It started with an idea; write short speculative stories inspired by different eras of Nigerian history. Past, present, and future, reimagined. I wanted to retell Yoruba folktales, classic horror of early Nollywood VHS tapes, urban myths, and celebrity culture1. I decided on eight stories and assigned a time period for each. I labelled the first draft of the story you’re about to read “middle history”. As with most of my other works, it brings together disparate elements. This story is what happens when my creative mind brings together “Benin Empire”, “Ile Ife”, “deer woman” and a random dream that visited me years ago.
Let’s start with the Benin Empire and Ile Ife. The former is an ancient kingdom that expanded around the 11th century and is renowned for its wealth, artistic heritage, and advanced governance. Ile Ife is said to be the earliest Yoruba state. According to Yoruba lore, the city is not only the birthplace of all Yoruba people but the cradle of humanity itself. Ile Ife has also produced stunning artworks and complex systems. The history of both kingdoms and peoples is long and intertwined, and I wanted to explore it by setting a story within the intersection. I thought of a foreign woman within the Benin Empire. But it wasn’t enough that she was apparently Yoruba, what if she wasn’t human?
You’ve probably come across this story before. The heroine is a woman whose true form is not human. She is beautiful and has mysterious powers. She captures the attention of a man. The hero is a king or a hunter or destitute. He manages to marry this magical woman usually by tricking her. They live together for a while before something happens and she must return to her true form. According to an article on starmythworld.com, Oya (the Orisa of storms and winds) was an antelope who shed her skin to interact with humans in the market. Sango (the Orisa of victory) saw Oya and was captivated by her beauty. He managed to steal her antelope skin and made her his wife.
My heroine, Oronsen, is named for Queen Ọ̀rọnṣẹ̀n, a deity revered by the people of Owo, Ondo state. Queen Oronsen was a magical woman who married King Rerengejen some 600 years ago. Theirs was true love and it was because of this connection that the Queen revealed her godlike origins. She gave her King rules to follow if he wanted her to stay by his side (no grinding okra for stew, no spilling water in the courtyard, no bringing firewood directly from the farm). Should any of her taboos be broken, Queen Oronsen would no longer remain at his side. The King agreed. However, jealousy festered in the royal household leading to the other queens breaking all of Queen Oronsen’s rules. She fled. Her King found her in the forest. There’s a bit where he begged her to return. Queen Oronsen refused, but she promised to bless his people if they honoured her with an annual festival, the Igogo festival held every September.
I borrowed not just the queen’s name but the legendary love she felt for her husband. Oral history gave me a name for another character, Lakange. Lakange is the mother of Oranmiyan according to Ulli Beier’s Yoruba Myths. In his version, Oduduwa the King of Ife was an albino, and his son Ogun was very dark- skinned. Ogun fought the war of Ogotun successfully and took many prisoners. He kept the beautiful Lakange for himself, however, when his father heard of this, Oduduwa sent his servants to seize Lakange for himself. The child that came out of these unions was Oranmiyan. It is said that Oranmiyan travelled across the landscape that is southern Nigeria, settling in many places, marrying several women. I’m not as interested in stories of influential men, but I wanted to reimagine the captive slave woman’s story.
Finally, “dream”. I was once told by an editor that dreams aren’t the best place to write from. I get it, dream logic can be hard to follow, but dreams can be pretty interesting. Here’s what I saw while asleep: A woman is sitting on a stool in an outdoor kitchen. The setting is rural, no, rustic... actually it appears pre- colonial. A small creature zooms past her heading for the fireplace. The woman can see it but pretends not to. This is the part I kept revisiting over the years, so I won’t bore you with other details from the dream. It would become the first scene of Oronsen’s story (but not in the version you’re about to read).
“Descendants of Balance” took several turns to get to ZamaShort. It’s about a magical woman who finds love and ends up shirking her responsibilities to the forest she came from. It’s about magic. It’s about sisterhood. It’s about a world where human and the supernatural lived together, and about how that world came to be separated.
I’m super grateful to Ivor W. Hartmann for the meticulous edits and for always being open to my work. Big thanks to John Kessel, Dare Segun Falowo and Emmanuella Omonigho for the reviews and blurbs. And to my readers, thank you for your steady support. I hope you enjoy spending time in Oronsen’s world! Below is the press packet.
Title: ‘Descendants of Balance’
Author: Rafeeat Aliyu
ISBN: 9789189984158
Release: 1st June 2026
Pages: 37
ZamaShort #14 ‘Descendants of Balance’ by Rafeeat Aliyu
Oronsen, daughter of the World and the Forest, brought into being when a hunter’s arrow met with a duiker’s heart, not quite human, not quite spirit. Newly married to a warrior and member of the royal council and his most favoured wife, she is ensconced in the royal household rife with political tensions and jealousy. But Oronsen is like no other there, and together with her sister Lakange, she becomes aware that something is drastically wrong in this new human world she finds herself in, something that could destroy all the beings of the Forest she knows and loves. ‘Descendants of Balance’ is the wonderful origin story to larger works and world rooted in Yoruba myth, legend, and wider Nigerian history, that Rafeeat has published and is working on further.
Rafeeat Aliyu was born and raised in Nigeria. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. Her work has been long listed for the Writivism Short Story Prize, Nommo Awards and the Island Prize for Debut Fiction. She received the Norwescon Scholarship to attend the Clarion West Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in 2018 and benefitted from the AKO Caine Prize Online with Vimbai mentorship program. Rafeeat is a 2023 Morland Writing Scholar. Her writing has been supported by La Napoule Art Foundation International Residency and La Maison Baldwin. Her works have been widely published in anthologies such as the Caine Prize: A Mind to Silence and Other Stories, Dominion, Africanfuturism, and AfroSF, and in the magazines Omenana, Fiyah, Lolwe, Strange Horizons, and Nightmare, to name a few.
“In ‘Descendants of Balance’ Rafeeat Aliyu tells us of a powerful spirit of the forest, taken human form out of love for a warrior king, the political and interpersonal conflicts that follow, and the betrayal that breaks things apart. It glows with the elemental force of myth and with the jealousies we find ourselves living whether or not we are gods, even when we don’t know those stories that created us.”
— John Kessel, author of The Presidential Papers.
“‘Descendants of Balance’ is a perfect serving of Rafeeat Aliyu’s unique storytelling alchemy. The heft of the Forest as a living thriving organism brought a folktale thrill to this tale about the equilibrium expected of those who live between worlds. It centres textured characters while never forgetting the cinema and magic of their fantastic worlds, lineages, and origins. This story draws on precolonial history and indigenous myth to reveal a world wholly new, yet familiar as childhood. We found ourselves caught up in the unfolding of Oronsen’s survival, in Lakange’s strength and love, in the mystery of the iwin.”
— Dare Segun Falowo, author of Caged Ocean Dub.
“‘Descendants of Balance’ is a beautiful short story that borrows from popular Yoruba mythology about women and reimagines it in ways that honor them. Rafeeat Aliyu paints a picture of how the children of the world, and the children of the forest were connected, and the cost of losing it, told through the lens of sisterhood and the supernatural walking quietly among men.”
— Emmanuella Omonigho, author of Stars in a Beautiful Night.
Release: 1st June 2026.
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The ZamaShort imprint series is solely focused on the amazing powerhouse that is the short story. We give each short story its own publication so that it may be read and enjoyed fully as a stand-alone publication. As per the StoryTime Publishing mandate initialised in 2007, ZamaShort continues to champion and add to the ever-growing canon of African literature excellence and diversity.
You might already have come across some of the stories in this world. “Lamentations of Recreation” in Lolwe is my futuristic retelling of the Yoruba creation myth. “Fireflies, Captive within Her” (midnight & indigo) was written as the contemporary story while “Closer than a Shadow” (Ubwali Literary Magazine) draws from the early colonial period when Yoruba society experienced drastic changes, societally, psychologically and more, due to British interference.
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