The Epic of Askia Mohammed (African Epic)

The only work I could come up with by a Nigerien author (NOT Nigerian as the search engines were trying to "correct" it to) is this transcribed and translated oral epic about the Songhay Empire. It's pretty short for an epic--the tale itself takes up fewer than fifty pages--and the robust introduction, notes, and annotations make up about half the length of the slim volume.

The first half of the epic tells of the birth and rise to power of Mamar Kassaye, as Askia Mohammed is called in the text, the founder of the Askia dynasty of the Western African Songhay Empire.We start with Mamar's mother, Kassaye, conceiving via an encounter with a water spirit and hiding her son from the current ruler who was given a prophecy that one of Kassaye's show more children will grow up to kill him and become ruler; Mamar fulfills the prophecy, goes on pilgrimage to Mecca, has adventures, and founds a dynasty.

The second half deals with Mamar's descendants, and I have to admit I got kind of lost there. There's a long genealogy given before we get to any more action, and I had very little idea of who anyone was and why they were important. Having notes alongside the text rather than at the end of the book probably would have helped a great deal.

Despite my difficulty with the second half, I did enjoy the epic and hope it becomes more widely known. show less