SEX IS A NIGGER'S GAME. By Dillibe Onyeama

Generations come and go, but it was not so long ago that many readers especially in Africa tended to confuse this work (Sex is a Nigger's game, by Onyeama), with Naiwu Osahon's Sex is a Nigger).

Intriguing titles, both; and certain to pique the interest of countless readers who might not even have actually read both works, but are just enamoured with what they assume would be rather prurient. Yet both books are quite different, almost to the point of the proverbial chalk and cheese. 

Dillibe Onyeama, always something of a literary iconoclast, had hit the limelight with his first published works, especially Nigger at Eton, which he brought out at a very young age. Like Ben Okri, you might say. Onyeama whilst still in his youth, would go on to publish a string of powerful imaginative works.

One of them is Sex is Sex is a Nigger's game. Here we get glimpses of England, UK at a pivotal time - through the lens of a percipient black man: it is neither here nor there that this is an alter, as it were. We must stress that the voice is a confident one, not cowed or subservient.

The author looks at race relations, 'activism', class, history and even makes forays into the world of publishing in general. Eg he ponders on "lucky writers' who from the outset personally knew, got on well with their publishers, and had their work published easily and regularly.

Probably this was the case with Onyeama himself, who brought out so many books as a young man? But this is not to undermine his great literary talent in any way. So - the penny has dropped? This work is not really about sex, as many might have assumed.

Many might argue that Naiwu Osahon's Sex is a Nigger is somewhat suffused with sex, but this particular book is not about sex per se, despite the title. It is an intelligent, tantalising work with a simple, yet nigh-clinical approach to society with concomitant ripples and undercurrents. 

Like many fine writers, here the author is rather detached, objective, quite rational with a fecundity of engrossing ideas.

- E Malome