In post colonial Africa, it is clear that questions of identity brought on by culture clash are common. Birago Diop’s fine story ‘Sarzan’ illustrates this through the tale of Keita, who has fought in the French Army and seen the wider world. When he returns to his home village, it is to reform life there and civilise the people. He takes a stand against the old tribal gods and customs – but the spirits of his ancestors have their revenge. An impressive feature of this story is the chants that come form Keita’s mouth when he is punished.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s ‘A Meeting In the Dark ’ also examines culture clash. John is going to college, although he has doubts about the taking on of the lifestyle of the educated Kenyan which is quite remote from his village life. He is also in conflict with his father, a fanatically Puritan Christian who rules him with a rod of iron. His mother is a traditionally minded woman who tells him the story of the Imru, the beautiful young man who is really an evil spirit with a second mouth hidden beneath his hair. John himself is such a one, a young man with two mouths for his two cultures, driven to a most terrible crime by his inner conflict.

The intertwined lives of black Africans and European Africans also comes under the microscope. Es’kia Mphalele’s ‘Mrs. Plum’ is a dedicated and well intentioned activist in the cause of black rights in South Africa. She insists on educating her black servant girl and on raising her consciousness of her rights, but is totally unaware of her inner life and concerns. The story is told with such vivid characterisation and such wry humour that it is one of the most entertaining stories in the book. Not so wry is Luis Bernardo Honwana’s ‘Papa, Snake and I’, a finely drawn tale of a boy’s encounter with a deadly snake and his witnessing of his father’s humiliation at the hands of a bullying Portuguese landowner. His father’s hymn to hope at the end of the tale is most moving. Sembene Ousmane ‘s ‘Black Girl’ is another servant/employer story. Diouna seizes the chance to go to France to live with her French employers, but soon finds that she is exploited there in a way she never was in Africa. The most touching aspect of this story is her gradual realisation of her ‘difference’, her colour which sets her apart. Her fate is a brutal one. The occasional didacticism of the story is offset by the real pathos of the girl’s situation.

Exploitation by colonialists is most shockingly portrayed in Rene Philombe’s tale ‘The True Martyr Is Me.’ Missionaries insist that before the marriage sacrament can be granted to a couple, the young women must stay in the ‘sixta’, a compound where they receive spiritual instruction. While there, they must labour in the coffee plantations for free, sometimes for years, under the care of the priests. Pregnancies are not unknown such is their care for these young women. Tragedy ensues when one young man takes a stand against the priests.

Islam is not spared criticism in ‘A Handful Of Dates’ by Tayeb Salim. A boy has a devout grandfather, rigid and unswerving in his devotion to the Koran, a harsh judge of others and a driver of hard bargains because his greed is unstinting. The victim of grandfather’s wheeler dealing is a man the boy likes, a man who laughs and sings and enjoys life. The contrast between the ‘good’ grandfather and the slack victim leaves him with a very nasty taste in his mouth.

Of course, it is not only white colonialists who exploit women. Black men are equally guilty. A nauseating example of male hypocrisy appears in the person of Raymond Nwanko in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Girls At War’. Raymond is a government official in a newly formed nation. He is much impressed by a young freedom fighter he meets at a checkpoint. Other men laugh at the female recruits and don’t take them seriously, but he is impressed. Once the fighting is over, and the nation settles down to poverty and hard times, girls get back to being girls, and boys to boys. And he meets his checkpoint girl again. By her clothing and appearance, he is saddened to realise that the freedom fighter is gone – she is in the care of a wealthy man. He then sets out to seduce her himself, while moralising about the decline in morals of the women of the nation. But in the end, it is she who shows courage and honour.

‘In The Hospital’ by Similihi Cordor concerns another kind of exploitation. The poor cannot afford medicines and rely on local healers who sometimes make the patient sicker. A couple finally have to go to the maternity hospital for the poor. There, bribes are expected and there are suspicions of baby stealing for the rich. But there is no other choice available to them. Their bewilderment and uncertainty about what is happening is paralleled in another story,’Taken’ by Steve Chimombo. Here also rumours abound. A writer is arrested but no one knows why. Another writer hears that he too is implicated but has no idea what is going on. Rumour takes wings, but no one ever does find out what is happening.

Ama Ata Aidoo also examines the plight of African women in ‘Two Sisters’. Mercy longs for the good things in life and soon realises that the way to get them is through older wealthy men. Her sister Connie, decent and honest, feels her sister is ruining her life and longs for her to settle down respectably. But Connie’s life is not enviable. Her husband is a serial philanderer who bullies her and it is soon clear that the life of the mistress is more to be envied than the life of the faithful loving wife.

Mothers in these stories are strong characters. Their greatest enemy is the traditional life imposed on them. Mama Kazili is the heroine of Mzamane Nhlapo’s ‘Give me a Chance’ . Her wastrel husband has abandoned her and her children to starve, yet she must seek permission from the men of the family to leave the village, go to work, or even talk about what is happening – one tribeswomen was murdered for criticising her husband, so Mama is taking a big chance in exposing her husband for what he is.

Family life is at risk in strife torn African communities. Sindiwe Magona’s ‘I’m Not Talking About That, Now’ is a searing indictment of the politicisation of the youth of South Africa’s townships. A boycott of shops has been ordered by the young comrades, and so the poor of the township starve. Not the business men. Not the soldiers or the comrades. Just the poor. One woman manages to get out and buy food but is publicly attacked by a mob of youngsters, including her own son. This affront to family values and the respect due to elders does not go unpunished in a tragic ending. ‘My Father, The Englishman and I’ by Nurrudin Farah also deals with the erosion of family life and traditional culture. The boy’ s father is a minor official in the colonial services. The boy, tutored in traditional culture by his mother, despises his father’s kow-towing attitude to his British superior.

The astonishing Ben Okri does not disappoint with his poetic contribution ‘A Prayer for The Living.’ Somalia is struck down by drought, famine and war. A starving man searches among the dead for his loved ones and hears the music of the dead, which helps him to submit to the clarity of dying. A similar despair is the dark thread running through Alexander’ Kanengoni’s ‘Effortless Tears’.

‘Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals’ by Yvonne Vera is the touching and amusing tale of a painter and a woodcarver who sell their art outside the blacks only hospital in the township. The painter tries to persuade the carver to carve animals he has actually seen instead of misshapen giraffes and disproportionate red elephants. But the carver, hungry for the exotic, is carving his dreams. And the painter is painting his…

There is a Biblical quality in the style of some of the stories. Grace Ogot’s ‘Tekayo’ , a horrendous story of the inexplicable violence and brutishness of a respectable grandfather is written with the simpicity and import of a Biblical parable. Gothic horror is the keynote of Amos Tutuola’s ‘The Complete Gentleman’. A disassembling man and ancient tribal magic come into play in this grim tale, another parable about what lies behind a handsome face.

A gentle humour permeates Bessie Head’s story ‘The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses,’ the tale of a battle of wits between a political prisoner and a brutal prison guard. Much more rumbustious is the laugh aloud ‘A Gathering Of Bald Men’ which is about the midlife crisis suffered by Caleb when he discovers a bald spot.

This is a wide ranging and grippjng anthology, exotic at times, and heart wrenching at others. It is well worth a look.

Marion Arnott lives in Paisley, Scotland. She was winner of the Phillip Good Memorial Prize For Women's Fiction 1998, CWA Short Dagger 2001 and shortlisted for CWA Short Dagger 2002. Work has appeared in Scottish Child, West Coast, Solander Magazine, Peninsula , QWF, Hayakawa Mystery Magazine (Japan), Books Ireland, Northwords, Chapman, Crimewave, and Datlow and Winding's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror volume 15. Her short story collection 'Sleepwalkers,' was published in August, 2003 by Elastic Press. To visit Marion's Showcase on this website, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.