Bookish Stuff, Kwei Quartey

Workshop & Reading with Kwei Quartey

by Darkowaa4 Comments on Workshop & Reading with Kwei Quartey

On Saturday, Dec 20th, author Kwei Quartey had a workshop and reading session at Totally Youth in North Ridge, Accra which was hosted by Writers Project of Ghana. I only attended the book reading and it was fun! Kwei Quartey read excerpts from his 3 novels of the Inspector Darko Dawson crime series: “Wife of the Gods” , “Children of the Street” and his latest novel, “Murder at Cape Three Points”. After the book reading we asked Quartey questions and had short discussions on how he decides the themes of his books- which are mostly in the crime/mystery genre, his experience with good and bad book reviews and his future plans of the Darko Dawson series.

I’m not a big fan of the crime/mystery/thriller genre, but I love that the Darko Dawson series are based in various regions of Ghana. Readers who have never been to Ghana will definitely get a glimpse of the various sceneries, smells, accents, sounds etc of the nation. Kwei Quartey was truly pleasant, and he seems to really find joy in writing novels. Readers are not obliged to read the series in chronological order, but I think it’s best to do so. I’m particularly interested in picking up a copy of the second book in the series – “Children of the Street” which takes place in the slums of Accra (I think the Korle Bu area of Accra).

Ayesha Harruna Attah, author of “Harmattan Rain” (check out my review of that book – here) also attended the reading and I got to meet her! Her new book, “Saturday’s Shadows” is currently on sale in Europe and will be available for purchase in Ghana soon- I hope! I love meeting the authors of the books I adore/of African literature in general. I admire African writers and I will continue to support their work. I feel more connected to Ghana and Africa as a whole through their books and it’s a great feeling 🙂

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Above are pictures of the reading session and shots of me and Kwei Quartey and Ayesha Harruna Attah.

Follow Writers Project of Ghana on Twitter if you are in Ghana, for more info on African author workshops/book readings etc, here -> @writersPG.

 

Book Reviews, Shimmer Chinodya

Can We Talk and Other Stories by Shimmer Chinodya

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Can We Talk and Other Stories by Shimmer Chinodya

Date Read: November 22nd 2014

Published: 2001 (originally published by Baobab Books in 1998)

Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 154

shimmer

 The Blurb

Opening with the puzzled and innocent view of a boy looking in on the adult world from outside, this collection follows the transition from childhood to adult life. Youthful desires for prosperity, love and a purpose in life are undermined by experiences of humiliation, compromise and a failure to communicate, in a process that reflects a wider disillusionment and decline in post-independence Zimbabwe. In the final story, cynicism turns to anger as the narrator, facing the breakdown of his marriage, challenges his audience to confront the inaction that leads to disappointment and the deep-seated loneliness and alienated at the root of our estrangements.

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Review – ★★★★ (4 stars)

This is a refreshing collection of 11 short stories and I’m glad I randomly spotted this at the bookstore! People, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are not the only legendary African Literature male novelists. Shimmer Chinodya is surely one of them- in my opinion! He is a wonderful poetic storyteller.

Can We Talk And Other Stories is a collection of stories that take readers through the transitions of boyhood to manhood. Various issues associated with coming-of-age such as confusion, fear, loneliness, depression, insecurity, alcoholism amongst others are tackled in these 11 short stories. It’s best to read these stories from the beginning to the end, as the stories are in chronological order with respect to the age of the main characters.

The novel starts off with a story of a precocious five year old boy, followed by tales of school life- in Zimbabwe and abroad, followed by stories of adult relationships and ends with a story of a forty-something year old man, lamenting his failed marriage called “Can We Talk”. “Can We Talk” was actually nominated for The Caine Prize for African Writing in year 2000- the year Leila Aboulela won the prize for her story “Museum”.

I enjoyed all the stories, mostly because they were different from the myriad of West African novels I usually read. I loved reading about Zimbabwe and admired Chinodya’s use of Shona (the principle language of Zimbabwe) in the text. The glossary at the back of the novel helped me translate some of the words used in the text, but even without the glossary I was able to understand the ideas conveyed in the stories. Chinoya’s use of alliteration, metaphors, repetition and other literature techniques were perfect in illustrating issues of love, confusion, guilt and loneliness. There is also a lot of humor in these stories- its not all depressing!

My favorite stories were:

“Brothers and Sisters” – A tale of a young man who suddenly becomes a staunch Christian and tries to convert everyone he interacts with to Christianity. He finally finds the love of this life, but when she finally reveals to him her true self, things take an interesting…exaggerated turn.

“Snow” – This is not a story per se…I wouldn’t call it a poem either. Its more like a collection of words. “Snow” more or less is a collection of words expressing different ideas and feelings about living in the West- from accents, to weather, food, international students, immigration etc. To get a gist of the text, here are two excerpts from pg. 59 & pg. 61:

‘White flesh white flesh. Blue eyes. Green eyes. Black eyes. Brown. Blonde hair. Brunette. Red. Black. Multivitamin smiles. Braced teeth. Sun-tan.

Food.

Foodfood foodfood foodfood.

French fried, fritters, frankfurters, fish, fillet, farina, falafels, figs, fennel, flax, Fanta, fruitbread.

Fat.

Fat fat fat.

Fudge-face, milk-nose, coke-lips, burger-bums, popcorn-belly, choc-cheeks, gum-teeth, cream-tongue, pizza-palate, Budweiser-chin, candy-kiss…’ (pg. 59)

‘Snow. Cold, loneliness. No legs, no laughter. Layers of loneliness packing into cakes of ice. The hard ice of longing. Cold and hard as pornography. Magazines splattered with blood-red flesh. Peep shows. Live.

Can the earth be so dead, so cruel? So white? Were shorts possible?

Oh, for a black face, for laughter, for warmth.’ (pg. 61)

I love this story because I’m currently obsessed with narratives on African life in the West/immigrant experiences. I especially love how “Snow” ends, because winter can truly get lonely and make any African miss home immensely! I simply understood and bonded with the collection of words and had fun reading it. Shimmer Chinodya is a wordsmith!

My only issue with this collection is that most of the stories were written from a male’s perspective. It would have been nice to have more than just one story (“Play Your Cards”) with a female voice.

But I will definitely be on the lookout for more Shimmer Chinodya books to purchase. I think I’d like to read his book- Chairman of Fools next.

My heart was glad after reading this novel. 🙂

★★★★ (4 stars) – Great book. Highly recommend!

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Purchase Can We Talk and Other Stories on Amazon

Book Reviews, Yvonne Vera

Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women’s Writing edited by Yvonne Vera

by Darkowaa7 Comments on Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women’s Writing edited by Yvonne Vera

Date Read: March 7th 2014

Published: 1999

Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 186

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The Blurb

African women are seldom given the space to express their concerns, their ideas and their reflections about the societies in which they live.

 In situations where a good woman is expected to remain silent, literature can provide an important medium for the expression of deeply felt and sometimes shocking views. In this anthology the award-winning author Yvonne Vera brings together the stories of many talented writers from different parts of Africa. They act as witnesses to the dramas of private and public life. Their stories challenge contemporary attitudes and behavior, leaving no room for complacency.

Contributors include Ama Ata Aidoo, Veronique Tadjo, Farida Karodia, Lindsey Collen and Sindiwe Magona.

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Review – ★★★★ (4 stars)

This is a powerful collection of fifteen stories by African women writers from various countries such as: Zimbabwe, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Namibia and Zambia. It was cool to read stories from countries that are not very active in the African literature scene- like Mauritius, Mali and Sudan.

These stories tackle the positives and negatives of being an African woman in their own unique ways. Some themes in the stories are: coming-of-age, motherhood, women empowerment, polygamy, abortion, death, political instability, faith and many more!

My favorite stories were:

‘The Museum’ by Leila Aboulela (Sudan) – This is the story that won the first Caine Prize in 2000! It’s a tale of the challenges a Sudanese girl- Shadia, faces as she is studying Mathematics in university in the United Kingdom. Despite the fact that she has a fiancé back home in Sudan, she starts to fall for fellow Scottish classmate- Bryan, who seems to be the brightest in the class. As Shadia and Bryan spend more time together, Aboulela teaches readers about the importance of religion (Islam). After Shadia and Bryan take a trip to a museum and Shadia is disappointed at how wrongly the West portrays Africa, I learned that Africa will always be where the heart is, for Africans living abroad.

‘The Power of a Plate of Rice’ by Ifeoma Okoye (Nigeria) – A hilarious tale of a single mother, who is a schoolteacher, struggling to keep her family alive. The principal of her school refuses to pay her salary while her children are sick and starving. This schoolteacher ends up doing something unpredictable which shocks her principal. This was a fun and easy read.

‘Stress’ by Lília Momplé (Mozambique) – A mistress of a rich married man sits in her luxurious apartment and spends her days staring out of her window, desperately desiring and fantasizing about her neighbor across the street. Meanwhile, this neighbor barely notices this mistress across the street as he struggles living as a deeply stressed schoolteacher. I enjoyed the unpredictability of the story’s ending!

‘The Barrel of a Pen’ by Gugu Ndlovu (Zimbabwe) – This was a heart-wrenching tale of two girls who spend their afternoon in a hotel. An unqualified nurse visits the girls in the hotel and executes an abortion on one of them. The gory descriptions of this story had me cringing. But I loved how the friendship between the two girls was strong enough to save a life.

This collection was published in 1999, but the stories, themes and the lessons learned are still relevant to readers today, in 2014. I recommend this!

★★★★ (4 stars) – Great book. Highly recommend!

Purchase Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women’s Writing on Amazon

Book Covers

Caribbean Book Covers! (showcase 3)

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Caribbean Book Covers! (showcase 3)

Welcome to showcase 3 of the Book Covers Series!

The showcase below displays some lovely Caribbean book covers! The art work of these covers have either pushed me to purchase some books, or are still encouraging me to purchase them in the near future. Check out the other showcases from the Book Cover Series – here!

Stay tuned for showcase 4- to be posted early next year, which will feature African-American book covers.

Enjoy! 🙂

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More book covers!

Book Reviews, Chinua Achebe

Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe

by Darkowaa2 Comments on Girls at War and Other Stories by Chinua Achebe

Date Read: August 5th 2014

Published: September 1991

Publisher: First Anchor Books

Pages: 121

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The Blurb

Full of characteristic energy and authenticity, the stories in this classic collection capture the remarkable talent of one of the world’s most acclaimed writers and storytellers.

Here we read of an ambitious farmer who is suddenly shunned by his village when a madman exacts his humiliating revenge; a young nanny who is promised an education by her well-to-do employers, only to be cruelly cheated out of it; and in three fiercely observed stories about the Nigerian civil war, we are confronted with the economic ethnic, cultural and religious tensions that continue to rack modern Africa. Displaying an astonishing range of experience, Chinua Achebe deftly takes us inside the heart and soul of people whose pride and ideals must compete with the simple struggle to survive.

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Review – ★★★ (3 stars)

This is a decent collection of stories by Achebe.

My favorite stories were:

‘The Madman‘ – a tale of a once prominent man in a village who is humiliated by a vengeful madman. What a shameful but hilarious story!

‘Marriage is a Private Affair‘ – a story of a loving couple who are trying to convince their relatives of their forbidden love, as they are from different ethnic groups. I liked how Achebe wrote on the challenges of intermarriages between people of different ethnic groups especially as it is a problem we still face in Africa today.

‘Girls at War‘ – a tragic love story during the civil war in Nigeria. The story is centered on the short-lived romance between a militia girl and the Minister of Justice, living on the edge during the dangerous times of the civil war.

I don’t think I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. Achebe’s writing style and storytelling manner were phenomenal as usual, but I wasn’t really interested in the subject matter of most of the stories. To be honest, I purchased the book because I loved the book cover design! And I must say, I still like the book cover design more than the stories, hahaa! But I do recommend this book- especially to the die-hard Chinua Achebe fans…this would be a fast read for you.

★★★ (3 stars) – Good book. I recommend it, I guess.

Purchase Girls at War and Other Stories on Amazon

Book Reviews, Leila Aboulela

Minaret by Leila Aboulela

by Darkowaa16 Comments on Minaret by Leila Aboulela

Date Read: July 21st 2014

Published: 2005

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Pages: 288

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The Blurb

With her Muslim hijab and down-turned gaze, Najwa is invisible to most eyes, especially to the rich Arab families whose houses she cleans in London. Twenty years earlier, Najwa, then an aristocratic Westernized Sudanese, could have never imagined this new life. She was a student at the University of Khartoum but her focus in life was on fashionable clothes, pop music, and parties. When a political coup forces Najwa’s family into exile in London, she soon finds herself orphaned and completely alone. For the first time in her life, Najwa turns to the solace and companionship among the women at the mosque, and when she adopts the hijab, she begins to see the world anew. Then Najwa meets Tamer, the intense, lonely younger brother of her employer and they find a common bond in her newfound faith and slowly, silently, begin to fall in love. Written with directness, simplicity and force, Minaret is a stunning and insightful novel about one woman’s journey toward spiritual peace.

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 Review – ★★★ (3 stars)

I loved Leila Aboulela’s short story ‘Museum‘ which won the first Caine Prize in 2000. I read ‘Museum‘ from the anthology, Opening Spaces – Contemporary African Women’s Writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it, mainly because Aboulela is Sudanese and writes about Khartoum. We rarely read or hear about Sudan in the African literature scene, so Leila Aboulela’s writing excites me!

I preferred reading the beginning of Minaret: Najwa was born into an upper-class Muslim family where her father worked with the president of Sudan, and her mother came from a rich family. Najwa and her twin brother who are very secular compared to other Muslim youth went to the best private schools of Khartoum and the best university in the nation. The family had several luxurious cars, superfluous food,  partied with their rich friends regularly and enjoyed vacations in several countries, including London where they owned a townhouse. Life was great for Najwa’s family.

Since all was well for Najwa and her family, she was very oblivious to the fact that Sudan was a very poor nation with majority of the citizens under the poverty line and with a government- which her father was associated with, that was very corrupt. Things turned upside down for Najwa and her family when Sudan faced a coup d’etat, hence her family- excluding her father, were forced to escape to their townhouse in London. The storyline cuts through 10-15 years later and after a series of unfortunate events, Najwa who was once a rich, secular university student becomes a lonely, poor housemaid. As a housemaid, Najwa finally starts to take Islam seriously by wearing a hijab and going to the Mosque to pray daily.

The storyline towards the middle of Minaret gets a bit annoying. Najwa (now a housemaid), who is now about 40 years old falling in love with Tamer – her employer’s son, was a bit strange to me. Why is this 40 year old in love with a 19 year old university student? I found Tamer to be very judgmental as he felt he was a better Muslim than everyone. Towards the middle of the story, I realized Najwa was a little too naiive for my liking. Her fate was very sad as she was orphaned quite early due to political instability in Sudan, but I didn’t find Najwa to be a strong Muslim woman I could learn from. Surely, she had her strengths- she had a calm spirit, she was meek, she was very kind and regarded others’ feelings. Throughout the novel, she was trying to grow spiritually and was trying to become a better Muslim, but by the end of the novel I didn’t really see the depth of her growth. The conclusion of the novel seemed incomplete as well since Najwa’s character seemed stagnant. It was as though she was content being a housemaid and did not aspire to do anything better with her life or even go back to Sudan. I was quite disappointed that Najwa did not want more for herself.

Leila Aboulela is a great writer. I loved the calmness and simplicity of her writing in this novel. This book made me appreciate the Muslim culture and the importance of women wearing hijabs and tobes. I just wish the love story between Tamer (the 19 year old) and Najwa was more realistic and didn’t take up 3/5ths of the storyline. But I still look forward to reading more of Aboulela’s books!

★★★ (3 stars) – Good book. I recommend it, I guess.

Purchase Minaret on Amazon

Literature News

The Africa39 Anthology!

by Darkowaa3 Comments on The Africa39 Anthology!

The Africa 39 project is an anthology of stories/extracts from the most promising 39 authors under the age of 40 from Sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora. Africa 39 will finally be launched TOMORROW, October 12th 2014 at a festival in UNESCO’s World Book Capital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria!

The selected authors of the Africa39 anthology are believed to have the potential and the talent to define the trends that will mark the future development of literature in a certain language or region.

Some of these authors are: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Okwiri Oduor (Kenya), Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond (Ghana/USA), Igoni Barrett (Nigeria), Sifiso Mzobe (South Africa), Dinaw Mengestu (Ethiopia), Hawa Jande Golakai (Liberia), Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda), Recaredo Silebo Boturu (Equitorial Guinea), Edwige- Renée Dro (Cote d’Ivoire), Stanley Onjezani Kenani (Malawi), Zukiswa Wanner (Zambia/South Africa/Zimbabwe) among others!

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I pre-ordered the book on Amazon so I should receive my copy pretty soon. I really hope the book will be available in Ghana- hopefully at the EPP book shop in East Legon, Accra. EPP actually has lots of new African Literature books in stock, so maybe Africa39 will arrive here soon!

I’m excited to read stories from authors of different sub-Saharan African countries that aren’t very popular in the African Literature scene- like Liberia, Malawi, Zambia, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea among others! 🙂

For more information on Africa39, read – here.

Currently Reading, Goodreads Reading Challenge (2014)

Currently Reading

by DarkowaaLeave a Comment on Currently Reading

I recently finished reading ‘The Spider King’s Daughter’ by Chibundu Onuzo and I loved it! A review will be posted soon!

*sigh* But (dental) school is in session and I know my reading will slow down. I’ve already surpassed by reading goal for this year- which was 12 books. Right now I’m on book 15, so at least I was able to complete my reading challenge!

I’m currently reading: The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

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This is a small book (about 125 pages). So hopefully it won’t take me ages to finish reading and will also be a fun distraction from my school workload 🙂