Novels Of Nadine Gordimer Book

I would never have come across this, if it wasn't for my challenge to read Africa - this is for Mali. Askia Mohammed is the most famous leader of the Songhay empire (1493-1528), and this is the written down version of the song about his life and rule. As an oral history, and the history of a chief - it isn't strange that there are elements resembling other tales in the same or related genres. So it has the old testament-like recounting of lineage: X was the father of Y who married A (the women are rarely preserved) who gave birth to Z, and so on... I guess those lists are handy for current tribe to claim they are the descendents of X or Y.
The tale of plucking onion shoots off the tomb of the Lord's Messenger, while chained end held by two strong men (to make sure he can get back out of the tomb), well it resembles Odysseus being tied to the mast to be able to listen to the Sirens song without crashing his ship.
In that sense it is a recognisable genre, even if it is unusual. But interesting, and who knew there were so many horses in ancient Mali?
And while Askia Mohammed is praised as a great man, he is ruling by violence - here is the repeated description of how he propagates islam across the land:
"Every village that follows his orders, that accepts his wishes, he conquers them, he moves on. Every village that refuses his demand, he conquers it, he burns it, he moves on. Until the day-Mamar [Askia:] did that until, until, until, until the day he arrived at the Red Sea."