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Àlejò: Crossing Times is an engaging fantasy novella that tells the story of a teenage girl, Ìlérí, who suddenly finds herself in a distant past. She has no idea how she got there, or what she is there to do.
In the present, from where Ileri has disappeared, appears Bántálé, an eight-year-old boy who can only speak Yoruba and likes to eat iyan.
It’s the author’s first book, published this year. Being about 150 pages long, it makes for an easy read. My favorite part is that the author taps into his Yoruba heritage to create the riveting setting for the story.
“Sometimes, the gods played with people and time in ways the human mind could not fathom. The result was people finding themselves in times that weren't theirs.” - Láàroyè
The year is 2078. Láàroyè has just completed an errand and decides to visit his only devoted worshipper in that era, Èṣùbíyí, but he meets his grand-daughter instead. He introduces himself as the mischief maker then offers to tell her a story.
One fateful day, Ìlérí is on her way to her aunt’s stall in the market when she sees a burning bush along the lonely path she has taken as a shortcut. She curiously moves closer to it and soon realizes that she can’t feel its heat. Ìlérí is captivated by the flames and is still staring at it when she starts feeling like she is floating.
When Ìlérí recovers from the hypnosis, she finds herself in the middle of a crowd in what seemed to be a market. Some people take to their heels while others stare and discuss in a Yoruba dialect spoken by people from “up country”—Ìlú-Òkè. She’s soon attacked by the village madman but promptly rescued by Sàlàkọ, a man who looks strikingly like her mother.
Remembering that her mother once told her that in the olden days, children who could not be identified were taken to the king’s palace, Ìlérí asks Sàlàkọ to take her to their king’s palace, assuming they had one. He agrees and shows her the way, referring to her as “mysterious àlejò.” Little does he know that she’s on a mission to take something back to the future and he was the one to help her.
Meanwhile, that afternoon in Ketu, Lagos, a hawker is going about her business when a boy wearing only shorts mysteriously appears on the road. She considered facing her front but curiosity got the better of her and she kept watching the bewildered boy until a policeman on a motorcycle knocks him down.
“…to serve as a balance, to keep the scale of time from tipping. Time is like a delicate web that needs careful weaving.” - Láàroyè
Ìyádé, the hawker claims to be the boy’s mother and takes him home after he was discharged from the hospital. He keeps asking for his grandmother, Màámi, and she assures him that she would take him back home as soon as she can find a way to Òlótọṣọ, his village. She begins to take care of him and take him with her everywhere, and soon, the boy asks about going back home less frequently.
Like Ìlérí, Bántálé had no idea that he was on a mission orchestrated by the gods, however different. It was beyond them as they were mere pawns in Láàroyè’s game.
While Bántálé was sent specifically to the poor hawker who had forgotten what it was like to care for someone and want something out of life, Ìlérí was charged with the responsibility of going to the past to bring ansia seeds that would be planted to help humans cleanse the air of excess carbon and preserving the planet.
One character that stood out to me was Ẹlẹmìí, who seem burdened with the charge of righting wrongs. Did they succeed? There’s only one way to find out.
Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Leave a comment, maybe? 😉
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