This week’s stop on Ted Gioia’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities List took me to Africa for two epics: Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali and The Mwindo Epic. One was a pleasant surprise, the other… well, I’d like my hours back.
Sundiata follows a young prince who can’t walk or talk, is exiled, then returns to save his homeland with his griot (advisor and best friend) at his side. I accidentally ordered the children’s edition, but the cut-paper illustrations were gorgeous, and the story had heart. It’s staying on my shelf.
Then came Mwindo. He’s born walking and talking, survives his father’s attempts to kill him, becomes king, and… that’s basically it. No character growth, no larger themes—just the same boast repeated endlessly. The translation is a nightmare: bizarre metaphors (“the anus of a snail”), anatomical oversharing, and footnotes that explain nothing about the culture but plenty about which Swahili word was swapped for “aardvark.” Add in no glossary, no chapters, and sentences that flat-out make no sense, and you’ve got my least favorite reading week so far.
If “epic” means hero’s journey, friendship, or fulfillment, Mwindo is none of the above. It’s childish, thin, and—between the scrotal elephantiasis curses and dietary warnings about bodily fluids—utterly unreadable. I’ve now read 21 weeks of world literature, and this one sits alone at the bottom.
So unless you’re collecting nightmare translations or snail-anus similes, skip Mwindo. I’ll be spending my reclaimed time with Euripides, Chaucer, or Virgil—where the metaphors may be strange, but at least they make sense.
This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week as we read look at the Letters of Abelard and Heloise and explore poetry in the Troubadour tradition.
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