African Short Stories [blog 1]

The False Prophet
This was the strange story of a thief using religion to do his bidding. The saying 'What is mine belongs to me, but there is nothing to stop us sharing what is yours' was passed down from his ancestors. Funny how he hated cats. I think he only hated them because they were just like him.. Funny he denounces god in the end, because had he just lived by what he claimed to know so well then he may have found happiness.

Certain Winds from the South
I didn't get much from this story. I understood that obviously bad times had fallen on the village, but I don't get why the first father in twenty years decided to go "cut grass". I assume that is some kind of field labor, and that he was going to send money home. I don't understand why the lady told the story about the new mother's father, because it didn't seem to be a story that would instill faith in her, or make her feel better for he baby's daddy leaving.

The Apprentice
I like this story because of Ogunmola is a direct descendant of royalty yet his quest is to be simply be a blacksmith. One of his masters wanted the hoes built cheap and durable, while the other wanted them durable but beautifully crafted thus making them more expensive. Ogunmola's crafting is somewhere in between. It's sad how he gets caught in a family dispute between his two masters, which stops him from living the life he wants to live.

The Will of Allah
I liked this story a lot. Sule was interesting to me because of his faith in Allah. But I wonder if faith is a good thing if you don't also live by the code of that faith as well. A lot of these stories have to do with faith... or almost all of them. The snake biting them both at the end was a perfect ending because if they just would have trusted each other they may not have dove their hands in as quickly, or at least Dogo could have told Sule after he got bit. In the book it says Sule "...feared nothing and no one except Allah", but does Allah not care if you live your life by any code of morality?

Civil Peace
This story is the only one as of yet that actually made me feel good though bad things were happening. I guess it was Jonathon's love for life even though things were going bad. He always seemed to make the best of it. I like at the end when he talks about how before the 'egg-rasher' money came along he was surviving just fine, after the stranger and his troops took it from them. I think the reason Jonathon was so strong was because he lost one of his kids in the war that happened before this story began. After losing his son every thing else seems relative.

The Gentlemen of the Jungle
What a story to finish off with. I think I am going to like East Africa better. There is something deeper I'm supposed to catch on to, but it can't quiet grasp it. I like how the animals act like men: who, in fair turn, do act like animals themselves. The line "Peace is costly, but it's worth the expense" is obviously showing some revolution in government. Maybe this story is all about how a government can fool their people for a time, but not forever.