The author writes: "When we speak of nothing we don't end the silence." Moreover it's a heartrending tale of friendship, the British working class, first love and queer BAME (Black Asian & Minority Ethnic) youth culture. Olumide Popoola certainly doesn't attempt a definitive answer to this complex question or speak for all the youth involved, but her engaging and vibrant novel “When We Speak of Nothing” represents something of the younger generation who felt under-represented and unheard. Certainly the police shooting Mark Duggan sparked it off, but there must have been a lot of tension there already to provoke widespread arson and looting. In the ensuing weeks the news was filled with people asking why this happened. It's interesting how when any major events like this happen in our local areas now a collective conversation occurs, but only within our circumscribed social groups and rarely with people we're actually sitting next to on public transportation. Everyone on that bus was charged up with the news scrolling through their phones and checking social media for bits of information. If grime music were a novel, it would be this.īack in 2011 when riots flared up in England, I remember riding home late at night on a bus that had to be diverted because Brixton was in chaos. When We Speak of Nothing launches a powerful new voice onto the literary stage.The fluid prose, peppered with contemporary slang, captures what it means to be young, black and queer in London. Abu finds himself in its midst, leading to a near-tragedy that forces Karl to race back home.
Meanwhile, the murder of Mark Duggan triggers a full-scale riot in London. Rejected on arrival, Karl befriends Nakale, an activist who wants to expose the ecocide in the Niger Delta to the world, and falls headlong for his feisty cousin Janoma. When Karl finds out his father lives in Nigeria, he decides that Port Harcourt is the best place to escape the sound and fury of London, and connect with a Dad he's never known. Meanwhile, Karl is the target of the local "wannabe" thugs just for being different. Abu is infatuated with gorgeous classmate Nalini but dares not speak to her. Its 2011 and racial tensions are set to explode across London. If you didn't concentrate you would think they weren't moving at all, their bodies just hanging in space."īest mates Karl and Abu are both 17 and live near Kings Cross. Hips swaying, left, slow, right, slow, step, slow.
"Some of the women walked so slow they were, like, floating.
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