𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒘! 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑱𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 $𝟓𝟎 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝑭𝑵𝑺’𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑹. 𝑺𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, 𝒘𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝟏𝟐 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.
The Trail of Bohu
In what would prove to be his last days in Ontario, Charles got to work on Imaro’s third book, Imaro: The Trail of Bohu, his first novel written from scratch. The first two Imaro novels were originally written as short stories to be published in fan zines. Skillfully stitching them together, Charles told a powerful story of Imaro’s early years, but they bear the marks of the sword-and-sorcery genre with a rising-and-falling structure and a focus on exterior adventure.
In his first true novel, Charles could plan out the entire structure and weave the story together with greater finesse. For the contents of The Trail of Bohu, Charles must have turned to The African Origin of Civilization by Cheikh Anta Diop. Diop’s book details the ancient world of Kush, including the idea that the Judeo-Christian cosmology comes from Africa, as the wandering tribe later called the Jews encountered Egyptian religion, including a branch that worshiped only Aten, the sun god.
The theory holds that the Jews embraced the One God as their own. Diop cites fragments of ancient Egyptian texts that tell us: “In the beginning there was uncreated, chaotic matter, in perpetual disorder (Bohu); Breath (Rouah) hung over Chaos. The union of those two principles was called Chephets, Desire, which is at the origin of all creation. ” Imaro’s greatest enemy, whom we meet in this novel, is named for the African concept of the chaotic disorder that came before creation. And the critical balance of power between Nyumbani and the spirit world is called chephet.
The Trail of Bohu was first published in 1985. A couple of years later, this French edition was published by Garanciere. Charles sent copies to close friends, “autographed in French.”
Source: 𝐻𝑒 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑊𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝐵𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑅. 𝑆𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑏𝑦 𝐽𝑜𝑛 𝑇𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒