Nnedi Okorafor started writing the novel after her father's death, the first scene of the novel was inspired by Okorafor's moments at her father's wake.[2] The novel was also inspired in part by Emily Wax's 2004 Washington Post article "We Want to Make a Light Baby," which discussed the use of weaponized rape by Arab militiamen against Black African women in the Darfur conflict. According to Wax: "The victims and others said the rapes seemed to be a systematic campaign to humiliate the women, their husbands and fathers, and to weaken tribal ethnic lines."[8] Okorafor wrote that this article "created the passageway through which Onyesonwu slipped through my world."[9]
Okorafor based most of the traditional mysticism and beliefs on the traditional belief of the Igbo people, which she is a member of.[10] The mythological Vah or "The Red People" was inspired by two red skinned Nigerian women Okorafor saw on two occasions during her visit to her home in Nigeria.[10]
The novel contains several references to Amos Tutuola's novel The Palm-Wine Drinkard.[11]
