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The first principle I have adopted in my reading is that every book has something to offer. Thus, I do not go into a story or a book with a prejudiced mind or with the structure of another book in mind. Neither do I attempt to impose my expectations of how things should have fared on a story. Consequently, I attempt to judge every book on its own merit, without comparing it with another. Using this strategy, I do not pronounce a story as bad in relation to another or my expectations; I judge a book on its own merits. With this out of the way we can proceed to talk about  African Roar 2013 (StoryTime, 2013; 170). African Roar has become an annual anthology of African short stories since 2010. This being the fourth edition. I really do not know how I missed the 2012 edition but have talked about the 2010 and 2011 editions on this blog. First, it is important to commend StoryTime for their insight and for what they are doing for young and relatively unknown African authors. ...

Breaking Silence (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013; 148), edited by James Robert Myers, as the subtitle suggests, is a collection of poems about slavery and also about love. The anthology has contributions from many varied sources such as Australia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, India, Spain, United States, South Africa, Belgium, Nigeria and others; however, the majority of the poems is by Ghanaians. The anthology contains such experienced and well-known poets, such as Mbizo Chirasha and Phillip Oyinka (Nana Asaase) and completely new and young voices. However, these youngish voices are not innocent with their words. The idea of bringing love and slavery together is unique and one that could be difficult; for juxtaposing love and slavery requires a lot of balancing and subtle transition. What this anthology portrays is that though massive wrongs were done against a people, though they were inhumanly treated and traded as properties and tools, though on them their masters unl...

Gathering Seaweed: African Prison Writing  (Heinemann, 2002; 328) edited by Jack Mapanje is an anthology of essays, poems, articles, songs and speeches by Africans who have at one point in time been political prisoners or have had political infractions with the law and have been jailed for it. The collection is broken into Origins; Arrest, Detention and Prison; Torture; Survival; and The Release. In this anthology one will meet the pioneers of independence fighters in Africa like Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana,  Agostinho Neto of Angola and others; also present are the fighters against apartheid in South Africa: Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Breyten Breytenbach; equally important are the post-independent right fighters such as Jack Mapanje, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and others. Contributors come from all the various regions of Africa: north, east, west, central and south. However, wh...

Issues of women, the world over, are peculiar for its similarities than its differences. The issues confronting women are not specific to any given culture, continent, country or even ethnic grouping. They are colour blind, nonracial, and ageless. They are ubiquitous. Even in the so-called developed countries where the fight for gender equality has been fought and achievements chalked to such an extent that it (gender equality) has become commonplace, one could easily point to certain discrimination against the fair sex; nevertheless, the intensity - depth and width - of this discrimination varies across cultures. Because these problems emanate from an established patriarchal society, they are structural in nature and, when not interrogated and challenged, are bound to be propagated from one generation to the other, even by individuals who have no intention of maltreating women or discriminating against them; for no one is explicitly tutored to hate women. They are only asked to imp...

Title: African Roar 2011 Editors: Emmanuel Sigauke and Ivor Hartmann Genre: Short Story Anthology Publishers: StoryTime Pages: 214 (e-copy) Year of Publication: 2011 African Roar has become an annual feature in our literary calendar with last year's publication being the second in the series after it debuted in 2010 . It gives voices to new and emerging voices in Africa bringing together hitherto not-widely known writers and those whose writings have been recognised and appreciated with awards. The 2011 African Roar Short Story Anthology continued this tradition by bringing together new voices such as Ghana's Isaac Neequaye and established and award-winning writers such as the recent winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, NoViolet Bulawayo. This year's anthology consists of fourteen short stories with varied themes. The anthology opens with Ruzvidzo Stanley Mupfudzo's Witch's Brew . Mai Chamboko has been described as a witch because she has lost...

Title: Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing Editor: Yvonne Vera Genre: Short Story Antholgy/Feminism Publishers: Heinemann (African Writers Series) Pages: 186 Year of First Publication: 1999 Country: Various This is a collection of 15 short stories by African women from 11 different countries. The anthology includes Leila Aboulela's Caine Prize winning story The Museum.  With the exception of a few stories like Crocodile Tails, A State of Outrage, The Barrel of a Pen, and The Home-Coming , the stories revolve around polygamous husbands, domineering husbands, rape, domestic violence, girl empowerment and combinations of these. The collection opens with Ama Ata Aidoo's The Girl Who can , which is a story about a girl who was looked down by her grandmother because she has lanky legs.  'But Adjoa has legs,' Nana would insist; 'except that they are too thin. And also too long for a woman. Kaya, listen. Once in a while, but onl...

[ continued from here ] WEST AFRICA This is the concluding part of the series of reviews from the Contemporary African Short Stories, edited by Chinua Achebe and C.L. Innes. The anthology was categorised into geographic areas: SOUTHERN AFRICA , CENTRAL AFRICA , EAST AFRICA , NORTH AFRICA and WEST AFRICA.  I decided to review the stories one after the other instead of finding common thread running along them and reviewing them along those lines or using themes to merge stories. This has been fulfilling but also tasking. Future short stories collection might take a different approach. Converging City by Ben Okri (Nigeria) Ben Okri This is the second time I am reading this story, first encountering it in his collection of short stories title Incidents at the Shrine . I must say that reading it a second time has helped me appreciate the story very well. Converging City is a mosaic of interconnecting scenes through which Okri portrays the urban stragglers and strugglers...