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Ah! - one feels a new man after a meal like that. [12] A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. [13] It is astonishing how little most sailors care about what goes on on shore. [13] Sailors are like birds of passage; they feel equally at home in any latitude. [13] Oh well, it is better never to trust anybody; you may find you have been made a fool of before you know where you are. [23] I am of humble origin, as you know; and that has given me opportunities of knowing what is the most crying need in the humbler ranks of life. [27] Yes - and in my opinion a journalist incurs a heavy responsibility if he neglects a favourable opportunity of emancipating the masses - the humble and oppressed. I know well enough that in exalted circles I shall be called an agitator, and all that sort of thing; but they may call what they like. If only my conscience doesn't reproach me - [27] There is one thing I esteem higher than that; a...

If one seeks to satisfy his desire diligently and ambitiously, and if he goes a step farther anytime it is attained, one could lose himself. This seems to be the message of Robert Musil's The Confusions of Young Torless  (Penguin Classics, 2001 (FP: 1906) translation by Shaun Whiteside; 160). Musil's story is about sexual repression, oppression and its covert expression. It is the sexual expression of power and the depression that results when it is repressed. Though published in the early twentieth century, Musil discusses several of today's sexual roles and identities: gender trap, homosexuality, and sadism. The latter is talked about with regards to the power it affords the oppressor. Torless is in a boarding house for boys. He is developing sexually and is bothered by thoughts of sex and his sexuality. As these ideas and thoughts inundate him, he is forced to seek refuge from every possible source but her parents, whose faces he could no longer conjure no matter ...

For early in the development of every fine moral force there is such a point, when the soul weakens, and that will perhaps be its boldest moment - as though it must first put down searching roots in order to churn up the earth destined later to support it - which is why adolescent boys with great futures ahead of them possess a past rich in humiliations. [24-5] If Bozena had been pure and beautiful, and if he had been capable of love in those days, he might have bitten her, heightening both her lust and his own to the point of pain. For the first passion of the adolescent boy is not love of one, but hatred for all. That sense of being misunderstood, of not understanding the world, not only goes hand in hand with the first passion, but is also its only non-arbitrary cause. And it too is a form of flight, in which two people's togetherness means only the duplication of their solitude. [31] Almost every first passion lasts only a short while and leaves a bitter aftertaste. It...

Once in a while you hear statements that make you want to give up. They are so piercing that you wonder what they are meant to achieve. One contributor to the  African Roar 2013   anthology nearly made me quit reviewing African books altogether. This guy claims my reviews exposes no one (with laughter) and more. However, I have decided not to be put off by folks of such mentality who see it proper to discourage and extinguish rather than to encourage. So the month has ended and my quest to read 60 books, which took a huge jolt last month , is almost back on track with a gain of three books, reducing the deficit to two (according to Goodreads). This month, I read eight books - four by Africans and four by non-Africans; one each of non-fiction, short story anthology, and poetry anthology, two plays, and three novels. I read my first Austrian and Norwegian authors, Musl and Ibsen respectively. In all, I read a total of 1884 pages at 60.77 pages per day. The following ar...

Accra, Ghana November 1, 2013: 180 stories were submitted to this year's Golden Baobab Prizes. Of these, 25 made it onto the longlist and 8 to the shortlist. The 8 shortlisted stories are: The Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Books The Princess with a Golden Voice by Philip Begho (Nigeria) The Little Hippo by Liza Esterhuyse (South Africa) The Grandma Mimo's Breakfast by Carol Gachiengo (Kenya) The Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Books Seven by Sabina Mutangadura (Zimbabwe) Rhino by Richard Street (South Africa) What's going on at 179 Jabulani Street? by Karen Hurt (South Africa) The Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers The Little Secret by Fego Martins Ahia (Nigeria) Pieces of Africa by Kanengo Rebecca Diallo (Tanzania) According to the Chair of Judges for the Picture Book Prize, Zetta Elliott, whose first book, Bird , won the Honor Award in Lee and Low Books' New Voices Contest,  I am very impressed with the range and originali...

Between my last report on newly acquired books and now, I have come into possession of several books. This has come about because, first, I ran out books - the remaining few being those I am not keen on reading; besides these are basically non-African authored books. Left with the option of choosing between reading western authors I am not keen on and repleting my library (at moderately significant cost), I chose the latter. However, not all the books I have come to own were purchased.  An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen . This was sent to me - in a soft copy format - by a friend. Every body has heard of that Ibsen's statement about the majority being stupid rather than being right. Yes! If you haven't then there you have it. It is in this play that that famous statement was made. The story is a metaphorical take on the cause of rot and deterioration in a society. Guess what it is. This book is worth the read. African Roar 2013 by Emmanuel Sigauke . Every year, sinc...

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. ...