Yoruba Boy Running

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS

'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. Based on real historical events.

'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 (c) The artist.

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.