African jujuism and Shadows of Ecstasy

[Steve Hayes]

I've just read an interesting article about a new literary sub-genre:
African Jujuism:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/498509

'African jujuism is a term coined by the Nigerian-American novelist
Nnedi Okorafor to describe a sub-category of fantasy centered on
African life as lived on the continent. Okorafor said, in an article
published on her website, that the term "respectfully acknowledges the
seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies
with the imaginative."'

It immediately called to mind Charles Williams's "Shadows of Ecstasy",
but I seem to have mislaid my copy, so I haven't been able to check.

And perhaps there are elements of it in my children's story, "Of
Wheels and Witches"

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/498509

I'm not entirely happy with the term. "Juju" is a West African term,
and perhaps makes sense there, but in southern Africa it is not known,
other than as the nickname of a politician Julius Malema. But it does
seem to apply to books that incorporate various African mythologies in
a similar way to that in which Alan Garner incorporated British and
Irish mythology,


Charles Williams incorporated Islamic mythology in "Many Dimensions",
Medieval Anglo-Norman mythology in "War in Heaven", and so I wondered
if something similar could be said of "Shadows of Ecstasy" and African
mythology. I'll have to hunt for my copy.



--
Stephen Hayes, Author of The Year of the Dragon
Sample or purchase The Year of the Dragon:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/907935
Web site: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail: sha...@dunelm.org.uk