Avenue Magazine Edmonton

The voice, immediately identifiable to CJSR FM listeners as Minister Faust, is deep, resonant, confident — and yes, I'll admit it — rather intimidating. I've called to make interview arrangements, and Malcolm Azania, the man behind the Minister persona, suggests we meet in an authentic Asian restaurant. I ask how I'll recognize him. Faux pas?

"I'll probably be the only Kenyan-Canadian in the room," Azania points out.

I'm thankful he can't see my embarrassment as his words underline the obvious: just look for the black guy. Then Azania surprises me. He laughs, a big warm laugh and the awkward moment vanishes.

Azania is used to being different. In fact, he thrives on it. As a high school English teacher, the Edmonton-born son of a Kenyan revolutionary would occasionally show up dressed in traditional central African garb of flowing robes. He says his motivation was partly to remind his multicultural students to embrace their heritage, but mostly to send the larger message that "standing out is better than fitting in."

Azania turned 40 last summer, and in four decades he has worn more hats than Queen Elizabeth on a cross-Canada tour. He's an occasional actor who wrote and directed his first play at 17. He's a performance poet and hip-hop artist who has won every poetry slam he has entered. He spent a decade teaching teens, until 2007, as a public school teacher at various Edmonton junior and senior high schools — loving every minute of it — and he keeps a mentorship position at Keshotu Leadership Academy, helping African-Canadian youth develop leadership skills through the performing arts. Strongly devoted to social justice, Azania ran for a seat in parliament in Edmonton-Strathcona under the NDP banner in 2004 and has a consistent history of community activism. Today, he's involved in Humanserve International, the Council of Canadians of African and Caribbean Heritage, and the Northern Alberta Alliance on Race Relations. Balancing that serious side, he's also a sketch comic, a consummate storyteller and an orator who keeps crowds of thousands hanging on his words.

Wait, there's more. He's also a freelance radio and television broadcaster and journalist with national credits to his name, a creative writing instructor and a blogger. And finally, Azania is a 20-year veteran of public radio, hosting The Terrordome: The Afrika All-World News Service and Asiko Phantom Pyramid, as well as the author of two acclaimed novels, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (2004) and From the Notebooks of Doctor Brain (2007).

By day, Azania currently works as a writer at BioWare, dreaming up video game scripts and creating fantasy characters. By night, he's putting the final touches on his third novel, The Alchemists of Kush, scheduled for publication in early 2011.

The latest novel tells the interlocking tales of two Sudanese refugees orphaned in childhood by wars 7,000 years apart. The first boy is Horus, son of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, who becomes a mystic warrior king. Destiny leads the second boy to what Azania calls "Kush," a section of contemporary Edmonton from 107th to 118th Avenues, the new home to growing numbers of west African immigrants.