Former Lake Oswego High Black Student Union founding member writes debut novel

Lake Oswego High School graduate Daniel Nsengimana wants to show a narrativized representation of African history prior to modern colonization.

Nsengimana, one of the founding members of the Lake Oswego High School Black Student Union and a 2017 graduate, released “Children of the Sun” last year and is hoping to spread the word about the book.

“I think it’s entertaining. I think it’s a very compelling story. It’s the kind that keeps you guessing in terms of what is going to happen next,” Nsengimana said.

Nsengimana lived in South Africa for a while as a youth but said that even there, they didn’t learn much about the region prior to the occupation of Dutch and British armies and slavery. And so he read up on history from periods like the 1400s and 1500s and then chose to write a novel based in part on what he learned.

“I was glad to see that there was a time before pain, I guess. That was the purpose of it,” he said.

Nsengimana’s novel features family issues, animosity between brothers, combining empires, political fights, quests for power and war.

“There is a royal family you spend time following; they have wounds they haven’t addressed. There is painful sadness among this family. Another dimension is the characters having to bear the weight of pain they had no part in causing. That’s part of the journey too,” he said.

Nsengimana, who lives in Long Beach, California, has tried to break his way into acting and screenwriting over the years and said writing this novel was very hard but taught him discipline and determination. He described writing and editing for hours after working his regular job.

“You can’t only do it when you feel like it. I learned to see something through,” he said.

Nsengimana plans to write multiple sequels to the novel. Interested readers can find “Children of the Sun” at https://www.amazon.com/Children-Sun-Daniel-Nsengimana/dp/B0C9KB367S.