1. Adventures of Dan Aiki (ADA) Book I: Dan Aiki’s Daydreams – The Adventures of Dan Aiki is a series of ten didactic adventure poems about Dan Aiki, a courageous African youth who overcomes many obstacles (both natural and supernatural) on his way to becoming a legend. The stories are especially written for children, but people of all ages will find them both enjoyable and instructive. The books are amply illustrated. Book I includes the prophecy as well as an introduction to the series. Here, Dan Aiki (age 8) is chased away by a piece of cloth, a baby, and a dog in his daydreams and his father scolds him for being cowardly. A real lion comes and Dan Aiki chases it away using the same technique that his daydream adversaries used to frighten him. The moral here is: “It’s not the size of the guy in the fight, but the size of the fight in the guy.”

2 . ADA Book II: Dan Aiki Goes Hunting – Dan Aiki (age 9) is sent to kill a deer and meets three strangers on the road: a warrior, a poor man, and a beautiful maiden. The moral is: “When you have a goal don’t deviate from it until it is accomplished.” It also teaches to be beware of strangers.

3. ADA Book III: Dan Aiki’s Magic Charm – Dan Aiki (now 10) is taught the arts of man and beast for one year in the forest, at the end of which he is given a magic charm. Here the lesson learned is “You will reap what you sow.”

4. ADA Book IV: Dan Aiki Meets Duna the Sorcerer – Dan Aiki (age 12) engages in a battle with a sorcerer. The moral is: “The race is to the swiftest.”

5. ADA Book IV (Comic Book Version) – Dan Aiki (age 12) engages in a battle with a sorcerer. The moral is: “The race is to the swiftest.” Illustrated by SOIMANGA;

6. ADA Book V: Dan Aiki Kills a Tunku – Dan Aiki (age 13) kills a tunku (a mongoose-like shape-changing creature) without observing traditional rites. The lesson here is:”If you break the law you must pay the price.”

7. The Adventures of Dan Aiki Books 1 - 5 – A publication which presents the first five books of the Adventures of Dan Aiki (as described above) in a single volume. See also #42 which is an updated version.

8. Animal Tails, Book I – presents a series of animal tails with rhymed verses giving clues to the identity of each animal. Questions and activities dealing with each of the eight animals presented are an integral part of this fold out book designed for children aged 4 to 6;

9. Hausa Combat Literature: An Exposition, Analysis, and Interpretation of its Form, Content, and Effect – A Ph.D. dissertation which presents a discussion and analysis of Hausa Combat Literature (HCL) which the author defines as “the aggregate of highly stylized linguistic behavior associated with the performance of such Hausa competitions as dambe (local boxing), shanci (wristlet fighting), and farauta (hunting).” For purposes of presentation, the literature is divided into three categories [take-takye (drummed literature), kirari (stylized boasting), and waka (song / chant)] each of which is discussed in detail in separate chapters. A fourth chapter develops a theory of HCL which attempts to account for the form, content, and effect of the literature as a whole. The discussion and analysis is supplemented by a series of appendices containing hitherto unpublished materials from each of the three HCL categories. The study hypothesizes that Hausa Combat Literature can be viewed as a product of verbal sympathetic magic (VSM), and that its form, content, and effect derives from a VSM stratagem, here called” iconic linkage”, which establishes linguistic (phonetic, syntactic, and semantic) parallelisms between two or more propositions in order to foster credible illusions. The argument - based on a systematic discussion and analysis of nearly 60 hours of combat literature collected by the author in northern Nigeria and on existing literature – maintains that: take-takye are largely metonymic and that they correspond to the invocation of an individual chosen to undergo a transformation; kirari is characterized by metaphor and corresponds to the actual transformation process; and waka consists largely of a juxtaposition of metonymy and metaphor resulting in “myth”, the celebration of the transformation of an individual (or entity) into a cultural abstraction. The study concludes with the suggestion that perhaps the hitherto mysterious and unexplained effects of poetry and song upon modern man may be possibly viewed as the subliminal survival of a former belief that reality could be shaped and influenced through the practice of sympathetic magic.

10. The Lore of Madagascar – available in color or black and white – takes the reader on a tour of the island and introduces him/her to its 39 ethnic groups. Through words (585 pages) and pictures (over 260 photos), the reader is taken on a breath-taking journey and is left with a vivid impression of the Malagasy people and their culture. The book contains four appendices dealing with the ethnic groupings, language, geography, and history of Madagascar. A typical chapter contains information dealing with the origin of the ethnic group in question, a description of the location where it is found, a discussion of a custom which members of the group believe make them distinctive from their neighbors, and a folk tale illustrating some aspect of that custom. In this way an unforgettable composite picture of Malagasy culture is produced. The book is written in the first person plural (“we”) and thus the reader will feel that he/she has become a character in the narrative. Nearly all the information in the book was obtained directly from representatives of each of the groups visited in Madagascar during a year long journey made by the author from August 1992 to August 1993. All photographs were taken by the author and are intimately linked to the narrative with which they are associated.