Samahani, the latest work by Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, winner of the 2020 Prix de la Littérture Arabe, means ‘forgive me’ in Swahili, two words that stand in stark contrast to everything that happens in this novel.

Set in 19th century Zanzibar, this is a dark story of slavery, cruelty and vengeance, that depict the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, that turns their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. Through the relationship between a spoilt, scheming, powerful Omani princess and her eunuch African slave Sundus, captured and castrated by Arab slavers, Sakin builds a grand narrative that paints a picture of barbarism and man’s inhumanity to man and becomes a furious cry against persecution in all its forms.