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Saro

by Nikę Campbell

A family’s fortunes across West Africa

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A family’s fortunes across West Africa

Set between the 1830s and 1850s, Saro follows Siwoolu and his family from capture on the coast of Lagos to a new life in Freetown, where they build a family and a trading business. Their security is challenged by the return of a betrayal tied to the kingdom’s choice of a new king. Dotunu seeks to prevent the traitor’s accession, drawing in her son Oșolu as he faces his own struggles. The journey links Abeokuta and Lagos with Freetown and Hastings in Sierra Leone, placing family conflict within a broader story of displacement, commerce, and contested power.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in historical fiction set in nineteenth-century West Africa.
  • For readers drawn to multigenerational family stories involving betrayal, love, and political conflict.
  • For readers seeking fiction that connects Lagos and Abeokuta with Freetown and Sierra Leone.

Themes

Displacement and resettlementFamily, love, and betrayalTrade and commercePower and restitution

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

On a visit to the coast of Marina, Lagos, Siwoolu and his young family are lured by a traitor to a grand merchant ship where they are captured by slave holders masquerading as traders. On the way to the new world, they are rescued by abolitionists on a British naval ship, and sent to Freetown, a haven for freed slaves.

 

They settle in their new home, grow their family and become successful merchants, trading goods between Freetown and Eko. Dotunu, Siwoolu's wife, falls in love with another man and is caught in a love triangle. But their lives are upended again when they hear that the kingdom has selected the traitor as king. Siwoolu, content with his new life, yet fearful of a curse that lurks in the shadows, refuses to return, but Dotunu is determined to keep the traitor from the throne. She turns to their son, Oșolu, who is running from his own demons, to seize the throne that is rightfully theirs.

 

Saro is a multigenerational tale of betrayal and restitution, love and war, inspired by true events that will take the reader from the rocky terrain of Abeokuta and burgeoning city of Lagos to the lion mountains of Freetown and Hastings of Sierra Leone from the 1830s to the 1850s.

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