Bisi Adjapon toured Senegal and Nigeria with her Farafina published debut novel Of Women And Frogs this past March and May 2019.
Of Women And Frogs, the debut novel of Ghanaian writer Bisi Adjapon, came out in March 2019 from Farafina with the blurb;
Esi is a feisty half-Nigerian girl growing up in Ghana, with occasional visits to her maternal family in Lagos. When her curiosity about her body leads to a ginger-in-the-vagina punishment from her stepmother, Esi begins to question the hypocrisy of the adults around her and the restrictions they place on girls.
Moving between Ghana and Nigeria, this is a heart-warming story of a girl beating a path to self-actualisation amidst political upheaval in Rawlings’ Ghana and strained relations between her ancestral countries.
On publication, Adjapon did what novelists should do when their books are out as she presented it to readers in Senegal and Nigeria. In Senegal, there was a launch at the Café Layu with Ayesha Haruna as her discussant on Thursday, March 21. This event was attended by Ghana’s Ambassador to Senegal Gloria Poku. The novelist who spent time at the Chez Alpha Books, owned by Angela Franklin, visited several high schools and the Cheikh Anta Diop University Of Dakar. While in Senegal, she also visited Ayi Kwei Armah at his Popenguine base. Yes, that one Ayi Kwei Armah.
Here are images from the Senegal leg of her journey.
At the tail end of May, she would embark on a two-city Nigerian tour of Lagos and Port Harcourt. In the latter city, she got to visit and talk with students at The Citadel School, an interview with Cool FM as well as being hosted by the Port Harcourt Book Club.
In Lagos, she did a series of events as well as a media tour around outlets like Wake Up Nigeria, Nigerian Info 99.3 radio, Smooth FM, as well as a feature on one of our favourite literary radio shows Classic FM #BookOnReview with Benjamin Okoh.
The Lagos highlight was a book reading hosted by Kawe Books with book clubs on Victoria Island on Sunday, May 26, in an event that was covered by Channels TV. Mingling with other lovers of the written word were Toni Kan (Nights of The Creaking Bed), Bayo Olupohunda and Narrative Landscape publisher Anwuli Ojogwu. Those at the reading then headed to the gallery of Victor Ehikhamenor before the after party at Freedom Park (as usual) where the evening ended.
Below are images of her tour in Africa’s biggest economy which we reproduce here with her permission.
