"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.

"Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone" by Martin Dugard, Reflections On A Great Biography Of Adventures

 

Recently, I had read and written two blog posts about Former President Theodore Roosevelt's nearly fatal journey into the Amazon  country and down the River of Doubt.  I subsequently strayed into this book in a Goodwill store and since both my wife and I had thoroughly enjoyed the Roosevelt book by Candice Millard, I decided to buy and read t his one.  While it is not quite as well written as the River of Doubt book, it is still a wonderful, and somewhat similar kind of story about two great explorers and adventurers in the times when much of the world was generally unexplored and unmapped.  The research which the author Martin Dugard did for this book is nearly as thorough as the work Millard performed in order to write hers.  The personalities of the four protagonists, two in each of the books, are very similar.  They were all men determined to leave their individual marks on the history and the world and all succeeded in doing so.  The book covers the period from about spring of 1866 to 1874 when Dr. David Livingstone is presumed lost, and perhaps dead, in Africa on a mission to locate the source of the Nile River, and Henry Morton Stanley is sent on a mission to find him by the newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. of the New York Herald.  All three men are bent on success, each of them in search of his own individual realm of success as he envisions it.  

Dr. Livingstone is the considered to be the greatest explorer of his time and has actually become the first man to traverse the continent of Africa on foot.  Bennett is rich, somewhat ruthless and on a drive to become the most successful and wealthy newspaper publisher in America.  Stanley is a western cowboy type, highly motivated to become famous, and willing to do whatever it might take to accomplish his goals.  Livingstone, despite being a very publicly and devoutly religious man has also admitted in at least one exchange with a friend that he  has had sex with over 300 African women.  He is becoming what had to be considered aged in those times and is finding his travels in Africa to be nearly all he can survive.  Stanley is markedly younger and believes himself imminently qualified to follow Livingstone to the darkest reaches of the dark continent in order to make himself famous.  

Both Stanley and Livingstone come close to meeting death on more than one occasion, but they do eventually have their famous meeting in which Stanley apparently actually did mouth is famous introductory query, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."  Stanley returns to the so-called civilized world of the United States while delivering proof that Dr. Livingstone is actually alive and achieves the fame he has sought.  Dr. Livingstone turns down Stanley's offer to be returned to his native England and shortly thereafter dies.  His body is preserved, although his heart is buried at the site of his death in Africa, and the illustrious corpse is returned to England by his most devoted employee.  This is a great book for the person who likes to read about real adventurers and achievers and well worth reading.