Samahani, the latest work by Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, winner of the 2020 Prix de la Literature Arabe, means `forgive me' in Swahili, two words that stand in stark contrast to everything that happens in this novel. Set in 19th century Zanzibar, this is a dark story of slavery, cruelty and vengeance, that depict the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, that turns their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. Through the relationship between a spoilt, scheming, powerful Omani princess and her eunuch African slave Sundus, captured and castrated by Arab slavers, Sakin builds a grand narrative that paints a picture of barbarism and man's inhumanity to man and becomes a furious cry against persecution in all its forms.