Lost Ark Dreaming

Decades before the start of the story, a climate catastrophe caused sea levels to rise. Many people now live in the Pinnacle, a partially submerged high rise outside Lagos. Wealthy politicians and powerful citizens live on the upper levels, while impoverished Lowers live below sea level on the bottom floors.

Yekini and Ngozi, two government bureaucrats, are assigned to work together. An emergency alert summons them to the Lower floors, where they meet Level 9 forewoman Tuoyo. A hull breach occurred and was quickly sealed, but Yekini and the others discover that it was not an age-related structural failure. Rather, a sea creature has invaded the Pinnacle. These creatures are known as Yemoja's Children; they are poorly studied, but highly dangerous.

Pinnacle leadership refuses to evacuate the affected floor and begins to flood that level, hoping to flush out the Child at the cost of hundreds of citizens’ lives. Yekini is rescued by the Child, which calls itself Omíwálé. Omíwálé gives Yekini the Queen Conch, an artifact that relates the history of the Children. The first Children were created by the goddess Yemoja when enslaved Africans were thrown over the side of slave ships. Omíwálé asks Yekini and her companions to share this history with the Pinnacle. The group makes its way back to the Midder levels. Tuoyo and Omíwálé agree to serve as a distraction while Yekini and Ngozi broadcast the truth to the tower.

Tuoyo, Omíwálé, and Ngozi are captured as they buy time for Yekini. Just as the police reach her, Yekini uses the power of the Queen Conch to reveal to the tower citizens the history of the Children and the corruption of Pinnacle leadership.

In a review for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jenna N. Hanchey discussed the way in which water is used symbolically in the story. For example, Yekini "is sent to investigate a strange leak in the Lowers—water piercing through the structures meant to keep it at bay. Water teaches us: sometimes structures stand in the way of relations we need." The review also examines the concept of "liquid organizing" from the research of Joëlle M. Cruz and Chigozirim Utah Sodeke. Liquid organizing is defined as "a means of understanding how Africans operate on the margins, engaging in fluid relations that emerge from contextual factors and deep interconnections with one another, rather than being defined top-down by roles within a system and their attendant duties." Hanchey writes that the relationship between Yekini, Ngozi, and Tuoyo can be viewed through the lens of liquid organizing, as they come from three different levels of the tower and cross social barriers in order to challenge the top-down hierarchy of the Pinnacle.^[1]