Two Sudanese "lost boys." Both fathers murdered during civil war. Both mothers forced into exile through lands where the only law was violence.
To survive, they became ruthless loners and child soldiers, before finding mystic mentors who transformed them to create their destinies.
One, known to the streets as the Supreme Raptor.... The other, known to the Greeks as Horus, son of Osiris. Separated by seven thousand years, and connected by immortal truth.
Both born in fire. Both baptised in blood. Both brutalised by the wicked. Both sworn to transform the world, and themselves, by the power... of Alchemy.
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Ishmael Reed | Author of Mumbo Jumbo and Juice!
“It was only a matter of time before the hip hop culture would invade the literary world. With The Alchemists of Kush, Minister Faust is leading the invasion. His novel is possibly the first hip hop epic. Hip hop has a short attention span on most occasions. The Alchemists of Kush gives it gravitas.”
Charles R. Saunders | Author of Imaro and Dossouye
“Minister Faust’s first two books broke new ground in the SF field. His latest, The Alchemists of Kush, not only breaks new ground; with the story-telling skills of a modern jali, the Minister creates new vistas of history, mythology, erudition, uplift, tragedy, triumph, and contemporary community activism. Once you start the first page of this book, you won’t be able to put it down until you’ve finished the last one.”
Sparkle Hayter | Author of What’s A Girl Gotta Do? and Naked Brunch
“I started The Alchemists of Kush and kept reading until I finished. Minister Faust has the most electrifying and true voice I’ve read in years. The Alchemists of Kush is brilliant.”
Kenneth T. Williams | Playwright of Thunderstick and Three Little Birds
“I loved the story, the mythology, and the characters. I found myself locked into it for hours at a time and couldn’t put it down. Rich in detail ...A great book.”
Wayne Arthurson | Author of Final Season and Fall from Grace
“A hell of a story. A hell of a book. A hell of a style. A frenetic novel and voice--very enjoyable. Minister Faust knows how to write about male relationships, brotherhoods, and getting into the hearts of men, and about boys turning into men. The Alchemists of Kush is a triumph, not just for Minister Faust, but for Edmonton and the community of Kush.”
Tololwa Mollel | Author of the Governor General Award-winning The Orphan Boy
“Just finished The Alchemists of Kush. Kot-tam, what a book! It’s contemporary and ancient. Has heart, soul, muscle, brains, street smarts, community ethos. Brims with knowledge, insight and wisdom, fury, conviction, idealism, compassion, optimism, character and song and spectacle, action and drama and gorgeous dialogue, music and rhythm, myth, and much else. The Alchemists of Kush is unabashedly, squarely, skillfully, and very recognizably set in our E-Town that surprisingly lends itself to a story hewn in a big part out of myth and with African characters you hardly ever see in Can-Lit in such a foregrounded and authentically contemporary way.”
Arlo Maverick | Politic Live MC and Producer on Adaptation and Market Share
“The Alchemists of Kush is both a powerful and vital contribution to Canadian literature that looks at contemporary Edmonton from an African-Canadian perspective. The characters in Minister Faust's novel reflect the true diversity of African-Canadians living in Edmonton. Hopefully this is the beginning of more great novels from people in Edmonton that look like us that tell stories about us.”
Lester Kenyatta Spence | Author of Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
“This book represents the first modern Pan-Africanist coming-of-age story, bringing together the traditional components of the Hero’s Tale with a rich understanding of Ancient Egypt and contemporary realities for diasporal youth. The characters jump off of the page as Minister Faust deftly moves back and forth between Ancient KMT and contemporary Edmonton. As an African American with strong USA biases, I would never have imagined that one of the best Black male writers of my generation would come from Edmonton. Go figure.”
Saladin Quanaah Allah | Blogger, Allah School in Atlantis (ASIA), author of Tales of an Urban Sufi; MC on Brothers from Another Planet
“Inspired by a true story and set against an urban backdrop of African immigrant communities in present day Edmonton, Minister Faust weaves a masterful tale around the sacred Book of the Golden Falcon, ten Hermetical scrolls that expound upon the cross pollination of cultural themes and social considerations shared by Original People throughout the African Diaspora.
“The Alchemists of Kush is more than a story; it’s a philosophical elixir of Kemetic (Egyptian) folklore, African traditions, urban Sufism, hip hop culture, and Five Percenter pedagogy designed to transmute the challenges of colonialism, assimilation, juvenile delinquency, and moral decay into a universal solvent. Through an array of colourful characters facing unique struggles towards advancing a common cause, Minister Faust boldly takes his readers on an alchemical journey of Self Knowledge, Self Determination, and Community Action, a transformative terrain of true & living ‘gold’!”
Mark Kozub | Author of The Uptown Browns, A Calgary Album |Founding father of the Raving Poets
“The Alchemists of Kush is its own kind of alchemy. Composed of ancient past, gritty present, mythic fantasy, social activism, it’s how Minister Faust blends it all that gives the book its rare power. Reflecting the brilliance of his earlier novels, Minister Faust again strikes the perfect balance between eloquence and entertainment. Within the first twenty pages, I could (and did) imagine The Alchemists of Kush on the big screen. It’s got that epic sweep to it. More importantly, I kept reading (and reading, and reading) because Minister Faust knows it’s all about creating characters you’ll love. I wept at the end.”
Milton John Davis | Author of Meji, co-editor of Griots: A Sword and Soul Anthology
“Minister Faust presents a fierce piece of fiction in a way that only he can. I was entertained, educated and fascinated with his alchemy. The Alchemists of Kush has to be one of the best books I’ve read this year.”
Andrea Hairston | Author of Redwood and Wildfire and Mindscape
“In The Alchemists of Kush, Minister Faust risks telling stories that threaten the empire-builders, that encourage us all to become agents of action. Such a novel demands a truthful response. I’ve been thinking we need prayers for right now. Advertising jingles and gangsta rhymes split our souls, jangle our spirits a thousand times a day. Minister Faust is a technician of the sacred, getting the geometry, the dance of our humanity into his words. Buy The Alchemists of Kush for yourself and a friend. Read it and then give it away. Give it away a lot.”
Nathan Crowder | Author of Cobalt City Blues and Ride Like the Devil
“The Alchemists of Kush blew my expectations clean out of the water. The importance of faith has been fresh in my mind recently. And as the novel is, at its heart, about a spiritual awakening, it felt perfectly timed that I discovered it when I did. The twin stories and characters had me drawn in immediately, and it didn’t hurt that there was ample name dropping of favourite musical artists (Gil Scott-Heron among them) and comic book characters (Static and King Peacock). The characters are rich, their battles hard fought and heartbreaking. And the resulting affirmation of love, community, pride, responsibility, and family makes this the calibre of book I would love to see as required reading …. Highly recommended.”
Watch Minister Faust's video on this topic
The novel The Alchemists of Kush is in part an allegory for the founding of the Nation of Gods and Earths, known to many as the Five Percenters, a decentralised, non-hierarchical society whose members number in the tens of thousands.
The NGE is one of the most influential cultural groups in the United States, yet you’ve probably never even heard of them. But without their dynamic culture, hip hop as we know it probably would not exist.
That’s because beginning in the mid-1960s of New York City, the Five Percenter youth began memorising, reciting and expounding upon a series of lengthy mystical lessons including the 120, the Supreme Alphabet and the Supreme Mathematics, and a set of geographical and astronomical information including the weight of the earth and the distance between the earth and the sun.
The particularly adept became outstanding debaters and orators, and many became extemporaneous poets whose work was the lyrical engine that turned the ordinary party rhymes and braggadocio of early rapping into a social, political, and mystical artistic phenomenon.
Chances are you’re familiar with the NGE even if you didn’t know you were. Their most famous citizens include the Wu Tang Clan and members such as Method Man, the RZA, and Raekwon, the singer Erykah Badu, the groups Brand Nubian and Poor Righteous Teachers, and rappers Rakim, CL Smooth and Busta Rhymes, to name just a few.
But their influence goes far beyond their population, because through hip hop, their teachings and vocabulary have become part of North American culture. Terms and phrases such as G, the bomb, break it down, manifest, represent, do the math, dropping science, show and prove, Original Man, Knowledge of Self, step into the cipher, and even peace were introduced, reinvigorated or redefined by them.
Through their influence, the phrase “word is bond” became over time “word up” and simply “word.”
BUY A SIGNED COPY FROM THE AUTHOR
Otherwise, please buy it from your local independent bookstore!