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Fada Tom felt every black man was malleable, until he met Agu, a defiant young man, who stood for what he believed. Agu had refused baptism during the Easter vigil mass, because the white missionary priest had wanted to impose a foreign name on him. Everyone thought he was going to pay dearly for disrespecting a white man, but contrary to every expectation, he was rewarded for his courage. Fada Tom gave him scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. For some people, it was a blessing, while for many others a curse, but for Agu, it was an opportunity to prepare himself for the emancipation of his people, from the colonial masters who imposed a leadership of a ´warrant chief´ on his people, from the rearing head of slavery, and from the ravaging of their cherished culture. Agu later returned from his sojourn to discover the wreckage state of Umudim, his clan. He quickly lunched a revolution which was cut short by a cardiac arrest. Little had he spoken in the gathering of the clan which he invested so much to convene, than he slumped on the village green.

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Justin Chukwunonso Nzekwe was born in Imo State, Nigeria. He was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Orlu. His poems have been published both online and in literary magazines in Nigeria and beyond. His book, ´The Art of Oratory´ became an instant bestseller few years after publication. ´Broken Portrait´ is his first novel.

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