Satans and Shaitans

From the winner of the 2021 Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature...

Determined to overrule the Nigerian President, members of the powerful secret society, The Sacred Order of the Universal Forces, led by Chief Donald Amechi and Christian Evangelist Chris Chuba, employ a terrorist cell to carry out attacks in Northern Nigeria under the guise of forming an Islamic state.

Adeline, Chuba's daughter, and young Donaldo Amechi, the only son of the Chief, are desperate to hide their love affair from their parents. When the Chief discovers the relationship, Evangelist Chuba is ordered to sacrifice his daughter. Adeline goes missing, but when it is revealed that the men sent to kill her never reached their target, Chuba and Amechi are haunted by what really happened to the young girl.

Set against the backdrop of Nigeria's ongoing terrorism tensions and upcoming elections, Satans and Shaitans is a powerful story about love, politics, power, religion, terrorism, and corruption.

Obinna Udenwe is a Nigerian novelist and short story writer. The winner of the first edition of The Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature 2021 for his second book, 'Colours of Hatred' which was also a finalist for The NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature 2021. His first book, 'Satans & Shaitans' won the ANA Prize for Prose Fiction in 2015.

Obinna Udenwe's stories have won The Prairie Schooner-Glenna Luschei Prize 2020, The Short Story is Dead Prize 2016 and was a finalist in the Prairie Schooner-Raz Schumakar Prize 2020. His story 'It Has to do With Emilia' was acquired for film & television in 2020 by Bridget Pickering at Bump films, shot in Yeoville, South Africa in 2021 and released as a motion picture in March 2022. His stories have appeared in Gutter Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Munyori Literary Journal, The Village Square Journal, Fiction 365, Brittle Paper, ANA Review, Ake Review, Expound Magazine, The Kalahari Review, The Short Story is Dead anthology Vol., 1 & 2, and many more.

Obinna Udenwe loves literature and is the co-founder of The Village Square Journal. He enjoys travelling for work and pleasure, and to spend time with friends drinking and chatting about politics and literature and every other thing young men talk about. He lives in Abakaliki in southern Nigeria where he works as a writer, engineer, and farmer, and is very active in local politics.