Trip to Africa Inspires Black Activist to Write a Reality Fiction Book on the Global Water Crisis
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

March 23, 2023

Trip to Africa Inspires Black Activist to Write a Reality Fiction Book on the Global Water Crisis

It’s so easy to take water for granted until it’s gone. For author and activist Papi Kymone Freeman, the best approach to explain the global water crisis was after his trip to Africa, when he decided to write a fictional book using Marvel-like superheroes to tell the story of climate change, global warming and the privatization of water. NINEVEH (pronounced ni·nuh·vuh) is a fiction novel about a conflict over water set in the future in a post-oil-depleted dystopian society. NINEVEH novel releases on March 22, 2023 – World Water Day.

“I spent the summer in Nairobi, Kenya, with a fellowship from the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization dedicated to service, where we were forced to use bottled water to brush our teeth,” said Kymone Freeman, author of NINEVEH. “I saw people collecting water where goats were drinking. I saw parents feed babies Coca-Cola in their bottles because the soda was safer than the available water. Today, we see the water crisis even in America, from the Flint water crisis to now in Jackson, Mississippi.”

 

In NINEVEH, old cities are now underwater as a result of climate change, and new cities have emerged. A massive global drought combined with an epic contamination of the world’s limited fresh water supply combined with the privatization of the remaining unpolluted aquifers has created a crisis of biblical proportions. As a result, water has been priced beyond the affordability of the masses, forcing them to collect rainwater, which constitutes as the new contraband. With a mind-altering drug introduced into the limited public supply, few resisters dared to defy the ultimate fascist system.

The Resistance is led by Ndbele, a gifted teacher and sage. His daughter, Evolon, is his greatest warrior, and Bethlehem is his most trusted ally. NINEVEH is ruled ruthlessly by Nimrod, the head of the Global Water Corporation that has a stronghold on the world’s water market. He has only one weakness, his nymphomaniac son Saisir.”

After reading NINEVEH, Shaka King, director of the two-time Oscar-nominated film Judas & the Black Messiah, expressed the importance of this body of work. “There is great utility to escapist art. But this novel threads the needle pretty well by refusing not to acknowledge trauma just to make a piece of entertainment.”

Purchase the pre-order sale of the paperback edition for $18.99 and hardcover for $24.99 on NinevehNovel.com. The publisher is Strong Arm Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to progressive issues and activism.


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