Uwem Akpan's powerful debut Say You're One of Them has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

And it also inspired a new song by Grammy Award winning world music superstar Angelique Kidjo.

Described by Publishers Weekly as 'beautiful . . . insightful and revealing', Say You're One of Them consists of five stories, each written from the point of view of a child in Africa.  The book had such an effect on Benin-born Angelique Kidjo that she was moved to write and record Agbalagba, a song in the Yoruba language which roughly translates as The Ancestors.

This musical tribute delighted Akpan:

'I am very excited that my stories have inspired such a powerful song, and I hope that both the song and the book will bring readers and listeners a greater understanding of the problems of people in Africa'.

Listen to Agbalagba on the Hachette Book Group USA website. 

The reviewers loved the book:

‘Within the growing canon of African writers, what sets the stories of Uwem Akpan apart is that they come to us direct from the eye of the continent. The work of writers such as Leila Aboulela, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Helen Oyeyemi comes out of the experience of the diaspora, but the stories in Akpan’s debut collection are concerned uncompromisingly with the issues facing many people living in Africa now: debt, religiosity, poverty, the venality of rulers, the desire for a better life. It has been said that if you want to know a place, read its literature. In these starkly modern fables, reminiscent of African greats such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ahmadou Kourouma, Akpan reveals Africa’s pain, pity, joy and grace, and comes closer to the truth about modern Africa than the entire outpourings of the western mass media’ Aminatta Forna in The Guardian

‘Set in Kenya, Benin, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda, his debut collection Say You’re One of Them is an absorbing and, at times, disturbing read. Akpan gives voice to African child protagonists from different religious and cultural backgrounds. There is an energy that makes his book compelling rather than down beat, in spite of its painful themes. In the midst of his continent’s crises, he has given vital voice to its children, naming them with true compassion in an unflinching collection’ Isobel Dixon in the Financial Times

‘There’s not a tale here that doesn’t rend the heart, but the writing is clear and superbly controlled, and without a trace of mawkishness’ Kate Saunders in The Times

‘The five stories in this collection all evoke painful and puzzling experience as perceived by African children. Each story is set in a different country. In all of them innocence collides with corruption; in all, family loyalty is attacked by forces that the children barely comprehend. The final story in this collection, the heartbreaking My Parents’ Bedroom, is narrated by a nine-year-old Rwandan girl whose mother is a Tutsi and father a Hutu. From the hills near her comfortable house she can see “banana and plantain trees, their middle leaves rolled up, like yellow-green swords slicing the wind”. The image is both beautiful and ominous. As attractive, metaphorical swords mutate into ugly, literal machetes, one is both appalled by the impact of the tale and amazed by the tact and skill of its teller. This time the ballyhoo is real: Akpan is an important writer’ David Grylls in The Sunday Times

‘This astonishing first collection of short stories marks the arrival of a major writer. In 2007 Uwem Akpan's story, "My Parents' House", was shortlisted for the Caine Prize, which recognises the best short fiction from Africa. Akpan, who is now teaching in Harare and probably witnessing horrors equal to any described in this collection, arouses huge expectations for his next book. I hope these will not intimidate him. Given the robustness and muscularity of his writing here, I doubt if that will happen’ Alastair Niven in The Independent