"African Short Stories" Edited by Chinua Achebe & C. L. Innes

The short story is, in my opinion, the greatest form of literature in the world. When I make that statement, I understand fully that fans of both the novel and drama will take offense. But consider this, an average short story contains somewhere between about 1,000 to a maximum of about 10,000 words with a lot of room for argument about both minimum and maximum lengths. The average short story contains about 3,000 to 4,000 words. Therefore, the author of a short story must be able to tell a compelling story in less than 10,000 words and still bring into that story all of the necessary elements of a short story: plot, character, setting, and theme. I would argue that a good to great short story must also possess conflict and conflict resolution. There are some literary critics or simply lovers of the short story who also mention the necessity for a short story to contain tone and point of view. Some others who also believe themselves to be experts on the short story mention "want or goal" which I believe is simply a left handed way to say, or avoid saying, plot. These same people mention "decisions" as being necessary in a short story. I would say that "decisions" in a short story are simply part of plot, character development, or conflict resolution. But enough hair splitting about what a short story is required to contain. A simpler way to put it is that a short story must tell a story which contains at least 4 or 5 elements and reach a conclusion about what has happened in the intervening few thousand words. A short story is the greatest form of literature because it has so little room for error on the part of an author. Most of the stories in this little collection from Africa achieve that rather confining goal. The book is edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes and contains twenty stories from African writers which are divided into four geographical groups for the four points of the compass on the continent. The book was originally published in 1985. I won't go so far as to say all of the stories impressed me to the point that I would have included them with the remaining majority. But one or two of the stories are truly impressive feats of writing and at least a half dozen are better than average when compared with the better short stories found in other parts of the world. Most of them can be defended as being clearly African in nature. Some of them are addressing what can be called universal themes from all the world over. My personal choice as the best story in the book is called "The Will of Allah" by David Owoyele which is a masteful telling of an unusual story which clearly contains all those key elements. There are two characters who are professional thieves who make a living together robbing the homes and perhaps businesses of the people around them. They don't particularly like each other and are simply what could be called business associates who make a living in the dead of the night by victimizing the innocents around them. They go out together to rob someone and randomly choose a home in which they find a large basket similar to those in which the local people are known to keep their most important possessions. One enters the home and passes the basket and its unknown contents out a window to his partner who goes to their meeting place and opens to the basket to find that it contains a cobra belonging to a person who apparently practices as a a snake charmer. He is immediately bitten and knows he will die. He puts the lid back on the basket and when his partner catches up with him allows the partner to also open the basket and be bitten by the cobra. Then he uses the last of his life strength to reach inside the basket and kill the cobra while being bitten several more times. Naturally, both men die and the will of Allah has been carried to its logical conclusion. With the death of the two protagonists, it is amazing that the story also contains some better than average humor. In the middle of the story, I laughed out loud at least a couple of times as the two men who dislike each other carry out their plan and the necessary conversation to bring it to a conclusion. If I were ever to be asked (which will not happen in this world) to put together a collection of my favorite stories in all the world, I would include "The Will of Allah". It is truly great story. There are several other better than average stories in the book including selections from former Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta whose story is a fine piece of writing about the nature of politics; Bessie Head who died young and is still recognized as one of Africa's best writers; and Nobel Prize Winner Nadine Gordimer. This little book is well worth reading.