‘You don’t really see it in fiction’: how one novelist brought ‘Detty December’ party season back from Ghana

Jessica Carmichael’s coming-of-age YA novel is set during the huge annual diasporic return to west Africa, which ‘changed the trajectory’ of her life

Each December, hundreds of thousands of diaspora Nigerians and Ghanaians travel to their ancestral home countries. For many, the draw is the end-of-year party season – better known as “Detty December”, a phrase popularised by Nigerian singer Mr Eazi in the late 2010s. This wave of travel used to simply be a time for diasporans to reunite with their families for Christmas, but in recent years it has evolved, with young people – who call themselves IJGBs (I Just Got Back) – making the most of the buzzing nightlife in cultural capitals Lagos and Accra.

This annual diaspora homecoming is now being fictionalised in The Full Picture by Canadian author Jessica Carmichael, a YA coming-of-age romance bringing the family reunions, festivities, and endless traffic of December to life on the page. The novel follows Robyn, a Canadian university student, who travels to Ghana during winter break for the first time since her Ghanaian mum died. On her trip, she uncovers family secrets and finds herself in a love triangle with Osei, her grandmother’s neighbour, and Kelvin, Osei’s childhood friend. The book was published by Hibiscus Press, which Carmichael founded herself with funding support from Edmonton Arts Council.