Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga chronicles the lives of two women: Amina and Wurche. Amina’s peaceful life is mercilessly interrupted when she is separated from her home, turning her into a resilient woman from the daydreamer she was. Wurche is a strong- willed daughter of a chief determined to play an important role in her father’s court.
Salaga is a busy town in northern Ghana, used as a slave-trading centre. 100 wells have been built there for washing slaves before they’re sold.
As infighting erupts among Wurche’s people during the slave trade period at the end of the 19th century, the two women find their lives converging. The book explores how the colonialists’ scramble for Africa affected the lives of ordinary people.
Attah makes the novel unique by emphasising often overlooked distinctions of religion, language and status. The book takes on a new perspective as it complicates the idea of what “African history” is, unlike the film Black Panther for example, which mixed ethnicities and cultures for the sake of spectacle.
The book was published mid this month, grab yourself a copy while it’s still fresh off the press.
Ayesha grew up in Accra and was educated at Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and New York University. She has written pieces for the New York Times Magazine, Asymptote Magazine, and the Caine Prize Writers’ 2010 Anthology. Her debut novel, Harmattan Rain, (Per Ankh Publishers) was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2010.
Some of the awards she has won include the 2016 Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship for non-fiction. Ayesha is a 2014 Africa Centre Artists in Residency Award Laureate and Instituto Sacatar Fellow. She lives in Senegal. The Hundred Wells of Salaga is her third novel.
