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The Father of Sword and Soul
Brief
Charles R. Saunders emerges in this episode as a pioneering but underrecognized figure who created Imaro — a Black sword-and-sorcery hero set in Nyambani, a fantastical Africa — and who coined the term “sword and soul” to describe his work. The episode traces Saunders’s life from his 1946 Pennsylvania birth, early love of adventure fiction (with conflicted feelings about the racism of Tarzan), and his 1969 move to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. At the Halifax Daily News Saunders wrote journalism by day and, privately, built a richly researched fantasy drawing on African myth and first-person historical accounts; colleagues like John Tatry recall being surprised to learn he was also the author of the Imaro books. Troy Wiggins and Milton Davis describe how the books’ African-centered research and mythic texture felt authentic and trailblazing to later Black fantasy writers.
The conversation also follows Saunders’s long, uneven publishing arc: a deal in 1981 brought the Imaro trilogy into print, but low sales and marketing failures led the initial publisher to drop the series (by about 1985). A late-1990s revival—sparked in part by Sheree R. Thomas’s Dark Matter anthology (which included Saunders’s short fiction and an updated essay)—led to Night Shade reissues in the 2010s, only to have the publisher cancel again. Interviewees debate causes: Milton Davis and others blame poor marketing and racialized assumptions about fantasy audiences; Sheree argues the renewed interest of the 2010s showed Saunders was simply ahead of his time. The episode also covers painful personal details: after losing a university job Saunders attempted suicide but later framed his survival as being rescued — he credited his own creation, Imaro, with keeping him alive. Saunders died in 2020 and was initially buried in an unmarked grave; friends and readers—including Tatry, Davis, and Wiggins—raised funds for a commemorative marker featuring Imaro to secure his public legacy. The episode closes with reflections on Saunders’s mentorship of younger Black writers, concerns about maintaining his visibility in a shifting publishing landscape, and the ongoing need for African-centered speculative voices.
Why it matters
Charles R. Saunders (born 1946) created Imaro — widely regarded as the first Black sword-and-sorcery hero — and labeled his approach “sword and soul,” a subgenre centering African settings and protagonists (narrator; Milton Davis).
Key details
- Saunders moved to Canada in 1969 to avoid the Vietnam draft, later worked at the Halifax Daily News, and was rediscovered there by colleague John Tatry, who later wrote a biography titled To Leave a Warrior Behind (John Tatry).
- Imaro’s world is called Nyambani (a Swahili word meaning “home”), and Saunders consciously mined first-person African histories and mythologies to achieve cultural authenticity in his fantasy (narrator; Troy Wiggins).
- Saunders’ Imaro trilogy was originally sold to a publisher in 1981 (referred to as Da Books in the episode); weak sales led that publisher to drop the series and by 1985 the run had ended — a pattern that repeated when Night Shade reissued the books decades later and then canceled them again (narrator; Milton Davis).
- Saunders suffered a suicide attempt after losing his university job; he later told friends he credited the character Imaro with lifting him to a place where he could be rescued and framed the survival as a personal triumph (John Tatry; Saunders’s own account).
- Sheree R. Thomas’s Dark Matter anthology (late 1990s) helped reintroduce Saunders: she published his 1984 Desoie story “Gamil Songs” and an updated essay, sparking renewed attention that led to reissues and mentorship relationships with younger Black fantasy writers (Sheree R. Thomas).