Learning to Fly Again

This is Ifeatu, the Odogo Aya Nri - the war general - from my graphic novel.

She commands the entire Nri army and it is her job win the war. Her soldiers have faith that she will bring them home or die trying, and she has the power to turn the tide of even the most dire of situations.

No matter her injuries, if her soldiers are in danger, by sheer force of will she will be almost unstoppable.

The lines on her forehead are Ichi scarifications which the bravest and most respected Igbo men undergo without making a sound. She endured the Ichi when she was six in absolute silence.

The shoulder masks she wears bear two images of the Ikenga, the Igbo god that gives strength.

She wears traditional Igbo armour of steel reinforced crocodile hide and leather.

When she falls, her army will know they have come to the end and will never go back alive.

The Odogo Aya has never fallen in battle.

Before you ask why she’s wearing a viking helmet, Viking helmets never had horns on them, it’s just a myth cooked up by Hollywood.

You know whose helmets DID have two horns on them-  Igbo helmets, that’s who.

Don’t take my word for it, go look it up.

Once again whiteness has succeeded in claiming an aspect of an African culture that they have absolutely nothing to do with for their own and erasing the original people who own it from sight by not crediting them.