Novel
Burning Grass
Cyprian Ekwensi · 1962
Synopsis
Mai Sunsaye, chief of Dokan Toro, a healer and devout Muslim, pays with his cattle for the freedom of a slave, Fatimeh, whom a brutal man was pursuing with lashes of the whip. Rikku, his youngest son, falls in love with her; it is Hodio, his eldest, who takes her away one night. The father swears to find the fugitives in order to console his favourite. At the same moment, his rival in the village releases a dove carrying a talisman, and the sokugo, the sickness of wandering, takes hold of him.
Context
The book opened Heinemann's African series as number two, and was the first title written for it: until then the series had merely reprinted works published elsewhere. The publisher cut the manuscript from eighty thousand words to forty thousand. He thought he was aiming at secondary-school pupils, and orders far exceeded his expectations. A Canadian novelist recognised in it the qualities of traditional African storytelling: the marvellous, mysterious women, swift adventure.
Who it is for
One hundred and fifty pages of simple English, accessible in French. It is better to know that the sokugo is a curse that condemns one to walk, and that the Fulani of the north live from cattle.
Prizes and reception
A first print run of two thousand five hundred copies sold out at once, repeated reprints, and a place as a school book across English-speaking Africa.