6 More Days Until African Book Club Relaunches!
We've put together drink, music & travel recs to get you ready for Ghana!
Dear African Literature Fans:
As you may know, African Book Club (ABC) is commemorating 10 years of celebrating and centering African stories with a new partner (visionary, Oakland-based Sistah SciFi) and our first in-person gathering of the year!
(Serendipitously, Sistah SciFi recently hosted a fundraiser with ABC fave Nnedi Okorafor, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing in February for the release of Death of the Author co-sponsored by LitQuake and MoAD at Books Inc.)
Sunday we’ll be joined by Ghanaian American author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond for a discussion of her novel My Parents’ Marriage, which explores the intricacies of love, legacy, and the emotional weight of family history. To get you in the mood, we’ve put together some info about the setting, plus drink, music, and travel recommendations. Read on!
ABOUT the book…
What happens when we try to break free from the patterns we inherit?
Set in 1970s Ghana and later in New York City, My Parents’ Marriage follows Kokui Nuga, a young woman determined to live a life unlike her mother’s—trapped in a decades-long, loveless marriage. When Kokui falls for a waiter with plans to study in the U.S., she seizes the chance for a new beginning. But across the ocean, she'll soon realize she's further from home than she is from escaping her past.
The story unfolds in the shimmering ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Ghana, just days before Christmas. Kokui Nuga, 22 and restless, steps out onto the balcony for a moment of escape, lighting a cigarette as she seeks respite from the heat of the crowd and the weight of the expectations pressing in on her. Inside, the city’s elite mingle — glamorous women, powerful men, their whispered ambitions and quiet betrayals floating above the clink of champagne glasses.
It’s here that she meets Boris Van der Puye — charming, mysterious, and about to leave for USAmerica. What begins as a fleeting encounter soon becomes the catalyst for a life-altering journey that will take Kokui from Ghana to the U.S., from daughter to wife, and from silence to a deeper understanding of herself.
Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Ghana
ABOUT Accra…
My Parents’ Marriage is a vivid love letter to Accra—its elegance, tensions, and rhythms, where personal histories and political legacies quietly collide. Because, beyond meeting the man who might alter your fate on a hotel balcony. . . what else can you do in Ghana’s electric capital?
According to The New York Times, QUITE A LOT. Their 36 Hours in Accra, Ghana: Things to Do and See guide offers a curated experience of the city’s art, food, and nightlife.
Want more? Dive into Away’s How To Spend A Long Weekend In Accra, Ghana, featuring tips on where to stay, what to eat, and how to immerse yourself in the heart of the city.
Accra's Black Star Square, created in 1957 to celebrate Ghana's independence from the U.K. Photo by Rjruiziii.
And if this novel stirs your curiosity for Ghanaian culture and history, start saving up for Sistah Scifi's Afrofuturist Trip to Accra, which is planned for August 17-25, 2026 — a once-in-a-lifetime journey that promises not just sightseeing, but storytelling and sisterhood.
ABOUT Togo…
Another key place in the story is Togo, where Kokui’s mother, Micheline, returns after years in a loveless marriage. Though she never officially divorces her husband, staying married to protect her daughters’ future, Togo becomes a space of quiet resistance and self-preservation.
Togo— (see Thrillist’s Overlooked African Nation Is Overflowing with HISTORY, ADVENTURE, AND VOODOO)—has symbolic weight in the novel. Once part of colonial Togoland before its division into British Ghana and French Togo, it stands as a site of fractured histories and enduring cultural roots.
When Kokui’s mother returns there, it's more than a retreat; it's a reclamation of identity and autonomy. For Kokui, Togo becomes not just a geographical point on the map, but a crucial waypoint on her own journey through family, memory, and self-definition.
Traditional mud huts emerge from the lush forests of Togo
ABOUT the Author…
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is a Ghanaian-American author, editor, and speaker whose work spans fiction, children’s literature, and journalism. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, African Writing, New Daughters of Africa, and beyond. She is also the author of Powder Necklace and the children’s book Blue, which was named a best book of the year by The New York Times.
So, why not immerse yourself FULLY?
If you’re like us, you love the oral tradition. So, why not listen to the Audiobook while browsing AFAR’s A Tour of Accra’s Most Inventive Cuisine? Then try your hand at making spicy, golden Kelewele at home — best enjoyed with a Kokrokoo or one of Accra’s 5 must-try specialty cocktails (according to Accra Events).
Prefer a slower pace? Open its pages and let the music of 1970s Ghana transport you. From the soulful highlife and early afrobeat that shaped a generation:
to Hiplife and the sounds that followed:
and the hits echoing through Accra’s streets today:
And as you cook, sip, read or listen, allow yourself to be pulled deeper into Kokui’s world — where one choice on a warm December evening might unravel everything, or finally set her free!
