Yorùbá Boy Running
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Summary
'A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Yorùbá Boy Running charts Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator, boy to man, running to resisting
'Run, Àjàyí, run!'
The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two.
Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family.
Drawing on the prolific writings of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Biyi Bándélé has created a many-voiced, kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary man. From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to the farcical intrigue of the Òsogùn court; from a meeting with Queen Victoria; to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, his journey, like all great odysseys, circles back to where he began. By turns witty, moving and quietly political, Biyi Bándélé's reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM WOLE SOYINKA
‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel Ejiofor
Cover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.
Yorùbá Boy Running charts Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator, boy to man, running to resisting
'Run, Àjàyí, run!'
The day the Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life was split in two.
Before, there was his childhood, surrounded by friends and family, watched over by the ancient Yorùbá gods of forest and water, earth and sky. After: capture, slavery - and release, into the service of a new god, his own culture left far behind. So Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther - missionary, linguist, minister - and abolitionist: driven to negotiate against his own people to end the miserable trade in human beings which destroyed his family.
Drawing on the prolific writings of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Biyi Bándélé has created a many-voiced, kaleidoscopic portrait of an extraordinary man. From the heart-stopping drama of Àjàyí's last day of freedom to the farcical intrigue of the Òsogùn court; from a meeting with Queen Victoria; to his consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, his journey, like all great odysseys, circles back to where he began. By turns witty, moving and quietly political, Biyi Bándélé's reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM WOLE SOYINKA
‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel Ejiofor
Cover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.
Reviews
Riotous, exquisite, mesmerizing . . . Bándélé’s prose mutates in tone from exuberance to sobriety, from the epic to the intimate, from bawdy humour to glacial understatement . . . [he] shifts from farce to tragedy and back, with lewd jokes suddenly giving way to scenes of sheer terror or gruesome violence . . . Yorùbá Boy Running doesn’t pander to any fixed position: it is a testament to Biyi Bándélé’s courage and integrity that, in this age of strident polarization, he chose not to shy away from moral complexity
Times Literary Supplement