Small Sun

This was another magical story. The man Fahd was drunk seeing a king's son who he thought was a sheep , he was promised seven jars of gold coins. He went home to his wife to tell her about it, they fantize about having wealth for their soon to come child. The man gets stabbed to death by another drunk man while on his way looking for the king's son.

Flower Crazy

This story was very all over the place I could barely make out who was talking, I gathered that this lady was a prositute had two or three kids and was probably getting sick from aids. She spent her money on magazines and cigoretts, she had a famished dog and only gave coins to the kids.

Persian Carpet

This was a good type of sadness. This woman threatened to burn herself alive if her husband and the laws of Allah would not let her out of her marriage. She wanted to marry the man she had fallen in love with before she was forced to marry him, they had a daughter. So the father re-married to Maryum and they had another daughter. One day the oldest daughter was taken to see her mother, she was very excited. Before that had happen the story tells you that the family's rug had been stolen it was a valuable cherished persian rug, they accused people but no one came forward. So on the day the girl had went to visit her mother she noticed that her mother had the same exact rug because she remembered exactly how it had looked from doing lessons on it. I felt bad for the girl finally getting to spend time with her mother and realized that she was just a thief.

Cairo is a Small City

Being that I am not personally a fan of the Arabic culture, I will try and paint a nice picture. Basically this man has been stalking this woman for awhile and starts falling madly in love with her. So much that he starts building his buildings after the months he had left untill he could see her because he was an engineer. Then he takes all the steps into getting a meeting with the girls father to ask for permission of her hand and the rest gets tricky. I didnt understand the turning point with the gun being brought out and the point at the end where Adil was killed.

Another Evening at The Club

All these stories start off with the fact that as a young girl in that kind of culture its their job to only think about getting married. But at least in this story the girl gets to marry a nice guy all most and seems to live wealthy having maids bring her breakfast. The story has on point of action when the ring goes missing, and they falsely accused the maid. When turns out the ring was found by the wife on the floor under the dresser. But instead of saying they was wrong of accusing the maid the husband decided not to ruin his reputation.

Clocks Like Horses

It was interesting as to how the ninety year old man kept time with each different parts of the world. And it was like a lapse in time to hear his old war stories of how he led his life working on ships. The weird part was at the end when the story mentions something about how he knows there will be the old man waiting lying in his bead dead. Maybe this story had an alternate meaning but I really didn't catch it.

A Night Out

In class we had a wide debate of disgust about this story. The main points consist of this man found this prostitute walking on the street , went back to her place to have sex when he already purchased a hotel room for himself. Then he gets there they talk about her assumed to be dead husband while she's putting her child to sleep on the floor, after it had been coughing a rough cough. Then they have sex and the man wakes up in the morning a realizes her son was dead on the floor, this man den slips her some money on the table and tries to leave unnoticed. But the mother half way wakes up to tell him goodbye and the man doesn't even bother to mention to her that her child may be dead on the floor because he didn't want to be involved with the funeral mourning.

Government by a magic spell

Halima was supposed to be this woman who was embodied by a spiritual infant called a jinni. Halima was considered holly and was praised a having magical gifts. She ruled with the government using her sacred gifts for twenty years bringing water and keeping the people healthy.

Cages

I did not like this story. It was about how this boy now a man had came to live and work for a now dying man named Fajir. Humid slept outside the dying man's shop and basically ran the place because Fajir was ill. He never went any where outside the until he met this girl. He started wanting to see what the rest of his village was like outside of the shop. He started having a deep fatuation about the girl named Rukiya. This story made me mad because it was like she was teasing him and using him so that he would give her extra sugar. She knew that he was attracted to her and she knew he wanted her. So she told him he would need more things in order to maybe have her one day, like that was supposed to be some kind of enlightenment for him.

The man

There was this king who was being hunted for but nobody could find him. The king owned a palace with one hundred and fifty rooms in it. He employed high paid prostitutes who wasn't aloud to know which room he slept in. He was soon to be murdered by his hunter. It shows how everyone is not safe from a man with a cause.

The Rubbish Dump

The rubbish dump was about a boy named Joey and a man joey nicknamed Mazambezi. The man worked and i guess lived at an airport where he collected trash. Joey would go to the airport to play with his car and watch the planes while he wasn't in school. At first the boy was scared and curious of Mazambezi because I don't think he fully got that the man was homeless and lived off eating scraps from the trash. But once he got to understand the man joey became friends with him.

A Wasted Land

Started off talking about a war in January 1981 in England. Its not clear if the person who is talking is a female or a male. It states that the war started when he or she was ten and ended when he or she was twenty-one. They lived in Bindura, and celebrated all the major American holidays. So the person who is talking is a boy named Bernard. The story showed how the wars back then meant hardships and death to those who wanted independence.

Wake

This was another difficult and all over the place story. From what I could gather it was a lot of talk about death and having to die. There was no real clue as to direction, time, place and language this story had written in. There where bits about this girl named Naledi who if I'm correct loved her father so much that she cut his toenails, and was a slave to him but he never said thank you or told he loved her.

The Barrel of a Pen

OK , this was a very vivid and barbaric story. These three girls lied to their parents to sneak and rent a hotel room. One of the girls was pregnant and her best friend had hired this other girl who had been a nurse's assistant to help this girl have a abortion. They had tried to get the abortion done professionally but the doctor stiffed them for the money. So they did it illegally with a pen. This story was way too x-rated to write about.

Stress

The couple of paragraph's talks about the (generals lover) and goes into describing the furniture.I got the impression that this girl was basically what Americans call a home wrecker. She was having an affair with a general who only visited her on Sunday's. Then she gets dressed every day while waiting on the general to go outside on her balcony to try and seduce another man who hasn't showed interest. This other man was a poor school teacher, who had house full of relatives living with him that he was supposed to take care of. His wife was giving him grief one day because he decided to buy himself a costly beer when his family needed shoes and books for school and they barely ate enough. I thought that was kind of selfish of him but it didn't do the wife any good to patronize him everyday because they where poor. So the man ended up killing the wife by accidentally strangling her to death just so he could get some peace.

Enigma

This girls seemed upset by her fathers over protectiveness, he wouldn't let her walked to school like a normal girl. The conflict of this story seems to be that this girl is trying to complete a homework assignment by writing a paper about her life, but she's struggling to put pen to paper. She is not happy by feeling that its life or death if she doesn't find a husband. All this while she has been having a secret relationship with this boy named Marie, she ended up pregnant. The girl felt like she would be going through some life changes, judgements, and maybe even being put in jail for getting pregnant before being married.

Papa, Snake and I

This was the story that had alot of conflicted discussion in class. The mother was very hard on one of her sons , there was this snake problem that was causing the chickens to disappear. The mother had asked the father to handle it but he didnt, so the boy felt it was his resposibilty to try and kill the snake and earn some respect from his mother. The trouble started with the pet dog trying to protect the boy and his brother and the dog ends up killing the snake but died after the snake had bitten it. Then the ending was disappointing because the mother still didnt appreciate what the boy had tried to do for her.

Snapshots of a Wedding

This story was funny because they made fun of how untraditional their African wedding was going to be because the bride was already six months pregnant. Sounded like something from our American ways. The groom had conflict with marrying Neo because she was known around town as a rude and snotty person who looked down on others because she was more educated than the rest. The groom was in love with this other woman Mathata who was six months pregnant by him as well but he didnt marry her because she was uneducated and couldnt bring as much money to the household.

Protista

The tone of this beginning was very dull and dragging. This man kept talking about this woman named Maria, this gave me the impression that she either was dead or had abandoned him. Maria was his wife and secretary. Then he starts talking about how he starts to forget things giving the impression that he was in his last days. He had no water, barely any food and he was all alone in his hut, and he was left there to die alone.

The Betrayal

The story starts talking about a very successful and very educated man named Dr.Kamal. Dr.Kamal was the president over a youth league that's purpose was to make the citizens become more actively involve with their country's politcal views. At this point in time there was revolts taking place thousands where being slaughtered for the political beliefs.There was disputs about racialism and so the war started.

The Bridegroom

This was another difficult story yet again. There was an older man who was being waited on by either a younger man with a woman's name.Then there's alot of talk about the man waiting for his future wife to come and he stares at a picture. Thats all I could gather.

The spiders Web

This man Ngotho was of African decent, but he was not keen on keeping their religion. He started having nightmares telling him something bad was coming so he stayed away from the church. The story gives light into how this man and another where servents. This story takes a turn down the confusing lane because, it wasn't clear whether or not this boy was trying to figure out if he grade school teacher was now the lady he worked for or what. Then all of a sudden the boy attacts Lois, and runs to attack her husband, but I didnt catch what led to this ending of the story.

The Amenesty

A man was sentenced to five years in jail and left his family behind. His girlfriend was the only person that wrote him a letter every week because his parents couldnt read and write. His mother didnt have anything to say to him and his father just said they were always praying for him. The family finally had enough money to go see their son. His fater died soon after and when his sentance was up he got the chance to go home to his mother and his daughter (which he never met since she was a baby during his sentencing) and wife.

The Birds of God

A fisherman, Ernesto Timba, was tired of waitiing and hoping for fish. He looked up to the sky at the birds wishing one would fall into his boat. A bird did fall into his boat one day and he took him home his wife wanted to cook the bird for the family to eat but the fiserman took the bird and put him in a cage and feed him fish. The bird became fat and lonely, the man wished for another bird to keep the first bird company, and a female bird appered in the cage also the two birds had little chicks together. One day the fisherman came home to the birds missing and the cage burned near the fire place, he thinks his wife had something to do with this. He looked up to the heavens and asked god not to be upset with him and not to take this out on mankind. Later Ernest Timba died in the river.

The Perfect Wife

A man named Idrissa had two wifes, he died while at war and left his wifes behind. One of his wifes, Sire, married Idrissa's brother. and the other wife married Astuo married and had a baby.
I really didnt get a good understanding of this story, it was very confusing.

The Barrel Of a Pen

Rachel a young girl who was pregnant. Went with her friends, Sisa and Ntando, and rented a cheap room for fifteen dollars. When the got into the room Ntando preformed a procedure with the barrel of a pen to give Rachel an abortion she told her she should start bleedding in a few hours. Sisa's mother was waiting for them but her mother didn't know what they had been doing. Rachel went with Sisa and her mother back to their house. Rachel went to the bathroom and stayed a while, Sisa went to go cheack on Rachel. Rachel was in the shower with blood everywhere. Sisa told her younger sister to tell mummy to call the hospital. Sisa went and got Rachel more clothes and a sanitary napkin. Mummy knocked on the door to the bathroom and asked what was going on Sisa began explaining and finally told mummy about the abortion and what they had did.

The Home-Coming

A women, who had left her country, finally got the chance to go back to her homeland. Her daughter helped her with her suitcases and the began to walk home. The women started thinking will the village have a big surprise for her when she got there sincce she had been gone for over forty years. She had been to another country and had to learn how to deal with electronics and learned new ways about people. She wondered about her daughter since she was never there to raise her the mother look at her daughter as if she was a stranger. She left the village at the age of seventeen. She birth three childern and visited them a few times but now she was finally home.

Night Thoughts

A person laying in the hosipital bed has thoughts about a king and his kingdom. Sikiti whho was the head of state had haunted to former king of state, Liswani II. Liswani II let the people of the city become free, they were glued to the television since Sikiti limited the city people to telvision and political veiws. The day Liswani II went to live in the palace he was shot and recovered and changed his name to king Liswani, Sikiti haunted him over the years and the king disappered to keep from stepping down from his posistion. he came from hiding and explained to the people that he would expose his enemies and showed the people that it was not Sikiti that was going through the chambers of the palace haunting people and doing things it was Sikitis son, he simpily lived undergound near the rear of the palace. And the people of the city had known this all along Soon after this was reveled the king appointed new people to help him rule the city since he felt like the others had betread him.

Crocodile Tails

A women, meets another women during secondary school, named Gill. Gill was from britain and her and gill talked bout the different ways of teaching from how they grew up. she wanted to go to britian to visit Gill when she left. Eventually she got the chance to fly over to britian to meet Gill in the country she had dreamed of. She was amazed by all the white faces and the nature in britian.

A State Of Outrage

Nana and five of her other friends where known as the significant six during highschool. One of their friends, Vuyokazi, had died from Aids. Nana was really upset with her death and wanted everyone to come together to help fight aids in their neighborhoods.

The power of a plate of rice

Mrs. Cheta Adu worked for Mr. Aziza as a teacher. Mr. Aziza delayed Mrs. Adu's pay til the end of Febuary because she had missed school four days in a row because her son was very ill. Mrs. Adu began to worry about how she would feed her two childern, mother-in-law and also how she would pay the rent. She went to Mr. Aziza's office to beg him to pay her since she was struggling with her bills, feeding her family, and taking care of her sick son. Mr. Aziza refused to pay her until the end of Febuary. She went to his office for the last time she followed him to his home and he let her in and explained to her that no matter how long she stayed he still wont pay her. he went into a room and she proceeded to go into the dining area where there was a mound of jollif rice, she began to feed herself as Mr. Aziza came out of the room. He was shocked that she was eating his food at his table, He asked her to leave and she said not until he paid her, he then became angry and told her to leave she still said no not until he paid her, he then finally said ok he would and gave her a note to give to payroll. She politely left with the note, still chewing the food.

The Betrayal

A loving man and women wanted to bear a child with each other to express their love for one another. The women gave birth to a son, the mother and father wanted to teach their son to love mankind and nature and they sent him out on his own. The son found things to be difficult out on his own. He spent his days growing up and watching his days go by, he felt so alone in the world. He had powerful nightmare's about the things his parents talked to him about and decieded these things had to stop. Once he figured out what his parents were trying to tell him he met a beautiful female and he wanted her badly. He possessed the female by letting her drink out of a glass he gave her. She went unconscious but when she gained conscious she found out she was pregnant. She told him "This child is not mine, He will bring unhappiness." The man wanted to erase what had happened. He placed his hand upon the womens belly and a gigantic flash of lighting which josted the clouds. Smoke, air, and fire killed everyone and the horizon was a big enormous mushroom cloud.

The Museum

The Museum was a different story to read because it seemed that the first character was gonna get his feelings hurt. First off the guy was like this geeky science guy, who didnt no how to socialize very well. Then he meats this girl that he had been crushing on, and finally enters a relationship with her but realizes that the girl is more into controlling him. This guy owns a paper and maxi-pad factory. This story was basically a little boring.

Uncle Bunty

This was the story about the worse possible that ever existed on earth. Totally a man hoe, he basically used women for sex, money, and power. I could only guess that maybe it could have been written by a women who had been emotionally ripped apart by men constantly throught her life. The only good thing about theh story was that it showed warning signs for future women.

The Red Velvet Dress

This story tapped into sadness, and alot of greiveing for the characters. Throughout the first beginning I was very confused as to what was going on in the story, I couldnt locate where the story was going to lead me to. But as I read more it became evident that the father in this story had been sexually abusing Katrina. Then mixed in with that was a vibe that the father was a murderor, every time something major/bad happened somebody ended up dead .The story turned when the gurl killed who she thought was her father for rapeing her and her friend. Then after serving time in jail while Katrina's mother was on a death bead, Katrina found out the man who was rapeing her was not her father. And that the man killed her actual birth father many years ago. So this was left to face with alot after finding all that out then her mother passes, and she realized that her mother had hidd the truth from her for all those years.

The Prophetess

The Prophetess was a different story to read as apposed to all the depressed stories we have been reading. The prophetess gave off a magical /fairy tale feel . It starts off with a son who is naturally supposed to assume responsibility over the household since there is a lack of a father figure detailed in this story. The mother keeps ends meat by working as a nurse. The turning point of the story is when the mother gets sick. The boy finds it his duty to help heal her by going to get some holy water from this women called " The Prophetess" . The Prophetess is supposedly this magical women who has magical water that can heal anything with one drop. The climax is when the boy had to over come fears of knocking on the door, fears of the guard dogs, fears that she would turn him away. Towards the end, the mother states that even medicine can not heal everything to the boy leading you to beleive that the hospitals there are not up to date.

A Coversation from the Third Floor

Ok so I agreed with the class on not being able to understand any part of this story, as discussed in class. All we gathered was that a man was in jail talkn behind a wall to his wife or girlfreind who was being felt up on at the same time all the while hidden behind the large wall???

A Handful of Dates

I found that this story was an ok story compared to all the others. I got the impression that the boy was at first a little obessed with the compasion he has towards his grandfather. Then the story gave me leverage to understand why. The grandfather was an important figure in the town aswell as in the eyes of the boy , simply becuase he commanded respect and owned land and shared outdoor oportunity's with his grandson. It was a pretty average story up untill the end , i still dont understand why the boy ran away and threw up his dates.

An Incident in the Ghobashi Household

This story very intriqued me, i have to say a couple of things shocked me. The first thing i didnt understand was "Zeinat rose to her feet and went out with sluggish steps to the courtyard, where she made her ablutions". The story quickly unfolded to reveal that the daughter was pregnant being raised in a culture where it was better for the mother to reveal the child as her own for reputations sake. The father was off at war not aware to what he was coming home to.

Minutes of Glory

Ok so this was the story about the girl who was basically a stripper. Bound to walk amongst this world alone with no one to love her and no one to respect her struggles as being a women. She was dismissed from her family as the last of the oldest child in her family not to be married she was sent away to find money for the purpose of returning to support the rest of her family. Times where different then as they are now. This was very debated story to discuss in class.

The Green leaves

The man Nyagar is anoother example of how being greedy can become a deathly burdan. This man had everything he needed , he had wives, money, cattle, and land. But with the temptation of getting even from the the cattle theives his greed got the best of him.
Im not understanding the time period of this story though, the part about the white men coming and making laws to a culture that had not adapted that way of life made it seem like this was around the time of Columbus or something.

The Gentlemen of the Jungle

Fisrt off I liked how the story gave a feeling like a childs story.
Theres nothing really to go into detail about this story except that the old saying is true
" What goes around comes around" and in order to achieve peace I would have done the same thing.

The Will of Allah

So Sule was deeply religious beleiving in Allah, but hints forth saw nothing wrong with theiving.
How he said that Allah must have given some more so that some with little could help themselves to it.....is ludcris. Thats just like saying whats mine is yours ripe for the taking. So not true at all, hands have been cut off for people who are like that. So when Sule said that becuase he walks arpund wearing a knife he exspects to get stabbed once in a while...? what kind of crap is that ,,,,so if i walk around wit money hanging out my pocket i should exspect someone to take it. It was good to see it end how it did theives who steel together die together.

The apprentice

In the beginning it sounded as if the master was unapreaciative towards the boy because he could make fine things and not cheap things that people wouldnt be able to buy. I didnt understand what "dissuasions increased everyday second " meant? So then in the end the story turns out to be a rivarly between brothers and who can make the best profit from making swords.

Civil peace

(3.) Civil peace

Nothing puzzles God , because in my opinion if something bad is coming or happening.
Then it is menat as a sign , that God is watching and may have more in store for you than you know so take heed to lessons learned. I am confused as to if the man is rich enough renew a once "rich" house. Or did his wife build the house from the profit of okra balls?

Certain Winds from the South

(2.)

I loved how the storie says" The evening prayers were done. The money is the bag. The grassland was still,...". I reflected that in my life meaning that" the dishes are done, I had a great day at work, and now its time to have a peaceful sleep!" As far as my overall opion about the storie I was just purely confused. Was this a one person view point storie? A woman just barking out commads to her children? The storie left alot to be understood.

African Short Stories

(1.) The False Prophet

-- The False Prophet was a very indifferent story for me to read, mainly because I am not familiar with the culture. I also admit it took me twice as long to understand the meanings and purpose of the storie. In a sense you get this feel, that its not just Americans who are depicted to be all about money. I'm still confused as to how Mahmoud was amassing small coins? I know he was supposed to be a wanderer, but how was he living?. Another key point I was interested in was noticing his preverence to money even before religion. I think maybe his religion played a minor key in this storie because deep down he was not a very serious follower. Maybe the culture he was raised in instilled that in him and when he was of age realized the importance of money. So this is not a situation of " what goes around comes around", maybe he acted based on how he was shown about life.