Yorùbá Boy Running by Biyi Bandele
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Yorùbá Boy Running

by Biyi Bandele
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Narrator Chiwetel Ejiofor

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Length 7 hours 14 minutes
Language English
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Brought to you by Penguin.

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

'A true artist. A brilliant writer. An original thinker' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

‘Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception’ Chiwitel Ejiofor

©2024 Biyi Bandele (P)2024 Penguin Audio

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

FictionReligionHistorical Fiction

Biyi Bandele was a novelist, playwright and filmmaker. He was the author of the novels, The Man Who Came in From the Back of Beyond, The Street, The Sympathetic Undertaker, Burma Boy and Yoruba Boy Running. His directorial debut was with Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Biyi Bandele passed away in 2022.

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Audiobook details

Author:

Narrator:
Chiwetel Ejiofor

ISBN:
9781405959179

Length:
7 hours 14 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Penguin Books Ltd

Publication date:

Edition:
Unabridged

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Reviews

Biyi Bándélé had a prolifically talented and creative mind, shown in everything he touched. Yorùbá Boy Running is no exception Biyi was a unique, all-responsive talent . . . The more he achieved, the further he aimed Bándélé excels both himself in this richly crafted novel, brimming with mirth, fervour and his sheer joy of language . . . This is the novel as homage, truth-telling, illumination. I’m in awe, inspired. We have been gifted an almighty legacy In Yorùbá Boy Running, Bándélé writes with a nimble, rigorous prose. He has left us a matchless parting gift in this magnificent, unforgettable novel. And we, his readers, are grateful A remarkable saga of perseverance, dedication and triumph over adversity . . . The wit and dramatic timing read like something by Wole Soyinka . . . We are lucky and grateful that the author was able to leave us with this bookend to his glorious if truncated career Biyi Bándélé's remains a master storyteller to the end. A magnificent novel; rich, humorous, lyrical, breathtaking. What a joy 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 [A] literary maverick . . . His was a talent unrestrained by genre, medium, geography or period A magical, immersive journey . . . Bándélé effortlessly draws the picture of the birth of colonial Nigeria with such panache and vibrancy that you are entertained while being deeply enlightened . . . Bándélé allow us to both observe and care for the characters he brings us, from village elders and Muslim slave traders to English colonisers. Biyi Bándélé’s wise and lyrical voice will be sorely missed One of Africa's important stories vividly brought to life in the hands of a master weaver of tales and true creative genius Expand reviews