Lizi Ashimole’s ‘The Other Insider’ straddles the past and present
By Macpherson Chikaodiri Okpara
YOU probably know her as Dr. Lizi Ben-Iheanacho. Her maiden name is Lizi Ashimole. Her literary works bear both, but mostly the latter. On March 30, 2025, she packaged two copies of her latest novel, The Other Insider and delivered them to the popular poet and technocrat, Omale Allen Abdul-jabar. Omale was expected to leave Abuja for my institution in the Southeast within that week and to hand the books to me. One copy is for the godmother of contemporary African literature, the ageless and highly celebrated author, feminist activist and theorist, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo; she is not just my nearest author-neigbour, but also one of my dependable mentors. The other copy is my reviewer’s copy. The Nigerian factor probably kept poet Omale away from the fish head pepper soup we often relish in my base until late last week.
A preliminary thumbing through this professionally packaged and high-quality literary broth from the stable of Nigeria’s leading publisher of literary texts, Kraftgriots, Ibadan shows that Ashimole brings to bear her acclaimed mastery of not only African cultural landscape, but also culinary skills in marinating her latest novel. Any reader conversant with Lizi’s literary outputs in the last two decades would immediately salute the remarkable improvement that nestles on both the book concept and pages of The Other Insider.
Ashimole is not a new-comer to the literary terrain of our nation, nay Africa; her presence has been visible for a long time. Former university don, retired Nigerian cultural technocrat, scholar with bias in gender, African feminisms, femininity, masculinity, folklore, and multiculturalism, Ashimole is not the ordinary writer out there. Her private and public engagements, her pervading tour of Africa’s resilient grip to her oral traditions in the wake of violent distortions by alien ways of life are a deep heritage that influences her literary revue. From literary works for children, young adults to popular fiction, Ashimole holds the creative candle high and the impact of her writings has been profoundly felt across Africa and beyond.
Her first fictional work, The Groundnut Child appeared in 2004 from Heritage 4.3 Books, Abuja. This was trailed in quick succession by Just in Case in 2005 (Abuja: Heritage 4.3 Books), Tales by the Fluorescent in 2007 (Ibadan: Kraft Books) and African Tales for Children in 2009 (Minna: Gurara Publishing). Perhaps, writers’ bloc happened to her; maybe her literary critical engagements kept her captive for 15 years before she gave birth to The Other Insider in 2025 (Ibadan: Kraft Books), her fresh, bouncing and trending book.
At a surface critical glimpse, The Other Insider establishes Ashimole’s reputation for moral and socio-cultural themes, especially those drawn from the interface of the sexes and cultural diversities in her multi-ethnic and multi-faith nation. Its primary preoccupation with passion and prejudice, sensuality and femininity, ethno-cultural and religious reconstruction is as riveting and expository as it is didactic and evocative of the narratives of incompatibility of the differing ethnic nationalities in most African states. Drawing heavily from symbols and icons, as from the flora imagery, the novel straddles the past and the present in its steady journey towards chronicling the things that tear and keep humanity apart, the centrifugal forces; this yields symptoms of the universality of the novel and situates it largely within the template of the anthropological tradition in African fiction, as in other parts of the world. Again, the novel’s characterization, geo-psychological motif; simple, readable language laced with considerable local idioms could promote its appreciation by diverse grades of consumers across the globe.
I boldly place Ashimole’s The Other Insider within the class of intermediate and advanced reading lists, and accordingly recommend it for senior secondary and tertiary students, as well as for the general reader. Ashimole’s literary works surely deserve to adorn private, school, university and public libraries. If there are foibles in it, they only lend credence the humanity of their creator. In her latest novel, the content is fresh as early morning palm wine; the style is sublime: both grip the reader to the very last page.
* Okpara, a Nigerian writer and literary critic, is the founder of Literati Temple Konzult
