In this fortnightly column the accent falls on Europhone African narrative writing, the most generally accessible, yet wide, range of texts from all over the continent. This body of work is still far too little read or understood, and labours under many readers’ misconceptions and preconceptions, or simply their ignorance and neglect.

To begin with I shall address the mistaken assumption that African writing is ‘simple’ in contrast with the ‘complex’ nature of novels produced in what is (from our South African perspective, absurdly and inaccurately) referred to as ‘the West’.

Burning Grass

I am opening the show with a ‘simple’ story of ‘simple’ people — the brief novel Burning Grass by the Nigerian Cyprian Ekwensi who is himself of Igbo origin, but widely acquainted with many of the Nigerian cultures. This fairly early, short novel (first published by Heinemann in 1962) concerns the intertwined lives of a nomadic, cattle-raising Fulani family and their enemies and allies. As a quest story, it is mainly the account of a last fling of freedom in the life of the venerable, devout and beloved paterfamilias Mai Sunsaye, who is enticed to go wandering in pursuit of an elusive white bird. Read symbolically, this bird remains an ambiguous representation of either the peace he eventually finds (he dies smilingly, in the midst of his family), or of the fulfillment and burgeoning of life which all his sons in their various ways seem at last to achieve.

It is on the one hand a tale of frontiersmen’s adventures and of the remarkable, powerful women they encounter and the terrifying enemies they have to face — and also a demonstration of the first, relatively benign incursions of modernity into this pristine society. Full of the magic of a time in which lions can befriend women, its narrative perspective is also commercially astute — we witness fortunes made in cattle and see cunning hide-and-seek games played with the tax-gatherer.

The entire story is coloured by the dignified social courtesies of the Fulani people — contrasted with the swashbuckling villains who encroach upon their life. Muslim piety is beautifully portrayed as the other chief source of social value in this attractive but difficult world. Here, courage is never mere parade or violence, and masculine tenderness has as distinct a role here as feminine enterprise.

Burning Grass is a fascinating and socially educative tale. It is written in a style that is lucid and vigorous, and its evocation of the people it portrays on occasion achieves a vivid sense of excitement, even a sort of glamour. This is a book that fills its short length to the brim.

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