In My Father's Kingdom

Remy Mbappe has spent his life suspended between worlds. Born in the Americas to a Caribbean mother and a Cameroonian father he never met, he carries a silence at the center of his identity—a wound shaped by absence, exile, and unanswered questions.

When he finally connects with his extended family in Douala, Remy is drawn into a world he has only imagined: a sprawling, boisterous clan; rituals steeped in ancestral memory; and a culture both dazzling and disorienting. As he navigates fragile alliances, inheritance tensions, and the weight of expectations he barely understands, Remy must confront the legacies of colonialism, the ache of displacement, and his longing to belong.

Through encounters with siblings who welcome him as the lost eldest son, a mother who has survived by refusing the past, and the shadow of a father both revered and resented, Remy is forced to redefine what it means to be African, to be family, and to be whole. Immersed in the beauty and contradictions of modern Cameroon, he begins a journey that will challenge him, transform him, and ultimately reveal the truth he has been seeking all his life.

In My Father’s Kingdom is a powerful story of return and reconciliation—a lyrical, unflinching exploration of identity, diaspora, and the enduring pull of home.

With emotional depth and striking clarity, Michel N. Christophe offers a portrait of a man who believes he is searching for his father, only to discover he is searching for himself.