Carole Enahoro
novelist, artist, sound artist, academic
Novels
Three transnational satires set in a hyperglobalised age. From water grab to land grab to resource grab, these novels map the intermingling of cultures, high-speed transport, and the simultaneity of new communication technologies—using dark comedy to expose the systems lurking beneath.
Transnational Satire
Finalist Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Doing Dangerously Well
Sometime in the near future, Kainji Dam, the engineering marvel that is the pride of Nigeria, collapses, killing thousands of villagers. The Minister of Natural Resources can hardly believe his luck - now he can make a bid for the presidency. On the other side of the world, the grimly ambitious executive of a water company also sniffs an opportunity but her activist sister joins forces with a charasmatic Nigerian leader whose family were swept away in the disaster. The result is a wickedly satirical romp along a road to Hell paved with good and bad intentions.
- Random House, 2010
Selected reviews
Douglas Coupland: "Reading Carole Enahoro’s work is like encountering a tree dripping with fruit — one is taken aback by the richness of what she creates. She is both generous and riveting."
John Barber, Globe and Mail — "A hilarious send-up of geopolitical mendacity."
Sienna Powers, January Magazine — "Broadcaster and art historian Carole Enahoro's debut is darkly, wickedly funny and deeply thought-provoking."
The Biodegradable Tourist
Carole Enahoro
The Biodegradable Tourist
The Bouku have ruled the Saharan desert for generations, kidnapping stray tourists to brag about the speed with which, even with the rustiest of daggers, they can be dispatched. When developers arrive in vegan sandals to build a resort, the illegal eviction of the Bouku forces them to abandon the very way of life the tourists have come to consume.
Aghbalu dreams of the glory days before the arrival of these aliens, shameless in exhibiting their naked legs. Yet his only daughter Izza is fascinated by the strange visitors whose skin turns from milk to hot pepper in a matter of hours. What neither the developers nor Aghbalu realise is that the Bouku women — schooled in the deadlier, more inhumane arts of passive aggression perfected over generations — have their own diabolical schemes. They have encouraged Izza to draw a map using inks derived from desert rocks. It is this luminescent archive of their land, impossible to dispute or destroy, that poses the greatest threat to the ravenous tourism industry.
Originally under contract with Random House. Arts Council funded. Available for representation.
Forthcoming:
Corporate Hug
A satire critiquing covert operations within a transnational corporation selling mobile phones, set in the UK, Congo, and China. Desperate to hide some of the genocide-lite atrocities lurking in their supply chain, EyeHear’s UK Corporate Social Responsibility arm swings into action to fur-wash its activities. Apart from a primary focus on the armed protection of gorillas, EyeHear also supplies latrines to militia-controlled miners to improve health and safety, and sends a business guru to victims of sexual assault to teach them how to thrive rather than just survive within a context of carnage. Great Wall, its manufacturing partner in China, offers to implement the projects, accidentally mixing up their requests following multiple mistranslations across territories.