24-year-old graduate of Philosophy Jasini Geidam is posted to Edo State for the compulsory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC program.

Before he resumes in camp, he travels to Eket in Akwa Ibom State, following many invitations, to visit Mr Thomas Ikpeme, an old friend who runs a child rights NGO dedicated to the welfare of stigmatized and abandoned kids who are victims of religious extremism and local superstitions.

In Eket, Jasini meets over 70 kids among whom was Nwaeka, a 16-year-old girl who became mentally retarded as a result of a three-inch nail that was driven into her skull in a bid to extract a witchcraft confession from her at the orphanage.

24-year-old Jasini Geidam is posted to Edo State for NYSC. In Eket, he meets Nwaeka, a 16-year-old girl, mentally retarded from a 3-inch nail driven into her skull to extract a witchcraft confession at the orphanage @dopplerfilmz

Tweet

He also learns that approximately 15,000 children have been displaced, abandoned, tortured, or even killed in the past three decades in Akwa Ibom State alone, based on accusation of witchcraft.

The turning point is when Jasini leaves Eket for Igarra, his Place of Primary Assignment (PPA), where he is witness to the barbaric stoning to death of an old woman, also on the accusation of witchcraft.

He later finds out that the real motive behind the killing, as with most of the killings in Eket, is for material and financial gain.

In a bid to place his experience in proper context and render help, Jasini joins a group of friends as they dabble into the occult, returning deadly consequences…

In this first person narrative novel, Nigerian writer, filmmaker and humanitarian, Albert Afeso Akanbi offers in verses that brim with fear, grief and a strange kind of retributive justice, how it is often the poor who suffer in communities riddled with religious extremism, poor governance and poverty.

He makes an urgent call on the government, civil society and the media to address the problem of unregulated religion, with a view of addressing the gross abuse of persons.

With colourful imagery and a rich prose, he writes about the difficulty of forgiveness, the devastating effect of vengeance, and how these two shape our lives.

Please follow @dopplerfilmz on all social media platforms and subscribe to our YouTube channel using the same handle.

NB:
Please support the Doppler Films initiative by ordering the e-copy version of Agony of the Condemned at 1000 naira only, using the link below:

https://okadabooks.com/book/about/agony_of_the_condemned/47484

Also support Doppler Films video productions on Patreon using the link below:

https://www.patreon.com/DopplerFilms

About the Author

Albert Afeso Akanbi was born in Nigeria on 31 March, a writer, filmmaker and humanitarian, he holds a B.Sc. in Economics, a certificate in filmmaking and a 2017 RNTC Media institute in the Netherlands certificate in Persuasive Storytelling and Journalism.

One of his short stories was among 50 selected from 38 writers representing 16 countries that appeared in the African Book Club’s maiden anthology The Bundles of Joy and Other Stories from Africa published in the United State of America in 2014. As an alumni of the Sangam House International Writers’ residency in India, his creative piece on the subject of dance and the writing craft was among the over 44 works selected from over 40 writers cut across 3 continents that appeared in the Vol 3 of the Sangam House reader, Other Windows, published in India in early 2017.

His short story That Sunday Afternoon won the maiden WordMaster Writers’ Challenge competition in May, 2015.

In 2018 he released two e-books, Urushi and Other Stories from Ososo and Christians and Muslims: A Collection of Articles to some critical acclaim.
In 2019, he launched a picture book about Ososo, the scenic town of streams and rocks caught in-between the undulating Somorika hills of southern Nigeria, and since then has gone on to make documentary films, all of them to critical acclaim.

His op-ed articles appear frequently in a handful Nigerian media platforms.

He is the author of OSOSO: Our Place, Our People & Our Patrimony, The Edge of Patience, Cold Black Night and November 5.

He runs a film making company Doppler Films in Nigeria.

He is a father.

---

You might also like