Who is Onyeka
Waiting to Explode
Waiting to Explode emerged like a leviathan from the members of my mind. A modern day rights of passage and socio-political commentary in fiction, on contemporary British life. Life seen through the eyes of seven young men trying to survive England. Tayo the lead, tripping, stumbling through life as a foreigner in his own skin, growing accustomed to the way it looks and the way it feels and Clinton like a Gremlin trying to lead him astray. Carl and Fred trying to turn back the hands of time and Del looking for a ghetto to hide in.
Waiting to Explode is a microcosm of Britain - not the cool one, perhaps the cruel one. Some may say my language is vivid, stark, extreme but when portraying inner city life interwoven with resistance against the odds, what would you expect? Peter Pan. They struggle, they fail, and they succeed against obstacles perceived and real, conflict, love and growing pains, hormones, heroes and heroines with the undeniable optimism of victory in 1980’s Britain as it turned into the 1990’s. Waiting to Explode is a pocket-book, boys own Lord of the Flies, complete with concrete jungles, ghetto fabulous and the incessant pound of those loud speakers from invisible supper- dooper cars.
Funny, sharp, sexy, in your face, black resistance to exploitation. A statement of survival and life. It will stand as testament of the vividness and colour of Black Britain.