, her first full-length book. Set in 16th century Hausaland (modern-day northern Nigeria), the novel is based on the legends around the life of Amina, a Hausa warrior-queen who ruled parts of the region during approximately the European Renaissance period.As the story begins in 1557 CE, Amina is a princess of the city-state of Zazzau. When her lover Suleyman is murdered by Nupe soldiers during a parley, a grieving Amina makes a pact with the god of war, Ruhun Yak'i or Dafaru, becoming his bride in exchange for his help seeking vengeance on the King of Nupeland. The novel follows her career over her long life as her legend grows into a myth.
Tropes in Queen of Zazzau:
- The Ageless: The pact with Dafaru gives Amina and her bodyguard Jaruma eternal youth, freezing them in their twenties. It does not, however, protect them from death by injury.
- All Amazons Want Hercules: Amina is already a warrior of Zazzau when the story begins, and initially falls in love with her bodyguard's brother Suleyman, the commander of Zazzau's army. After he's murdered, she enters a sexual pact with Ruhun Yak'i, the god of war himself, and falls hard for him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Nupeland defeats Zazzau, meaning Amina's empire is doomed to fall. Amina survives, but only because Dafaru gives up his divinity to save her from mortal wounds. On the plus side, they'll be remembered long after they're both long gone.
- Crossover Cosmology: The Zazzagawa are pagans on the edge of Maghrebi Muslim territory, and equate Allah with the Top God of their pantheon, Ubangiji. Even Dafaru himself says they're one and the same.
- Deal with the Devil: Amina's pact with Dafaru is presented as such. She becomes his bride, and must kill men in battle as well as any man she sleeps with, and hungers for both. In exchange, she gets his help fighting her wars.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Yes, 1500s West Africans kept slaves, just like nearly everybody else in the period. Polygamy is also considered unremarkable: one of the reasons Amina gives for not marrying Suleyman is that he already has several wives and she doesn't want to "only" be another one.
- Divine Date: Amina and Dafaru's relationship grows beyond merely a pact involving sex into a love affair over the course of the book.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The book has a glossary of the Hausa language, which is used frequently instead of English. Most commonly, Amina is addressed as "Gimbiya" (princess) before her ascension to the throne of Zazzau halfway through the book.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the book's final battle against a resurgent Nupe, Amina and Jaruma are both killed. Dafaru sacrifices his divinity to save Amina, making them both mortal, and they walk off into the sunset planning to find a new life elsewhere as husband and wife.
- Historical Domain Character: Amina is considered to be a real person by historians of West Africa, though the stories about her often disagree considerably on details, even on when her life took place. This novel places her birth in approximately the 1540s and her death in 1610.
- Legend Fades to Myth: Discussed. Dafaru says that what Amina accomplished in life will become legend and be remembered long after they're both gone.
- The Magic Goes Away: The novel ties the encroachment of Islam and the decline of traditional African paganism to the death of magic. The lesser deities of the Zazzagawa pantheon are de-powered for breaking the rules to help Amina at the same time neighboring states are converting to Islam.
- Out with a Bang: By the terms of her pact with Dafaru, Amina is required to kill any mortal man she sleeps with. She usually does this by feeding them poisoned tea afterwards.
- Powerful People Are Subs: Amina is a princess, later a queen, but her lover is the Hausa War God. Their first time together (a couple pages after agreeing to the pact) has definite BDSM tones, with Dafaru choking her and Amina referring to enjoying her own humiliation.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Amina uses the rhythm method to avoid conception, but becomes pregnant anyway several years into her affair with Suleyman, and acquires an abortifacient. Suleyman comes home shortly after, and she chooses to keep the baby instead and marry him. Then he dies, and the shock makes her miscarry.
- Truce Trickery: Amina's Start of Darkness is when her fiance Suleyman is murdered while conducting a parley with warriors of Nupeland who have been clashing with Zazzau. This leads to Amina making a Deal with the Devil with the War God Dafaru to seek revenge against the King of Nupe.
