Yorùbá boy running / Biyi Bandele.

London : Hamish Hamilton, 2023.

336 pages ; 24 cm

Based on real historical events, '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.

9780241562697 (hbk)

FICTION

English

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