Breaking the Maafa Chain

Breaking the Maafa Chain chronicles two sisters' struggle for true freedom in the mid-nineteenth century, when transporting slaves from Africa to America was an illegal but lucrative business. Nineteenth century-Two sisters, Fatmata and Salimatu, are captured and sold separately into slavery. Forced to change their names to Faith and Sarah, they end up in two different countries with opposite slavery laws. Faith ends up in America, where slavery is still legal and slaves don't have any rights. Sarah ends up in a Victorian England and as the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. Can the two sisters reclaim their freedom and identity in a world that is trying to break them down and mold them to its coloniser's will? Based on the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Breaking the Maafa Chain will takes the readers on a journey of loss, survival, hope, identity and tradition.

Anni Domingo is an actress, director and writer, currently lecturing in Drama and Directing at St. Mary's University, Rose Bruford, and RADA. Anni's poems and short stories have been published in various anthologies and her plays produced in the UK. Anni works regularly as a director in Cambridge and in theatres around the UK. She recently directed ILE LA WA by Tolu Agbelusi at Stratford Circus, London and The Story of John Archer at Battersea Arts Centre in 2021. Anni has also worked extensively as an actress in the theatre as well as on TV, radio and film - touring Europe, USA and Australia as a Shakespearean actress. She has worked for the BBC and other television stations as an actress, broadcaster, and interviewer. An extract from her debut novel, Breaking the Maafa Chain, won the Myriad Editions First Novel competition in 2018 and was featured in the New Daughters of Africa anthology, edited by Margaret Busby. In 2019, Anni won a place at Hedgebrook Writers Retreat and Norwich National Writing Centre's 'Escalator' programme, enabling her to start working on Ominira, her second novel. Her debut novel, Breaking the Maafa Chain, was published by Jacaranda Books in 2021.