German Calendar, No December

By (author)Sylvia Ofili

Olivia Evezi’s childhood is a happy one; her days are spent listening to highlife records and poring over colourful postcards from Germany. When she leaves her hometown of Warri behind to live out her Enid Blyton fantasies in a boarding school in Lagos, instead of adventure and lacrosse, she is met with punishments, endless chores and hazing rituals.

Olivia’s restlessness takes her to Germany, her mother’s homeland, where she is thrown into a hidden world of workers and migrants; a world of constant vigilance, where a piece of paper can hold the key to survival. Olivia finds that she is destined to always be an outsider – too white for Nigeria and too black for Germany – and so must learn to define herself and her place in the world beyond the labels that have been given to her: exotic, foreign, oyinbo.

German Calendar, No December is a candid and reflective coming of age tale about learning to navigate the world, with the help of good music, good books, good friends, and a touch of courage.

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Sylvia Ofili is a writer and teacher currently based in Stockholm. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria of Nigerian/Hungarian parents and her writing has appeared in the Guardian Nigeria and Brittle Paper. She is also known as ‘The Waffarian’ and has been writing on her blog for over ten years. German Calendar No December is her first full-length graphic novel.

Birgit Weyhe is a comic book artist. Born in Munich, she spent her childhood in East Africa before moving back to Germany to study. Her work has been exhibited in numerous European countries and her comics have been published in a wide range of international magazines and anthologies. In 2016, her graphic novel Madgermanes won the Max-und-Moritz-Prize for best German Comic. She has lectured at various international workshops on behalf of the Goethe Insitut and currently teaches at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences.

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Sylvia Ofili

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