From noted short story writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant
alternate-history novel set in the Belgian Congo.
What if the African natives developed steam power ahead of their
colonial oppressors? What might have come of Belgium's disastrous
colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about
steam technology a bit earlier?
Fabian Socialists from Great Britain join forces with African-American
missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King
Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven,
an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as
escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African
natives were being mistreated.
Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human
rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of
the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from
a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African
Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling
range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not
only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will
give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.
