News Story

Akinwumi Adesokan, professor of comparative literature, cinema and media studies, and editor-in-chief of Black Camera, published his novel, “South Side,” in May 2025.

As a writer and scholar, Adesokan’s research explores how media, culture, and storytelling evolve across borders, especially within Black, diasporic, and postcolonial traditions. That same perspective carries into “South Side,” a fictional work that reflects his deep engagement with global narratives, identity, and the ways stories travel and connect communities.

His latest novel follows a young writer, Abel Dankor, who was born in international waters in the 1930s and therefore does not belong to any one country — he is stateless. Dankor travels across the globe, meeting and forming connections with individuals from countries around the world.

When Dankor is in the process of naturalizing as a citizen to a fictional West African country, Mande, he learns that his mentor, Sir Koroma Fouta, passed away. Following this devastating news, Dankor meets a woman, Valeria, and begins a romance with her.

Adesokan said there are several takeaways he hopes readers get from his novel.

“It’s a story about somebody who is privileged in the sense that he can move around the world, but he’s also not privileged because he doesn’t have a country,” Adesokan said about the main character, Dankor. “National identity, racial or gender identity, is never stable, and we should not take our position in the world for granted. There are many people in the world who are even less privileged than this author.”

As well as lessons about privilege, Adesokan also emphasized the aspect of connectedness, despite people’s differences or geographic location.

“He [Dankor] moved around the world, and everywhere he went, he was always finding people to help him,” Adesokan said. “I want to put across how connected we are and how in very unexpected places, we find the kind of companionship that we never imagined, and it’s important to live with kindness when you meet people and to treat people with kindness, and not take people for granted.”

“South Side” has been in the works for Adesokan since 2006, when he originally wrote it as a short story and decided to develop that into a novel. After several years of writing and revising drafts, Adesokan had a fleshed-out story that provided more insight into his character’s backstory.

By 2017, Adesokan had written “South Side” and spent the following years working on finding editors and publishers until the novel was published in 2025.

Adesokan has published other books, including his 2004 novel “Roots in the Sky” and “Everything is Sampled: Digital and Print Mediations in African Arts and Letters,” which examines the shifting modes of production and circulation of African artistic forms since the 1980s.

“South Side” is the second novel that he has published. “Everything is Sampled,” an academic monograph, does share some similarities to “South Side,” however.

“They have something in common in the sense that some aspects of the writerly life depicted in the novel are also touched upon in passing in a chapter of ‘Everything Is Sampled,’” Adesokan said.

Adesokan said a lesson he learned from writing “South Side” had to do with treating strangers with kindness.

“Love and kindness are some of the gifts we can give to others, especially strangers who are in need of home, a place to build or rebuild their lives,” Adesokan said. “Also, that the more of such things we do, the better enhanced our personalities become.”

PEN America featured Adesokan’s novel in its annual compilation of member publications that highlights books published by its members. “South Side” was published by Parresia Publishers and is available for purchase in its online bookstore.