Fiction Reviews
Black Friday
Speculative stories from Africa(2025) Cheryl S. Ntumy, Flame Tree Press,
£16.99 / Can$34.99 / US$26.99, hrdbk, 415pp, ISBN 978-1-835-62302-2
There is always a joy in coming across an author you have not encountered before, and enjoying their work so much that they are added to your must-read list.
Such was my experience of Black Friday, a career-spanning collection of SFF by Cheryl S Ntumy.
Some readers, more up to date than I, may already be familiar with Ntumy, who made the shortlist for the 2024 Nommo Awards for African speculative fiction. The work in question, 'The Way Of Baa’gh: A Sauútiverse Story', is included in this collection and is the best thing here, despite steep competition.
What it also is, is something of an outlier, being the only story set on another planet. It's told from the perspective of one of the Baa’gh, a species of alien crustaceans who evolve from one generation to the next by consuming the genetic material of other species.
When the Baa’gh meet and eat humans (or at least humanoids) this has predictably unfortunate consequences for their development.
Only science-fiction can deliver a story which can thrill you and at the same time leave you with no idea of what is going on. 'The Way Of Baa’gh' is one of those and I loved it.
By contrast, the other fiction included here is earthbound, if no less remarkable.
Here, Ntumy shows off her authorial skills across a spectrum of works covering fantasy horror, pastoral solarpunk and Afrofuturistic SF.
My favourite example of each from Black Friday:
- 'Sikami' - a shape-shifting magic suggests a creative way for the Boar People to shake off the rule of the Crows. Also, someone is turned into a yam, which I have to say is a first for me but it does make a lot more sense in context.
- 'Easing In' - the awkward squad in an arcology in Ghana learn to reconcile themselves to the community, at least a little.
- 'Godmother' - a medical AI service supports the religious community that has grown up around her, but has she overstepped?Honourable mentions here too for Black Friday (the title story; an interesting take on the performative nature of revolution and repression), 'Wild' (pregnancy and nomadic packs of cyclists with an agenda) and 'The Ghost of Dzablui Estate' (living farm is dying - can the prodigal daughter save it?).
The rest of the collection is none too shabby either. Indeed, I'd go as far as to declare that there are no bad stories here, no runts of the litter.
Where Ntumy excels in Black Friday is in creating an atmosphere in which the tale can unfold. These stories may not be action-packed, but this hardly matters when they set the mood so well.
The dark fantasy offerings, in particular, while not violent in a conventional sense, are freighted with a sense of creeping tension.
The more solar punk stories, meanwhile, offer creative ideas on what a low-impact future might look like, such as using magic and nanotech to forge a literal connection with nature.
Black Friday is an excellent collection and one that I will return to again (and not just to fully understand 'The Way Of Baa’gh'). As for Cheryl Ntumy, I look forward to reading her next work with great interest.
Highly recommended.
Tim Atkinsoon
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