; Tutu spends weeks traversing the seemingly endless dunes in search of water to no avail as his rations gradually run out, and he is only able to find paltry sources of water and start making progress toward his greater goals once he gets help from three women who have spent much longer than him exploring the desert.
- Tongue Trauma: The people of Tutu's hometown made a deal with the Ajungo for water in exchange for the tongues of its people. So those who turn thirteen have their tongues cut out, leaving them all mute.
