Yoruba Boy Running: A Novel - Hardcover

Bandele, Biyi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0063417081 ISBN 13: 9780063417083

Publisher: Harper, 2024

Synopsis

“A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker.”—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A captivating, fictionalized retelling of African linguist and clergyman Samuel Ajayi Crowther's miraculous journey from slave to liberator.

“Run, Àjàyí, run!”

When Malian slave traders invaded the Nigerian town of Òsogùn, thirteen-year-old Àjàyí's life is 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, there was capture, slavery—and eventually release—with Àjàyí, left transfigured, unrecognizable, and now, inthe service of a new god, with a new name and a culture different from the one left far behind. Àjàyí becomes Samuel Crowther—missionary, linguist, minister, and eventually abolitionist, driven to negotiate against his own people to end the evil trade in human beings which destroyed his family and transformed his own life.

Drawing on the prolific writings of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, novelist and filmmaker Biyi Bándélé creates 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 consecration as the first African Bishop of the Anglican Church, Samuel Ajayi Crowther’s journey, like all great odysseys, circles back to where he began. By turns witty, moving and revolutionary, Biyi Bándélé's reimagining of Crowther's life is a brilliant tour de force.

_{Cover artwork Chris Ofili, Blind Leading Blind, 2005 © The artist.}

About this title

About the Author

Biyi Bandele (1967–2022) was a pioneering novelist, playwright and film-maker. Born in Northern Nigeria to a veteran of the Burma campaign, winning a British theatre award brought him to London at age 22, where he published his first two novels and went onto write and direct many acclaimed plays, novels and feature films in the UK and Nigeria. The Independent named him one of Africa’s Fifty Greatest Artists.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0063417081
• ISBN 13: 9780063417083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288