African Short Stories [Blog 2]

The Green Leaves
I like the east African stories so much more. I find it interesting that they just covered the man in leaves without searching him, or making sure he was dead. Didn't seem logical to me. Then as soon as Nyagar felt that he was warm I knew he was going to kill him and run. Once again a story where greed tears a man down. Also the women in the story were very submissive until at the end where one of Nyagars wifes sings and takes off her shirt (I think is what happened). It gave me an uneasy weird feeling when she says "there is no woman who will lend me a Husband for the night".

The Spider's Web
I find this story sad because Ngotho used to dream of smoking out bees, but now he dreams of dieing. He used to work for a white family, and fought for the cause of smoking out the white people, but now his masters are black and still treat him like dirt. He mentions how he used to wish for a time where the black man could have pride in his own land when he worked for the white people, but now his hope seems diminished. I like how at the end, after he has stabbed his master he goes in his servant room and locks the door.

Minutes Of Glory
I find it sad how Beatrice just wants to be like Nyaguthii to the point that she will steal. I also disliked the part where she talks about the Ambi cream and how it had taken girls darker than herself and made them into "white stars". Where does this self-hatred come from? The character I liked the least was the Christian bar owner, because he, like characters in our last set of stories were, don't seem to really be a person of faith, or spirit. It's degrading. It's interesting how woman in this story seem to have power but at the same time are denied any real power. They can turn men down, but have to work for men anyways.

An Incident in the Ghobashi Household
This story was slightly hard to follow for me. From my interpretation the woman's daughter is pregnant but they don't know who they father is, so at the end they send her to a big city where she can find help and money to raise her child. Ghobashi I guess was her husband, who left her (like in the story of the man who left to cut grass) I don't understand what she means by "isn't it better, when he returns, for your father to find himself with a legitimate son than an illegitimate grandson" Does this mean that when the baby is born the grandmother will act like it came from her womb? I'm confused by this one.

A Handful of Dates
I think this is a story of a boy who is torn at the fact that his grandfather has become so successful while the neighboring man Masood has slowly lost everything he was born with. Dates are actually a fruit from Palm trees, which I have never heard of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Palm#Fruit I think another reason the boy feels shame is because Masood is a more caring, nature oriented man, like the boy is, while is grandfather is more of a business man who is less caring and seems to be money-oriented.

A Conversation from the Third Floor
This story was, as I interpreted it, a story of a man locked up talking to his wife, Aziza. I like the part where he is talking about the packs of cigarettes and how he only got three out of the five, because I imagine him kind of laughing it off because he is so happy to see his wife and child. I wonder how he got in jail as a read this story. I also wonder what the real moral was of this story... I really didn't see a point in how it ended either. Also, why was she looking at the guard so much? was she not allowed to be there? I also wanted to know what was going on inside the jail because he kept going out of her sight and them popping back up.