War Girls (2019)

War Girls is a 2019 science fiction novel by Nigerian-American author Tochi Onyebuchi. The novel depicts a post-apocalyptic future world that has been environmentally devastated by nuclear conflict and global warming. The North American and European powers responsible for the devastation have escaped to colonies in space and exploited the nations left on Earth for their scarce remaining resources. In the novel, characters Ify and Onyii navigate a Nigeria torn apart by a resurgent Nigerian Civil War. The novel explores themes of colonialism, climate change, war, and posthumanism. It is an Africanfuturist work of climate fiction.

Plot

In a post-apocalyptic 2172, Nigeria is in the midst of a decades-long civil war between the national government and Biafran separatists, sparked by ethnic tensions and conflict over the powerful mineral Chukwu. Many people have undergone cyberization after sustaining war injuries related to war or radiation, in a process known as "augmentation".The story alternates between the perspectives of Ify and Onyii, inhabitants of a camp for War Girls, a group of orphaned teenagers who were once child soldiers in the Biafran military.

Part I

Ify uses her Accent, a device she invented which enables her to hack into cyberized organisms, to access a Nigerian network, unintentionally revealing the War Girls' location to the Nigerian military. Nigerian mechs attack the camp, and the War Girls meet them in battle. A squad of soldiers led by the Nigerian commander Daren capture Ify. Many of the War Girls are killed in the fighting, but Onyii is spared by Daurama, Daren's sister, and manages to escape with comrades Chinelo, Kesandu, and Obioma. Daurama and Daren take Ify with them back to the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

During the flight to Abuja, Daren and Daurama reveal to Ify that she had been kidnapped by the Biafrans, and they try convince Ify to study in Nigeria by taking advantage of her "hunger" to learn. However, their conversation is interrupted when an explosion rocks the aircraft, sending it into a tailspin. Meanwhile, the War Girls are taken in by the Biafran military, and Onyii decides to fight for them in order to avenge Ify, whom she presumes dead.

Part II

Four years later, Ify is a student in Abuja, while Onyii fights for the Biafran military as a mech pilot alongside Chinelo, Kesandu, and Obioma. The War Girls are given abds, robotic children programmed to protect them.

The Biafran military, seeking to force a ceasefire with Nigeria, sets out to expose the illegal military partnership between Nigeria and the Commonwealth Space Colonies. They send the War Girls and their abds to infiltrate a Nigerian oil derrick where the shipments of mechs from the Colonies are being stored. Daurama is killed during fighting in the derrick, and the girls take workers from the Colonies hostage.

Daren and Ify learn of the attack on the oil derrick during a security conference, and Daren rushes out to fight the Biafran infiltrators. Ify chases after Daren, but falls unconscious after connecting to him through a surveillance helmet. The War Girls use this connection to broadcast images of the Colonies' mechs. Daren arrives to engage the Biafrans in battle, and several War Girls and abds die in the fighting. The remaining Biafrans escape after killing the hostages.

Ify is arrested for treason and subjected to interrogation and torture. Daren turns Ify against Onyii by using her accent to reveal that Onyii had killed her parents, and she sets out to the Biafran border to enact vengeance. The remaining War Girls are ordered to kill their abds, but Onyii allows her abd Agu to go free. A ceasefire is called.

Part III

Nine months later, Onyii and Chinelo are in the process of adjusting to peacetime life in the Biafran capital of Enugu, and begin to fall in love. Ify continues to hunt down Onyii, and meets up with Dr. Xifeng, who has come to Nigeria from China on a humanitarian mission to document the war. Ify also meets Agu on the road to Enugu.

Ify confronts Onyii in her apartment, intent on killing her, but Onyii is able to escape through a window after Agu sacrifices himself to break her fall. Meanwhile, the Nigerians launch an assault on Enugu, breaking the ceasefire, and Chinelo is gravely wounded in the attack. Onyii uses a mech to fly to the border, where she confronts the Nigerians. There, Onyii encounters Daren, who reveals that he had implanted Ify with a tracking device, and had been using her all along to locate Onyii. Onyii kills Daren, and uses his mech to find Ify, who had returned to the ruins of their old camp.

After a tense exchange between Ify and Onyii, Ify is arrested by the Biafran authorities, and sentenced to death. However, Onyii and her old mentor Adaeze rescue Ify from execution, and take her to Adaeze's cottage. Their hideout is discovered by Biafran soldiers, and Ify and Onyii are forced to flee through the Redlands, a nuclear wasteland. The girls take refuge with Xifeng, who helps Onyii smuggle Ify onto a Gabonese spaceship to the Colonies. Onyii stays behind on Earth, knowing that she will soon succumb to cancer from her exposure to radiation in the Redlands.

Characters

Onyii: The protagonist of the novel. A Biafran soldier who is especially skilled at piloting mechs. Referred to by her enemies as the "Demon of Biafra" due to her skills on the battlefield.

Ify: The second protagonist of the novel. An ethnically Nigerian scientific genius who is saved from being killed and raised by Onyii in the war girls' camp.

Daren: The main antagonist of the novel. A celebrated Nigerian general who captures Ify from the Biafrans and assimilates her into Nigerian life. Leads the Nigerian war effort against the Biafrans.

Daurama: Daren's sister. She shows strong resentment towards Ify throughout the novel, much to Ify's chagrin and confusion.

Adaeze: A former Biafran war girl who inspired Onyii to join the Biafran war effort.

Agu: Onyii's assigned synthetic human that is programmed to protect her.