Amadu's Bundle

by Malum Amadu, Ronald Moody (Translator)

English (translation)

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1972

Reviews

[Bob Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book from AWS is always going to be interesting and well received by me. This book is from Nothern Cameroon/Nigera, originally written in the Fulani language. This is a collection of songs, fables, tales, and fairy tales about love, featuring Djinns, Laim'dos, Yerimas, infidelity, Korgels, sorcery, talking animals, etc. etc., that had titles like "The Jealous Brother" "The Son of the Lioness and the Son of the Woman." They were brief, basic (for instance "One day a tortoise set out in search of a child," or "A married woman, whose husband was impotent, fell in love with the Yerima, the son of the Laim'do." Stories didn't vary much in terms of quality, they were fair to good, their lessons were trivial or bizarre (like these lines from the end of a story about a boy and his mother: "This is the story of the youth and his mother and what they did. The mother of the boy was an evil woman. This is what happens if one always does just what comes to one's mind."

The story of the book's conception is an interesting one as well. The editor/collector of the stories, Gulla Kell, an ethnologist, wasstuck at Palkumre in the highlands of Central Cameroon with Amadu. She asked him about stories poetry fairy tales he could share. He showed her a bundle "about three feet high" of books and other ephemera. Inside the stack, about 50 - 60 pages of hand made paper he Amadu had written--fairy tales, riddles, songs that had existed only in verbal tradition. Malum Amadu came from a long line of scribes in Yola. The AWS are a joy, you discover so much.