About
Author: Editor: Thomas Hale Recounter: Nouhou Malio (Niger)
Genre: History, Mythology
Setting
Place: Niger, Mali, Saudi Arabia
Time: 1500-1600s
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 2
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 2
Introduction and Review
The Epic of Askia Mohammed by Thomas Hale is a verbatim recounting of the stories passed down by generations about the Songhai Empire in the 15th-16th century West Africa. A Griot Nouhou Malio (pictured) is the primary recounter of the tale, but the editor also relies on other griots and sources to build very helpful annotations and summary section for the reader.
The epic itself is interesting and boring in parts. At times, it provides wonderful insight into the culture of the region and the currents changing it. The tale is as myths are – a healthy mixture of the real and the made-up* – and thus fairly engaging. At other times it turns into long, quite pointless unless you are a passionate historian, genealogies that goes on and on – necessary only for a completionist’s documentation. In these parts of the book become simply skim-worthy.
But as a non-fiction – the way I would classify the writing as – it is a neat effort to remember a part of history at risk of getting lost – and to save a tradition which faces a daunting challenge from the unsentimental advances of modernity. A laudable effort!
*For instance, the story of Askia’s birth curiously follows the the Hindu legend of the birth of Lord Krishna and his killing of his maternal uncle Kansa. I couldn’t find any acknowledgement of this coincidence across the web – so leaving it hear for another curious reader. I wonder how it happened!
