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Kingdom Tales by Charles Umeire was first published in 2016. A lot of international audience has asked if it can be compared to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and I strongly think so. I just re-read Animal Farm and Kingdom Tales, and the connection there is that they were both socio-political. Animal Farm was about Russian revolution, and Kingdom Tales was about Africa after the colonial rule. It’s theme and messages were very powerful and moving, and it’s going to be relevant to readers for a very long time.

Charles Umerie is still one of the most promising authors coming out from Nigeria, and his book, Kingdom Tales, is a dystopian nightmare of our time.

Kingdom Tales was set in ‘animal kingdom’, where the eagles lived in the mountain (Mountain Kingdom), the bats lived in the caves (Cave Kingdom), and the other animals like lions and dogs lived in the forest (Forest Kingdom). Each of the kingdoms represented a particular country in Africa.

It started when the eagles defeated the bats in some area of their kingdom, and secured the shrine that has the ‘dark staff’. This ‘dark staff’ means ‘independence’ or ‘freedom’ from colonial rule. In African folklore, a staff always signified authority or freedom.

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After the eagle king, Hasha, defeated the bats, he got home and promoted his soldiers. This was when some African countries got their independence, and entrusted their own kinds to lead them. But that was short lived.

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One of the soldiers King Hasha promoted worked against him and exiled him to another kingdom. That was a time of coups in the countries that just got their impendence.

But Uzza, the soldier that exiled King Hasha, made some deals, and the deals backfired. That made his rule far worse than thetime Hasha ruled them. Later Hasha made some deals with the bats, his former enemies, and the forest animals to overtake Uzza and regain his place as the rightful owner.

It worked, but the bats and forest animals weren’t satisfied with the deal. They too had some internal struggles they hoped King Hasha’s deal could help them solve, but it didn’t. When they figured the deal only benefitted King Hasha, they weren’t happy. They schemed up ways to get back at Hasha, and at the same time dealing with the issues that plagued them internally.

Kingdom Tales is a great book, and there is no need for the reader to understand any of the allusions to the African countries, leaders or the colonial masters as the story can be enjoyed as the simple, moving and enlightening parable it essentially is. A story that clearly shows humankind at its best and very worst. It highlighted the bad in every person – jealousy, greed, laziness and cruelty born of fear. It also has traces of medieval and African folklore in it which made it very interesting and new to read. It’s not like most books you find today. It’s totally something new with ancient wisdom in it.

The parable succeeded to show how independence dream can turn into a nightmare. Kingdom Tales is moving, sweet, bitter and a warning from history. And it’s a quick read too. It can only take about a few hours to finish. The continuation will be coming out soon like Charles promised, and he said the continuation will talk more about the internal struggles and genocides these countries faced. Well, anybody that has read Kingdom Tales would be very eager to see the continuation.
Get Kingdom Tales FREE on Okadabooks http://okadabooks.com/book/about/kingdom_tales/14704
Get Kingdom Tales FREE on Amazon Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9XBF28
Get Kingdom Tales FREE on Lulu and iBookstore http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/charlesumerie