Taban lo Liyong is one of the liveliest figures on the African literary scene. His works are so unconventional in form and style that few critics know what to make of him or how to respond appropriately to the stimulation his writings provide. Some applaud, others condemn, but all admit that he is a highly original writer, with an extravagant style matching his extravagant personality.

Even the facts of Taban's life are controversial. He wrote to his friend Lennard Okola from the University of Iowa in 1967, "I feel satisfied when I say I am from Uganda, and decided that I was born in 1939--there being no record of when I was born." In 1984 Lee Nichols of the Voice of America said that Taban was born circa 1938 and "told this writer his birthplace was the village of Kajo Kaji, southern Sudan; other East African literary scholars believe he may...