The Nigerian Mafia Mumbai takes us on a rollercoaster journey through the dark underbelly of Mumbai, where violence, drugs, human trafficking, murder, and desire collide. It’s the first book in a 10-book Series, inspired by his travels around the world.
Onyeka’s The Nigerian Mafia: Mumbai has been included on the longlist for the ANA 2023 CHINUA ACHEBE PRIZE, alongside six other notable African writers.
This story has also been adapted into a film by Indian director Ramesh Raparthy, known for his work in the Telugu movie industry. His crime novel, The Strangers of Braamrontein, won the 2022 ANA Prize for Fiction and the Best Indie Novel at The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021.
Prologue
São Paulo, Brazil
12/12/12
Now that I am in Brazil, let me tell you a story. My story.
My story of India. Of all that happened in Mumbai.
But, before then, my name is Uche.
Uche Mbadiegwu.
This story will be short because very soon they will come and carry me to court.
You know as Mumbai dey. I lived in Bandra, in Mumbai.
I came to Mumbai on a one- year visa. Business Visa. I came to buy fabrics so that I could take them back to Lagos and sell them at Balogun Market. Not really so. I was in Nollywood, living in Surulere, where most Nollywood films are shot. That’s where you will see Ramsey Nouah on the street and Ini Edo and everyone. When things got really hard for me there, I say, Make I just leave Naija, go India.
But when I arrived, I could not find the guy who did my visa, Stephen, who took a lot of money from me. The truth is when I later came to know his whereabouts, I hear say him dey prison for Goa. Goa na anoda city for India. You suppose don hear of the name of that city if you dey watch Bollywood film. Bollywood na the name wey them dey call Indian film industry for Mumbai.
Bombay = Bollywood. Hindi films. Someone told me that.
You suppose know that one already. Goa na where many foreigners dey go enjoy themselves. For Goa, them dey speak Portuguese. Na Portuguese colony wey that place be. E get another place wey them dey call Pondicherry.
I am not sure you understand Pidgin English very well. But I will try and speak as someone who went to university in Nigeria. Yes, I studied at Lagos State University. I studied geography. I am also an actor. I have been in about twenty films. Even though I never did any lead role. Just a few stuff here and there, with lots of cameos. I know a little bit of the world.
I wasn’t doing well in Nollywood. To be honest.
So, as I tell you this story, navigating from one end to another, I need you to understand my situation, my life story, my past.
As soon as I arrived in Mumbai, my story took a different turn altogether. Life became different for me, a Naija guy who had to japa from Nigeria so that he can become something in life. In Mumbai, I needed money to pay rent. When my visa expired, renewing it at the
FRRO was a problem.
You know, Africans get thrown out of their apartments in Mumbai, once their visas expire. When you go to places like Hatkesh on Mira Road, Pragati Nagar in Nalasopara, Naigoan, Vakola, Goregoan, Malwani and Kharghar, you will meet a lot of Africans, especially, Nigerians, whose visas have expired.
I needed a new source of income, and this is why the story I am going to tell you happened. And I am going to tell you exactly how it happened.
But, before I start, I want to let you know, that this is just the beginning of many stories. Stories that will span countries. From one city, to another.
Make you just listen…
About The Author
Onyeka Nwelue is a Nigerian writer, jazz musician, and filmmaker, who won the Crime Fiction Lovers Award’s 2021 Best Indie Novel and the 2021 ANA Prose Prize with his novel, The Strangers of Braamfontein, a highly powerful novel, described by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, as ‘raunchy.’
He left for India when he was 18 years where he wrote his first novel, The Abyssinian Boy, which won the TM Aluko Prize for Fiction and the Ibrahim Tahir Prize for First Fiction.
He adapted his novella, Island of Happiness, into an Igbo language film, which won him Best Director of a Feature at the 2018 Newark International Film Festival.
He is the founder of the James Currey Society and was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford and Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He is currently the director of Africa Center Mexico.
( Extracted with due permission from author, publisher)
