The Light-Bearer and the Darkness: Ancestors' Shame

Dame Daye rarely thought about how his foreparents came to be in America. He understood, in broad terms, that they were victims of abduction, forced migration, and enslavement, but those ties felt distant and unknowable. Everything changed the day he came home and found a cryptic note begging him to read a strange metal-bound book. As he read, his ancestral past sprang to life in his mind, and the lives of long-forgotten people became his memories. Dame realized that time had not severed him from Africa, nor thinned the blood that bound him to the N'Diaye dynasty of Lebu'ta.

It's 1672. The idyllic West African nation of Lebu'ta, home to descendants of the legendary Ndiadiane N'Diaye, awakens to the nightmare of slave raiders encroaching further inland. Unable to repel them on its own, the peaceful, prosperous nation must either become partners in the vile trade or join the jihadist Marabout War against the human traffickers.

Adama, the king's timid, multilingual grandson, is shielded from the dangers of this fragile sanctuary. Acting on a dare, Adama, his betrothed cousin Awa, and his friends embark on a quest to find the pink water of Lake Retba. The journey quickly becomes replete with treachery, treason, mayhem, and murder.

Young, naïve, and without the protection of his grandfather, Adama must quickly learn to navigate political intrigue while evading the enslavers that ravage seventeenth-century West Africa. As he escapes danger and untangles deception, he confronts the fear that he may never see Awa or his beloved grandfather again.

Told in the griot-style, Ancestors' Shame explores the consequences of power, betrayal, memory, and survival. The historical saga of Dame Daye's dynastic lineage weaves spiritual inheritance with African historical fiction. This first book in The Light-Bearer and the Darkness series introduces the N'Diaye family and the widening cracks that ultimately weaken Lebu'ta.