Every great writer knows the importance of the opening text. Not only is it the author’s first shot at engaging the reader, it also sets the tone for the entire novel. A truly great incipit, as evidenced by the examples below, will also foreshadow theme, structure, plot and even conflict.
Let’s face it, a strong opening is perhaps the best indication of a strong text. So let’s take a look at a few of the most profound within the Afro-literary genre:
“On the morning of her ninth birthday, the day after Madame Francoise Derbane slapped her, Suzette peed on the rosebushes.” – Lalita Tademy, Cane River
“You better not never tell nobody but God.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple
“We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina and me.” – NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
“A dwelling.” – Nuruddin Farah, From a Crooked Rib
“I was not sorry when my brother died.” – Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions
“124 was spiteful.” – Toni Morrison, Beloved
“Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway.” – Zadie Smith, White Teeth
“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish aboard.” – Zora Neal Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
“In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.” – Ben Okri, The Famished Road
“They say it came from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.” – Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Afro-Librarians 
Makes me wanna crack open lots of books!
These are amazing openings.