Shani is one of the many wives of King Dingane.  Dingane has prayed to the gods for an heir to his throne, and the gods answered in kind.  On the continent of Uhuru, in the grasslands of the Sesu, Inkosi Dingane is granted his wish.  Shani gives him a son, an heir to his growing empire. But the ancestors have plans of their own. Shani bears him twin boys, meji, an abomination among the Sesu, but a blessing to Shani’s people.  According to Sesu law, one, if not both, of the sons must be killed.  To rescue the newborns from ritual infanticide, Shani’s servant is sent into the night with the twins in-tow.  But Dingane is not to be denied, upon his arrival in Mawena he is given one son and told the other son has been put to death. 

MEJI introduces Ndoro and Obaskei and shares their destinies.  Ndoro, the twin taken by the father, is a warrior who fights desperately to build his legend in Sesu and break free of the abomination of being a twin.  Obaskei, raised by his mother’s people in Mawena, is equally stigmatized; he has a gift that ultimately alienates him and leads to his exile.   There are two paths to follow but one destiny to fulfill; the twins must become one, fulfill their destinies and change their respective worlds.

Readers will voyage with Ndoro and Obaskei on their converging paths and will be immersed in a blend of African folklore, mythology, sorcery, and history. Davis creates a seductive world with lush, exotic landscapes and tells a tale in the vein of African Griots. MEJI is a fantastic, mystifying, bewildering journey, with pulse-pounding action, vivid description and moral dilemmas.

Reviewed by aNN Brown
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers