The performances of the epic on which the book is based date back to the 1950s and 1960s (the book was first published in 1969); you can read all about the fieldwork behind this project in the introduction. The book contains both the Nyanga text and the English translation! You can find out more about the Nyanga people at Wikipedia, and the book's introduction also contains valuable background information about the Nyanga people and about the Mwindo epic, plus there is also a summary of the epic story at Wikipedia.
For another version of the Mwindo story, there's actually a Crash Course video! (I love Crash Course.)
Te Mwindo epic is included in Harold Courlander's anthology of African literature, which is also at Internet Archive: A Treasury of African Folklore.
And you can also find the Mwindo epic in Roger Abrahams's anthology at Internet Archive also: African Folktales: Traditional Stories of the Black World.
Finally if you're curious about the book cover image, that is Mr. Candi Rureke performing the Mwindo Epic, with a chorus of singers. he's holding a rattle in one hand and a conga-scepter in the other, which are identified with Mwindo and his magical powers!
translated by Daniel Biebuyck and Kahombo C. Mateene
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