Overview
Nigerians in Space is the debut novel by Deji Bryce Olukotun, published by The Unnamed Press. It is a genre-blending work that combines elements of crime thriller, noir fiction, science fiction, and literary fiction. The novel explores themes of diaspora, identity, homecoming, betrayal, and the tension between personal ambition and familial duty. The story moves across three continents North America, Europe, and Africa and spans two time periods: 1993 and the present day (roughly the early 2010s). It follows two primary narratives that eventually converge: the story of Dr. Wale Olufunmi, a Nigerian-American lunar geologist who steals a priceless moon rock and flees to South Africa, and the story of Thursday Malaysius, a coloured South African abalone poacher who becomes entangled in a criminal underworld.
The novel is structured in three books: “The Moon Rock Thief,” “The Abalone of Obz,” and “Melle,” with a prologue and an epilogue. It is a complex, multi-layered narrative that examines what it means to go home, the nature of sacrifice, and the consequences of betrayal.
Book I: The Moon Rock Thief
Chapter 1: Houston, Texas (1993)
The novel opens in 1993 in Houston, Texas, with Dr. Wale Olufunmi, a Nigerian-American lunar geologist, playing basketball in a recreational league. He misses the final shot, and his teammate Bill Dalton tries to console him. After the game, Wale finds a mysterious note in his locker: “Call. N.B. 512-212-3235.” He calls the number from a payphone and reaches Nurudeen Bello, Special Adjunct to the Nigerian Minister of the Environment. Bello instructs Wale to get on a red-eye flight to Washington, D.C., where a “drop” will occur at 11:26 the next day. This is part of “the Contingency Plan.”
Wale is deeply conflicted. Bello has recruited him for “Brain Gain,” a program designed to reverse the African brain drain by bringing talented Nigerian scientists back home. But Bello demands a “commitment” Wale must steal the Contingency Sample, a moon rock collected by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission. Wale is a senior staffer at NASA’s Lunar Sample Collection in Houston, one of the most secure facilities in the world. He has access to the vault, but stealing from it would mean the end of his career and possibly prison.
Wale’s wife, Tinuke, is suspicious of his sudden travel plans. Their marriage is strained, and their young son, Dayo, is often the mediator of their emotions. Wale tells Tinuke that it’s a promotion, and they rush to the airport. At the airport, Wale realizes he left the tickets in his car the same car that his boss, Tom Rilker, had towed. He buys new tickets with Tinuke’s credit card and they fly to Washington.
In Washington, Bello never shows up. Wale waits at the Nigerian Airways counter, trying the agreed-upon password (“I am going to Taro”), but no one understands. He realizes he has been abandoned. With no way to reach Bello and no visa for South Africa (the fallback point), Wale is stranded.
Chapter 2: The Theft
The narrative flashes back to the night of the theft. Wale arrives at the Lunar Sample Collection for his night shift. His colleague, Onur Unkwe, a Turkish-American scientist, is late. Wale uses the opportunity to access the vault. He switches the Contingency Sample a small, unremarkable rock with a fake, and hides the real sample in glassine bags. He then hides the bags inside a snowglobe, which he plans to give to his son.
Onur arrives, and Wale tries to act normal. But the vault’s alarm goes off the weight of the sample is off by a microgram. Onur goes into the vault to investigate. Wale panics. He seals the airlock and manipulates the gas levels, trapping Onur inside. He tells Onur to keep his mask on and that he’ll call security. Instead, Wale leaves the building.
Outside, he finds his car being towed. His boss, Tom Rilker, is there in a new Dodge Intrepid. Rilker offers Wale a ride home, but Wale steals Rilker’s car and drives to the airport.
Chapter 3: The Escape
Wale, Tinuke, and Dayo fly to Washington, D.C. When Bello doesn’t show, Wale realizes he has been betrayed. He remembers that Bello mentioned a “mechanical engineer in Scandinavia” who was tenured Dr. Obafemi Ferguson. Wale deduces that Ferguson is in Stockholm, and he buys tickets to Sweden.
In Stockholm, Wale finds Ferguson at the Royal Institute of Technology. Ferguson is a specialist in photovoltaics and has also been recruited by Bello. He, too, was asked to steal something a photovoltaic cell as his “commitment.” Ferguson is calm and optimistic, and he has Bello’s contact number through a go-between.
They go to Ferguson’s apartment, where they find it has been ransacked. A burglar a dark-skinned man with yellowed eyes is waiting for them. He demands the PV cell. Ferguson gives him the hat where the cell is hidden, but the burglar shoots him in the jaw anyway. Wale tackles the burglar, and during the struggle, he is nearly killed. He escapes down the stairwell.
Wale calls the police from a payphone, but the dispatcher is dismissive. He returns to the airport hotel, where Tinuke is waiting. He tells her they must leave immediately. They fly to Basel, Switzerland, where Bello has a numbered bank account for Wale. At the bank, Wale learns the transaction is still pending. He takes this as a good sign Bello has deposited the money.
Chapter 4: The Fallback
Wale, Tinuke, and Dayo fly to Cape Town, South Africa the fallback point. They stay at the Mount Nelson Hotel, and Wale goes to the address Bello provided: 251 Upper Tree Road. The house is a vacation rental, and when Wale enters, he finds the body of a dead woman a black woman in a business suit, shot twice. He also finds an ibeji doll, a Yoruba twin figurine, hidden in the closet.
Wale flees the house and returns to the hotel. He tells Tinuke that Bello isn’t coming. Tinuke is devastated. She tells Wale that she and Dayo are returning to Houston, and that she will send him divorce papers.
Wale makes a desperate decision. He takes Dayo and flees the hotel, leaving Tinuke behind. He has lost everything his career, his wife, his country but he still has his son and the moon rock.
Book II: The Abalone of Obz
Chapter 5: Thursday Malaysius
The narrative shifts to the present day and introduces Thursday Malaysius, a coloured South African man who works at Abalone Silver, the largest abalone farm in the Southern Hemisphere. Thursday is a simple man who enjoys the rhythms of his work cleaning and trimming abalone for export to China. He is friends with Brother Leon, a charismatic and dangerous man who is involved in the illegal abalone trade.
Leon asks Thursday to steal some abalone from the farm. Thursday refuses, but when Leon is arrested during a police raid (Operation Trident), Thursday is drawn into the criminal underworld. He retrieves a batch of abalone that Leon had hidden and contacts Ip, a Chinese smuggler, to sell them.
Chapter 6: The Smuggling Operation
Thursday travels to Cape Town to meet Ip. He stays in Observatory (Obz), a suburb of Cape Town, and learns to care for the live abalone in his bathtub. He meets Chung, Ip’s enforcer, and Seneca, Ip’s half-Chinese, half-coloured daughter. Thursday becomes a valuable asset to Ip’s operation because of his skill at keeping the abalone alive.
Thursday also meets Helen, a Norwegian art teacher who works with prisoners. They have a brief affair, but Helen leaves to return to Norway. Thursday is left alone, but he has found a sense of purpose in his work with the abalone.
Meanwhile, Leon is killed in Pollsmoor Prison murdered by an assassin using a thin plastic blade, a signature of Ip’s organization. Thursday learns that Leon had shot a police dog, Sassy, which is why his bail was so high. Thursday realizes that Leon had lied to him and manipulated him, but he still mourns his friend.
Chapter 7: Melissa Tebogo
The narrative shifts to the past, telling the story of Melissa Tebogo, the daughter of Mlungisi Tebogo, a South African freedom fighter. Melissa has vitiligo, a skin condition that has turned her skin pale white. She wears a niqab to hide her skin and is isolated from other children.
In 1993, Bello visits her father in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Bello offers to help Melissa get treatment in France if her father agrees to work for him. Her father agrees, and Melissa is sent to Paris. But when she arrives, Bello is not there. Instead, she is met by Mrs. Niyangabo, a cold and threatening woman who burns the package Melissa was supposed to deliver and tells her that her father is a terrorist.
Melissa is placed in a boarding house in Évry, France, run by Madame Kaluanda. She struggles with the language and her classes, and she is haunted by her father’s disappearance. She finds a list of names in the manila envelope she kept from her father names of Nigerian scientists, including Wale Olufunmi and Obafemi Ferguson. She begins to search for them, hoping they can help her find her father.
Chapter 8: The Search for Answers
Melissa visits the apartment of Ogun Olesegun, one of the names on the list, in Paris. She finds that he has been murdered shot twice, just like the woman in Cape Town. She meets his neighbor, Stéphanie, who gives her some of Ogun’s scientific journals. Melissa learns that all the scientists on the list were part of a program called “Brain Gain.”
Melissa continues her search. She contacts Dr. Mohammed Farai, another scientist on the list, who lives in Basel, Switzerland. She meets him at a dark restaurant where blind servers guide guests to their tables. Farai tells her that Bello’s Brain Gain program was a scam that he was lured to Nigeria and arrested. Farai was able to escape, but he believes Bello is dangerous.
During their meeting, Melissa and Farai have a sexual encounter in the dark. But then Farai is shot by an assassin the same man with yellowed eyes who killed Ferguson and Ogun. Melissa chases the assassin to the Rhine River, where he tells her that he works for the Ibeji and that “there’s only one left now…Wale.” The assassin drowns when his boat capsizes.
Melissa’s niqab is blown off by the wind, and the moonlight reveals her glowing skin. A crowd gathers, and a young woman names her “Melle.” Melissa realizes that her skin has become bioluminescent it glows in the moonlight. She has been transformed.
Book III: Melle
Chapter 9: The Fashion Model
The narrative returns to the present day. Melissa has become “Melle,” a world-famous fashion model known for her luminous skin. She is managed by Béatrice, the girl from the boarding house in Évry. Melle is reclusive and never shows her full body. She is on a mission to find her father, and she has learned that Wale Olufunmi is the last surviving member of Brain Gain.
Melle travels to Cape Town for a photoshoot. She is searching for Wale, who she believes is the killer of the other scientists. She visits the Royal Observatory, where Wale volunteers as a tour guide.
Chapter 10: The Confrontation
Melle confronts Wale at the Royal Observatory. She believes he is the killer, and she demands to know where her father is. Wale, who is drunk, tells her about Bello and Brain Gain. He reveals that he stole the moon rock because Bello asked him to, and that he has been hiding in Cape Town for years.
Melle doesn’t believe him. She shoots him in the chest. Wale falls, but before he loses consciousness, he tells her that the moon rock is with his son, Dayo. Melle calls an ambulance and flees.
Chapter 11: Dayo’s Lamp
Dayo Olufunmi, now twenty years old, has developed a moonlight lamp inspired by the snowglobe his father gave him. The lamp reproduces the light of the moon using silicate and solar cells. Dayo is trying to sell his invention, but he has been rejected by numerous lighting stores.
Dayo meets Thursday Malaysius, who is living in Okeke’s apartment building. Thursday is caring for the abalone in his bathtub, and he is fascinated by Dayo’s lamp. He offers to buy it, and Dayo agrees to help him.
Meanwhile, Wale is in the hospital, recovering from his gunshot wound. Dayo visits him and learns the truth about his father’s past the theft, Brain Gain, and the moon rock.
Chapter 12: The Moonlight Demonstration
Dayo organizes a demonstration of his moonlight lamps in Observatory. He invites the whole neighborhood, and when the power goes out (due to load-shedding), the lamps illuminate the streets with a blue, lunar glow. The community comes together, and the police are temporarily blinded by the light, unable to distinguish black from white, rich from poor.
Thursday is being chased by Constable Viljoen and Detective Mush, who want him to testify against Ip. Seneca, Ip’s daughter, arrives on a motorcycle and helps Thursday escape. They ride off into the moonlight, and Thursday realizes that Leon has finally let him be.
Chapter 13: Abuja, Nigeria
Melle travels to Abuja, Nigeria, to find Bello. She attends a banquet where Bello, now using the name Rahim Odonkor, is the guest of honor. Bello is under house arrest but still powerful. He reveals that he was tortured by the Ibeji, a counterterrorism organization, and that he betrayed Brain Gain to save himself. He tells Melle that the head of Ibeji is coming to meet her.
The head of Ibeji is Mrs. Niyangabo, the woman who met Melissa in Paris. She tells Melissa that she will join her father meaning she will be killed. But Bello intervenes, and in the chaos, Melissa is able to escape.
Chapter 14: The Transplan
The novel concludes with Dayo visiting the Heart Transplant Museum at Groote Schuur Hospital, where the first successful heart transplant was performed. He sits in the operating theatre with his moonlight lamp, thinking about his father. He knows that Wale will recover, and that one day, Wale will be able to go to the moon his lifelong dream.
The novel ends with a note of hope: Wale will heal, Dayo’s lamps will succeed, and the dream of Brain Gain of Africa reaching for the stars will live on.
Themes and Analysis
Nigerians in Space explores several themes:
- Diaspora and Identity: The novel examines the experience of being caught between cultures. Wale is a Nigerian in America who dreams of returning home, but when he does, he finds that home is not what he imagined. Dayo is an American in South Africa who struggles with his father’s expectations and his own sense of belonging. Melissa is a South African in France who is searching for her father and her identity.
- Homecoming and Betrayal: The novel is structured around the idea of homecoming Wale’s return to Nigeria, Dayo’s search for a home, Melissa’s search for her father. But homecoming is complicated by betrayal. Bello betrays Wale and the other scientists. Leon betrays Thursday. Tinuke betrays Wale. The novel asks: can you ever truly go home?
- Sacrifice and Commitment: Bello demands that the scientists make a “commitment” steal something from their labs to prove their loyalty to Brain Gain. This sacrifice is meant to be a symbol of their dedication to Nigeria. But the sacrifices are meaningless the moon rock is geologically worthless, the PV cell is obsolete. The novel suggests that sacrifice without purpose is destructive.
- Race and Class: The novel is deeply concerned with race and class, particularly in South Africa. Thursday is coloured, caught between the black and white communities. He is harassed by the police and treated as inferior by whites. The novel critiques the lingering effects of apartheid and the ways in which race continues to shape South African society.
- Science and Technology: The novel explores the potential of science and technology to transform Africa. Brain Gain is a program designed to harness the talents of Nigerian scientists to build a better future. Dayo’s moonlight lamp is a symbol of innovation and hope. But the novel also shows the dangers of technology the moon rock is stolen, the PV cell is stolen, and the Ibeji use technology for surveillance and control.
- The Moon: The moon is a central symbol in the novel. It represents dreams, ambition, and the possibility of transcendence. Wale’s dream of going to the moon is what drives him. Dayo’s lamp reproduces the light of the moon. Melissa’s skin glows in the moonlight. The moon is a reminder that there is something beyond the mundane world, something worth reaching for.
Conclusion
Nigerians in Space is a rich, complex novel that defies easy categorization. It is a crime thriller, a family drama, a science fiction story, and a meditation on what it means to be African in the modern world. Deji Bryce Olukotun has crafted a narrative that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, filled with vivid characters and memorable scenes. The novel is a powerful exploration of the African diaspora, the legacy of colonialism, and the enduring dream of homecoming. It is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature, science fiction, or the complexities of identity in the contemporary world.