Who Fears Death is a science fantasy novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, published in 2010 by DAW, an imprint of Penguin Books. It was awarded the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel,^[1][2] as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity."^[3] Okorafor wrote a prequel, the novel The Book of Phoenix, published by DAW in 2015.^[4]

The novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic Africa, where the light-skinned Nuru oppress the dark-skinned Okeke.

In 2023, Okorafor announced her upcoming novella trilogy She Who Knows which would serve as a prequel and sequel to Who Fears Death and would focus on the life of Najeeba, Onyesonwu's mother. The first novella is scheduled for publication in 2024.^[5]

The novel follows the protagonist, Onyesonwu (Igbo for "who fears death"), who is an Ewu, i.e. the child of an Okeke woman raped by a Nuru man. On reaching maturity, she goes on a quest to defeat her sorcerous father Daib using her magical powers. The novel is narrated by Onyesonwu to a journalist who interviews her before her execution. It is divided into three parts.

• Onyesonwu Ubaid-Ogundimu: The protagonist, she is a strong and fierce Ewu girl whose Okeke mother was raped by a Nuru man. Onyesonwu is also a sorceress and an Eshu (shapeshifter). She is used to being ostracized by most people through her life and does not fit in with the society. After her Eleventh Year Rite, her rapist father Diab begins to haunt her and she heads to the West to rewrite the Great Book and kill him. While waiting for her execution, she narrates the entire story to a man.
• Mwita: An Ewu boy who is the love interest of Onyesonwu. Unlike most Ewu, Mwita was created from a love affair between an Okeke slave and Nuru man who were both stoned to death. He grew up as a Nuru and was mentored by Diab before becoming child soldier for the Okeke rebels. He was mentored by Aro when he escaped and arrived in Jwahir.
• Najeeba: Onyesonwu's mother, an Okeke woman who was raped by a Nuru man. She was rejected by her first husband and gave birth to Onyesonwu alone in the desert where she lived for six years before settling at Jwahir. In the later years, she learns juju and goes around telling people all over the world about Onyesonwu.
• Aro: Onyesonwu's mentor, he is one of the seven elders of Jwahir and an Eshu. Aro ran from his hometown of Gadi as an eagle for several decades before settling in Jwahir. His views about the society are often patriarchal and he refuses to teach Onyesonwu juju for three years.
• Luyu: Onyesonwu's friend, Luyu is strong and determined to help Onyesonwu in any possible way she can even though she has no juju. Luyu is known for her numerous affairs with men including a relationship with Fanasi. Onyesonwu confides in her the most.
• Binta: Onyesonwu's best friend, she understand Onyesonwu more than the Luyu and Diti. She is a survivor of rape by her own father who couldn't resist her, Binta secretly kill him before embarking on the journey.
• Diti: Onyesonwu's friend, she comes from a rich family and often behaves awkwardly compared to Luyu and Binta. She is engaged to Fanasi and often complains a lot during the journey to the West and she eventually head back home to Jwahir with Fanasi.
• Fanasi: Diti's fiancé, he actually embarked on the journey to the West because of Diti and finds himself in an extramarital relationship with Luyu. He eventually leaves the group.
• Diab: Onyesonwu's biological father and a powerful sorcerer. He is a military leader of the Nuru people and has been working tirelessly to bring an army to the East to destroy the Okeke people. Diab is also known for his ability to torture people and draw reptiles to him while singing.
• Sola: A mysterious man who was once Diab's mentor and a close friend of Aro. His skin is described as being so white that Onyesonwu even wonder at times if he is human.

• Okeke: Brown skinned people who are killed mainly in the West by the Nuru people and sometimes the women are raped. The Okeke started a revolution against the Nuru who view them as their slaves and evil people leading to ongoing conflict. Okorafor states that the Okeke are Africans.
• Nuru: Light skinned people who attack and invade the Okeke territories because they believe that the goddess Ani made the Okeke to serve them. The Nuru decides to destroy the Okeke internally by raping their women and bringing Ewu children. Okorafor has also clarified that the Nuru are of Arab descent.^[1]
• Ewu: Mixed race children who are product of rape of the Okeke women by Nuru men. They are described as having skin that matches the color of the desert sand. They are subject of discrimination by both the Okeke and Nuru who deem them as children of violence who are evil and unfit for the society.
• Vah: A mythological nomadic tribe that travels across the desert sandstorm and is hidden from the rest of the world. They are often referred to as "The Red People", their skin is described to be "red as palm oil" and their hair is reddish brown.

Nnedi Okorafor started writing the novel after her father's death, the first scene of the novel was inspired by Okorafor's moments at her father's wake.^[2] The novel was also inspired in part by Emily Wax's 2004 Washington Post article "We Want to Make a Light Baby," which discussed the use of weaponized rape by Arab militiamen against Black African women in the Darfur conflict. According to Wax: "The victims and others said the rapes seemed to be a systematic campaign to humiliate the women, their husbands and fathers, and to weaken tribal ethnic lines."^[8] Okorafor wrote that this article "created the passageway through which Onyesonwu slipped through my world."^[9]

Okorafor based most of the traditional mysticism and beliefs on the traditional belief of the Igbo people, which she is a member of.^[10] The mythological Vah or "The Red People" was inspired by two red skinned Nigerian women Okorafor saw on two occasions during her visit to her home in Nigeria.^[10]

The novel contains several references to Amos Tutuola's novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard.^[11]

The book received generally positive reception from reviewers and readers.^[12][13] A starred review from Publishers Weekly called the novel "A fantastical, magical blend of grand storytelling".^[14] A review from The Washington Post noted that the book was "both wondrously magical and terribly realistic".^[15] Zetta Brown of the New York Journal of Books states that, "To compare author Nnedi Okorafor to the late Octavia E. Butler would be easy to do, but this simple comparison should not detract from Okorafor's unique storytelling gift."^[16]

Besides winning the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award, Who Fears Death was nominated for the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2011 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It also won the Best Foreign Novel award at the French Awards "Les Imaginales". Time ranked the novel as one of the 100 Best Fantasy Book of All Time.^[17]

The novel includes a graphic scene in which Onyesonwu is subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), which she later learns may affect her magical powers. Steven Barnes of the American Book Review noted some had criticized the scene.^[18][19] In a blog post, Okorafor commented that she is proud of her Igbo identity, but that "culture is alive and it is fluid. It is not made of stone nor is it absolute. Some traditions/practices will be discarded and some will be added, but the culture still remains what it is. It is like a shape-shifting octopus that can lose a tentacle but still remain a shape-shifting octopus (yes, that image is meant to be complicated). Just because I believe that aspects of my culture are problematic does not mean I am "betraying" my people by pointing out those problems." She added: "What it [i.e., female genital cutting] all boils down to (and I believe the creators of this practice KNEW this even a thousand years ago) is the removal of a woman's ability to properly enjoy the act of sex. Again, this is about the control and suppression of women."^[19]

In July 2017, Okorafor announced the novel was the basis for an HBO television series in "early development", with George R. R. Martin serving as an executive producer;^[20][21][22] Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has been selected as scriptwriter.^[23] In January 2021 it was announced that Tessa Thompson's newly formed production company, Viva Maude, had joined the team and Aïda Mashaka Croal is serving as the new scriptwriter.^[24][25]

• Yeelen, a Malian film with similar subject matter.