Yorùbá Boy Running

Author Biyi Bándélé
Narrator Chiwetel Ejiofor
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 4 July 2024
Run Time 7 hours and 16 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Anglican and Episcopalian Churches, Biographical fiction, Civil wars, Historical fiction, History, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Social issues, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Traditional African religions and spiritual beliefs.

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What to expect

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.

Critics Review

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

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

Guardian

Biyi was a unique, all-responsive talent . . . The more he achieved, the further he aimed

Wole Soyinka

[A] literary maverick . . . His was a talent unrestrained by genre, medium, geography or period

Guardian

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

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

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

Courttia Newland

Bándélé provides a fitting capstone to his career with this astonishing novel based on the life of Samuel Àjàyí Crowther . . . an unforgettable chronicle of an extraordinary man

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Biyi Bándélé’s remains a master storyteller to the end. A magnificent novel; rich, humorous, lyrical, breathtaking. What a joy

Chikodili Emelumadu

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

Chika Unigwe

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