North Texas – When Novelist J.A. Faulkerson set out to write his first novel, he didn’t know where he would end up. He knew he wanted to write a story that empowered Africans and African Americans, but the full story had yet to form in his mind. But then, while conducting an Internet search on African Adinkra symbols, he came across an image that would serve as the foundation for his first novel, Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet.
The Adinkrahene symbol is nothing but one small, white circle surrounded by two larger ones, but it provided the inspiration Faulkerson needed to create a universe where members of the Black Diaspora are God’s chosen ones. Words that are associated with the symbol are greatness, charisma and leadership. It reportedly signifies the importance of playing a leadership role.
The story opens with an unpublished excerpt from Frederick Douglass’s slave narratives. In the 1843 excerpt, Douglass writes about his encounter with a green-skinned alien named Daygon. Daygon and other members of the Satarian race reside under the surface of Mars, and were created by Lucifer, or Satan, to one day take possession of the Earth and rule over its inhabitants. Lucifer’s aim is to prove that he is God’s better. But Daygon, an infiltrating Satarian demon turned human loyalist, tells Douglass that Earth’s darker-skinned people have been designated by the one, true God to serve as planetary protectorates, being gifted with innate powers derived from the lost Garden of Eden. Daygon contends that this special gifting was bestowed on Earth’s darker-skinned people because Adam and Eve were created from the dark sands of Eden, Africa, and, by today’s standards, would be considered Black.
Fast forward to today, where readers meet Jonathan Fraiser, a Washington Post political reporter, who is attending an impromptu press conference in the Russell Senate Office Building. During this press conference, Mississippi Senator Kyle Shuler announces his bid to run against incumbent Herbert Newsom in the 2012 presidential election. Four years earlier, Newsom was overwhelmingly elected as America’s first, Black president. But Jonathan knows Kyle Shuler’s dirty, little secret – that he and two of his friends participated in the murder of an elderly, Black woman when they were teenagers.
This elderly, Black woman was FBI agent Selina Giles’ grandmother and legal guardian. Selina was eleven years old when Kyle Shuler slit her grandmother’s throat. But because Shuler is one to keep his friends close, his enemies closer, he invites Selina to his press conference. While there, she runs into Jonathan, a longtime friend from college, and they agree to meet for dinner. During their dinner meeting, Selina tells Jonathan she now has confirmation that Kyle Shuler murdered her grandmother as a Corporate Cabal initiation rite.
Selina hands Jonathan an aluminum business card with an Adinkrahene symbol and telephone number on it. She admonishes him to call the number on the card. Jonathan does, leading to his initially joining forces with Selina as an Adinkrahene Agent to prevent Kyle Shuler from becoming the leader of the free world. But their relationship sours when Selina abruptly severs her ties with the Adinkrahene Reparations Management Syndicate (ARMS) to lead Blackout, a black militia group that is committed to avenging the Black Diaspora’s fallen heroes by any means necessary.
Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet is available for online purchase as an ebook and paperback through Amazon.
In July 2015, Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet was selected as a finalist (one of three) for a Phillis Wheatley Book Award (in the First Fiction category). The Phillis Wheatley Book Awards are held annually at Columbia University in conjunction with the Harlem Book Fair.
Read an extended excerpt from Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet on the African-American Literature Book Club (AALBC) website.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. A. Faulkerson is a novelist, screenwriter and blogger with Culturally Coded Content, a creative writing and community education firm based in North Texas. The oldest of three children raised by a once-poor, single-parent mother, J. A. is passionate about facilitating educational seminars and workshops that give parenting adults the impetus they need to improve outcomes for children and youths.
For additional information about Novelist J.A. Faulkerson, follow his blog at http://www.jafaulkerson.wordpress.com. To inquire about his availability for interviews, book reading and signings, send an email to bigvoice68@gmail.com.
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