African Women in Novels Podcast by Eileen Omosa 

Transcript for episode NINE – African Women in Crime Mystery novels 

Welcome to the African Women in Novels, a Podcast by Eileen Omosa, a Sociologist writing Wholesome Romance and Whodunit Crime Mysteries. 

In the podcast, I reference books set in African to discuss how African women are portrayed in novels? During our discussions, I ask my guests and listeners for their views on a variety of issues, including the following two questions:   

1. Is the role of an African girl set long before she is born, or is she free to choose the life she desires?  
2. The second question is - what role do African women play in shaping existing narratives on gender relations? 

Stay on to the end of this episode to learn the journeys and roads traveled by some girls and women. For those of you who work in the development sector – the issues I raise in this podcast can provide a lens through which to understand on-going narratives on gender and gender relations. 

In today’s episode, I review the role of African women as presented in mystery books. I have read a range of mystery books set in Africa, from way back, the times and books of Wilbur Smith to one book published yesterday. What I have noted is that unlike books in the other genres where women are presented as weak and waiting to be rescued, in mystery books, especially those with private and amateur detectives, the women are presented as having power and agency. 

If I can use one example, books in the series No. 1 ladies detective agency by Alexander McCall Smith, most, if not all the women in that series are presented as having power and agency – From Mma Precious Ramotswe, the main character, the female detective, to Grace her assistant and all her women friends. The women are involved, visible, actively engaged in not only bettering themselves and their families, but in solving other people’s problems, society’s problems. In future episodes I will focus on some individual titles to further discuss the narrative set by women in mystery novels. 

 In today’s episode I will narrow down to a novel I published yesterday, the first of October 2020 – for those listening to this episode at a later date. The book titled, Night Secrets at Three Hills Town is a whodunit murder mystery. A shopkeeper is murdered, reported to the local police who close the case as a robbery gone wrong. Naserian, a 57-year-old Maasai widow decides to investigate – she’s determined to find the killer or killers of her friend, the shop keeper. 

I will start by reading the blurb from the back cover: 

Charity Naserian, a 57-year-old widow, needs to escape the wrath of her co-wives. She deserts Korusei village with a bag full of money and one vow, never to return, even after her daughters warn her of dangers in urban centers. Her destination? Three Hills Town, a peaceful urban center where she plans to start life afresh. 

To keep busy, she makes and sells Maasai beaded jewelry from outside Roadside Enterprises Grocery Store. Her business is picking up in the right direction, but she quickly realizes she never left all her troubles in Korusei. When early morning shoppers find Caspar, the proprietor of Roadside Enterprises, murdered in his shop, and the police term the case a robbery gone wrong, Naserian is determined to find the killer of her friend. 

While selling her beaded jewelry, Naserian is a typical Maasai woman, but inside, she is an avid detective. And that is her undoing. The deeper she searches for Caspar’s killer, the more secrets she exposes and drives her suspects furious. She learns the hard way, that people of Three Hills have well-kept secrets. 

Can this amateur sleuth find Caspar’s killer before it turns the peaceful town into a fearful place to l