The Ilyassai

CHAPTER TWO
SHEMWINDO

Shemwindo of Tubondo was a well-satisfied man. He was the Mwami – Paramount Chieftain – of a land comprising seven major villages. The eldest daughters of the matambos, or headmen, of those villages were wives to Shemwindo and lived in his compound on the highest peak in the country. He had defeated Mpaca, the dreaded Bashumbu of the Forest, and freed Tubondo from the mad deity’s depredations.

And on this day, Iyangura, the sister of Shemwindo, would become the spirit-bri… Continue

The mythologies created by the peoples who have dwelt for countless millennia in Africa are as sweeping and compelling as those of any culture in the world, including the ancient Greeks, Romans and Norse. They are also astonishingly diverse, as to be expected from a continent in which more than 700 languages are spoken.

Among students of African folklore and mythology, the epic tale of Mwindo, told by the Nyanga (sometimes called Banyanga) people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Za… Continue

Yes, I know I’ve been “away” for a while. Now I return, with some good news. Imaro is back, bigger and better than ever. The third volume of his larger-than-life adventures – “Imaro: The Trail of Bohu” – is now available at www.lulu.com. I’m really happy to be able to say that. And I’m also happy to say there’s more to come.

I have two people to thank for helping me to keep Imaro in print after the setback the series suffered in 2007. The details of those problems are discussed in detail in a W… Continue

Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, by Simon Schama, Viking Canada, 2006.

By Charles Saunders
The Daily News

The basic story of the long, tortuous journey that took black freedom-seekers from slavery during the American Revolutionary War to refuge behind British battle-lines to settlements in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone is well known in this part of the world. But the circumstances and context of those events have been obscured by the passage of more than two cen… Continue