Uwem Akpan's much acclaimed collection of short stories entitled "Say You're One of Them" is bound to leave you breathless. Not just because of its cultural richness, or its factual accuracy, or even its astoundingly raw pictorial prose; but rather because it is a universal masterpiece of humanity and truth.
All throughout the five short stories weaved in his book, Akpan speaks in the innocent and pure voice of children about some of the harshest realities plaguing our African continent. From poverty and child prostitution in "The Ex-Mas Feast" to child sex trafficking in "Fattening for Gabon", to religious, social and national divisions in "What language is that?", "Luxurious Hearses" and "My parents' bedroom", Akpan artfully spells out the beauty and humanity behind the dark curtains of these much publicized horrors.
We've all heard of the disasters of child prostitution on the streets of Lagos, or felt the shame of child sex trafficking as reported from the shores of Gabon, or shielded our faces from the disturbing images displayed on television screens around the world of the genocide in Rwanda. Yet few of us have managed to hear these stories from the mouths of those most affected by them: the children. That is exactly the simple, yet extraordinary feat that Uwem Akpan so successfully accomplishes in his work.
Through the voices of children such as Monique in Rwanda, Jubril in Niger, or Kotckikpa in Benin, Akpan cracks open a much-needed window on the humanity behind these horror stories. These are children, African children, filled with hope, promise and future, who despite the shame of selling their bodies on poorly lit city streets to sustain their families, still know how to laugh when being tickled. These are children who do not understand what it means to be sold as sex slaves by their own families, yet still love the very perpetrators of these crimes with all their heart. These are children who cherish other children just because, despite religious and societal barriers imposed by childish adults who do not know any better. These are children who look at Death in the face, walking in the dark, their feet shuffling in pools of blood, instinctively, unknowingly pursuing Life. They embody the meaning of Humanity, Love, Endurance, and Friendship.
They do not condemn, neither do they judge the world that already condemned and sentenced them. They simply tell the truth of their stories to whomever wants to listen. And listen we should, because these stories are not just about some remote part of the world we get to peek at and return to our everyday havens. Because these are stories about us, about how we, as human beings, see ourselves, about the definitions we assign ourselves, and the denominations we assign others. About the shame and guilt we feel as a result of not knowing and upholding the truth of who we are. About the moral dispossession we fall prey to, for elusive want of material possessions. About the shattered innocence and broken dreams that is the bulk of the inheritance left by the heavy toll of previous generations, oblivious of the gift of Tomorrow. About Life, Death, and Redemption.
About you and I. I am one of Them.
SL. http://keurawa.wordpress.com/
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