1. THESIXTHFINGERONYENYEONWU
It is the saga of a typical family in a tropical African war-faring community that had its members dispersed to strange lands
through the inglorious trans-Atlantic slave trade via the deep throat of an oracle that devoured the guilty. They began a
painful journey of no return to exotic lands only known to the migratory birds that pass overhead, with a resolve to return
to expose the well-kept secrets of the sham of an oracle that was long.
The actual remnants of the family back in Africa, over time, were also dispersed through their adventurous nature and
other vices to stranger lands to prove themselves through survival of the fittest, as they appeared in various theaters of wars.
Like their presumed dead kit and kin in diaspora, they surmounted every mountain in their path to reign triumphant, to
become actual oracles in their own rights; though some died trying, but never without a fight. Their homestead remained
fallow and decayed as there was no one around to patch it.
Over two hundred years later, when the slave routes were overgrown and erased by the grasses and cobwebs of modernity,
the survivors converge in the City of London under the most bizarre events that began to unfold. Longtime friends and
foes alike come with daggers drawn to kill or be killed, to destroy or be destroyed in a battle of wits, as the world watched
and waited with bated breath.
Over the two hundred years, a physical feature remained invincible and indelible in them. It remained a recurrent decimal
from Africa to Cuba, from Cuba to America, and to the end of the cosmos. It became proof of their identity: The Sixth
Finger. Even as they rub shoulders with the high and mighty, or serve in various down-trodden capacities, The Sixth Finger
stood out and remained as constant as the rock of ages.
With the good, the bad, and ugly all masked and dining together, would the clinical precision of training received back in
the homeland that had been passed down from hand to hand to enhance their survival be resorted to? Would they once
again surmount the siege of modern-day trials and challenges that threaten them to the core to tell their own stories?
As the world and indeed the cosmos rise together to applaud one of their greatest achievements, would they, like chickens,
come home to roost? Would the very reliable Sixth Finger point the way home, back to their roots? Would The Sixth Finger
prove that it is indeed God in the affairs of men?
Deacon Chux Onyenyeonwu was born in Nigeria in 1961. As a
teenager, he attended the prestigious Christ the King College in his
native Onitsha, where he first saw an episode of the TV miniseries
Roots, and got hooked on Alex Haley Jr.’s works. His vision was to tell
his own story. He started writing at the Oko Federal Polytechnic, where
he was a pioneer student in banking.
After the mandatory national service, he drove a kabu-kabu in Lagos
to survive. He finally got his first job as an ambidextrous aide to one of
Africa’s richest men, which availed him the rare opportunity to travel
and work in England and the USA. That was when he met and married
Martina, who gave birth to his son Cee-Jay.
On his own now, Deacon Chux is a kind of jack of all trades. He enjoys
gardening, photography, grey and water landscaping, ornamental and
precision foundry, teaching, preaching, catering, and is a grassroots
community catalyst.
Deacon Chux resides in his Paradise Gardens country home in the outskirts of Lagos with his wife and three
children. His favorite hobby is travelling to see the world with his family.
The Sixth Finger is his first novel.