Forest Imaginaries

Ainehi Edoro's Forest Imaginaries reconceptualizes the role of forests in African fiction, arguing they act as laboratories for world‑unmaking and world‑making where politics, history, myth, violence, technology, and creativity animate fictional worlds.

Tracing a lineage from indigenous narratives to contemporary science fiction, Edoro examines works by Achebe, Wọle Ṣóyínká, Thomas Mofolo, Amos Tutuola, and Nnedi Okorafor to show how forest worlds reshape the novel form.

The book centers aesthetics and form—rather than solely colonial representation—to reveal indigenous contributions to modern African fiction.

It reframes literary history by beginning with forest imaginaries, allowing alternative genealogies that highlight non‑urban narrative practices.

Ultimately, Edoro demonstrates how thinking with forests opens new ways to imagine African pasts, presents, and futures.