Biyi Bandele Livres

A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip- wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade.

Set against the backdrop of winter 1944 during World War II, a fourteen-year-old boy named Ali Banana transitions from a blacksmith's apprentice in West Africa to a soldier navigating the treacherous Burmese jungle. Under the leadership of the charismatic Sergeant Damisa, Ali and his unit face the dangers of enemy snipers and the threat of disease while on a mission behind enemy lines. Despite their homesickness and exhaustion, the resilient men of D-Section Thunder Brigade are determined to persevere against the odds.

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