On Black Sisters' Street

On Black Sisters' Street depicts the lives of four women, Sisi, Ama, Efe, and Joyce, who are trafficked from Nigeria to the red-light district of Antwerp, Belgium. Living in a shared apartment and working under the control of a pimp named Dele and a fierce Madam, the women attempt to earn enough money to pay their debts and support families in their homeland. A murder disrupts their lives, leading them to form a sisterhood based on shared confessions of displacement and love. As detailed by On Black Sisters Street, the novel examines the annihilation of the Western dream through African eyes.

The story documents how undocumented immigrants negotiate the dark spaces of a European city, emphasizing structural inequalities and the desperation caused by human trafficking networks. According to On Black Sisters’ Street, the novel was originally written in English but first published in 2007 as a Dutch translation titled Fata Morgana. Critical reviews from the New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly have lauded the narrative for its unflinching eye for detail and its portrayal of women who are stronger than they imagine.

Chika Unigwe is a Nigerian-born Igbo novelist who writes in English and Dutch. Born on June 12, 1974, she was awarded the Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2012 for this novel. As cited in Chika Unigwe, she was included in the Hay Festival's Africa39 list in 2014, which recognizes 39 of the most promising young African writers.