Ulli Beier Book order

Collected by Yoruba poet Bakare Gbadamosi and scholar Ulli Beier, Not Even God Is Ripe Enough is a mesmerising collection of traditional oral stories and lighthearted Yoruba fables.Including stories such as 'Kindness won't kill you but it can give you a lot of worries', 'He who shits on the road will meet flies on his return' and 'You can fool others but can you fool yourself?' Not Even God is Ripe Enough is a wide-ranging selection of amusing Yoruba proverbs and tales of magical realism. From bizarre stories of talking animals to wise parables passed down from generation to generation, these stories are full of surprising twists, humour, and the surreal.

Collected from many parts of Africa and from many different languages, the poems have been sympathetically translated into English. The music of an African tonal language can never be fully expressed in English. The poems in this collection come from widely different cultures, including the Yoruba and Ewe of West Africa, the Zulu and Bushmen of South Africa, the Galla and Swahili of East Africa and even the ancient Egyptians

A comprehensive anthology of African poetry with wide-ranging contents: war songs and political protests jostle with poems about human love, African nature and the surprises that life offers.