African Book Week: Burning Grass

Burning Grass

Burning Grass is a novel by Nigerian author Cyprian Ekwensi, first published in 1962 as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series.

Plot

The story revolves around a series of adventures involving the Fulani Sunsaye family, particularly, Mai Sunsaye, head of the household and chief of Dokan Toro. Mai Sunsaye rescues a slave-girl, Fatimeh from the servant of a rough man known as Shehu. With the appearance of Fatimeh in the family, its existence turns topsy-turvy, leading Shaitu, Mai Sunsaye's wife to view her as bad luck. First, Rikku, Mai Sunsaye's youngest son seems to have fallen in love with Fatimeh who is much older than him. Hodio, Rikku's brother, and Mai Sunsaye's second son, however, runs away with Fatimeh, leaving Rikku love-sick. Mai Sunsaye vows to do anything possible to make Rikku feel better. During that same period, Mai Sunsaye's rival to the throne of Dokan Toro, Ardo, casts a spell on Mai Sunsaye by the aid of a talisman bound to the leg of a "grey-breasted" and "red-toed" "Senegal dove". The spell, known as the "sokugo" or the "wandering sickness" is a magic charm that "turned studious men into wanderers, that led husbands to desert their wives, Chiefs their people and sane men their reason". Under the sway of this wanderlust-inspiring spell, Mai Sunsaye is launched into several adventures, in the course of which he crosses path with Jalla, his oldest son, and other characters, including Baba, an old man he meets in the deserted village of Old Chanka (which was evacuated by the British authorities, and its inhabitants relocated to New Chanka, due to an outbreak of the tse-tse fly, the vector of the sleeping sickness), and a herds-woman known as Ligu, "the champion cattle-herder". At the close of the novel, most of the family is reunited once more in Dokan Toro, and Mai Sunsaye finally dies.

Setting

The story takes place in colonial North Nigeria, as evidenced by the Bodejo, a British tax-collector and veterinarian, and the burning grass of Northern Nigeria referred to at the opening of the novel.

Reception

David Williams said of the novel, in the journal West Africa, that it made "[b]oth people and country come alive, and we are interested in them to the end". It has been published several times, most popularly by Heinemann as part of the famous African Writers Series, edited by Chinua Achebe

Characters

• Mai Sunsaye: The central protagonist; avid adventurer, and father of three sons.
• Rikku: Mai Sunsaye's youngest son, his third child.
• Hodio : Mai Sunsaye's second son.
• Shaitu : Mai Sunsaye's wife
• Leibe : Mai Sunsaye's daughter and fourth child.
• Jalla : Mai Sunsaye's oldest son, his first child.
• Ligu : A famous female herds-woman known as the champion cattle-herder.
• Baba : An eccentric old-man who refuses to leave the deserted town of Old Chanka.
• Fatimeh : the Kanuri slave-girl rescued by the Sunsaye family.
• Kantuma : A beautiful Kanuri woman who takes a strange interest in, and helps Rikku; she dies towards the end of the novel.
• Shehu : One of the principal antagonists of the novel and former owner of Fatimeh.
• Ardo : One of the principal protagonists, and rival to Mai Sunsaye for the chieftaincy of the Fulani settlement of Dokan Toro.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Grass