african Short stories
Introduction EVOLUTION OF THE GENRE Be it tales or legends, man has always loved to tell stories and it can be said, in a way, that the short story was created in the night of time. ... The romance catered mainly for the leisured class of society, the nobility, and reflected their taste for heroic gestures and ethereal love stories (often set in a world of fantasy). ... Some tales however, show wider ambitions2 and already present some of the features which were to become specific to the European short story genre in the nineteenth century. ... After the Middle Ages and through the following centuries, the differentiation between the two forms of the tale accentuated until the nineteenth century when the short story established itself as a separate genre. THE SHORT STORY AS A GENRE It was left to Edgar Allan Poe, himself a short story writer, to define in 1842 what he then called, the short prose narrative (or prose tale) and to lay down the rules governing its composition^. ... It should be short enough to be read at one sitting so that during the hour of perusal the soul of the reader is at the writers control. ... For many short story writers, Poes rules are still essential. They consider that the short story must concentrate on a single character, in a single situation at a single moment; it must be concise and condensed both in form and content. Henry James once advised a young short story writer: Make it tremendously succinct - with a very short pulse or rhythm, and the choicest selection of detail - in other words, summarize intensively and keep down lateral developments. However, if this advice is echoed by many writers, it is also rejected by others who consider that Poes rules are too binding and tend to enclose the short story in a kind of formal strait-jacket. Therefore, they advocate the need to break the picture free from the frame7 and argue that the short story can only gain in vividness and realism from a looseness of structure8, and an unmitigated shapelessness of [the] narrative9. ... Whatever approach is chosen by short story writers and critics, there is one point on which they all agree: after poetry, the short story is the most difficult and disciplined form of prose-writing10. They all endorse Graham Greenes assertion that if anybody can write a novel, very few people indeed can write a good short story! If the short story is such a demanding art, it is because what finally matters is the complete accord between form and substance. Besides points of content, technique, style and composition, the only point really worth examining, when assessing a short story, is whether or not the writer has divined the natural shape of his story, whether his story is final as an orange is final", or as an egg is whole, and is an egg no less because it is small or large, ostrich or robin, white or spotted12. Such images clearly underline the importance of structural unity in the short story. In other terms, a good short story must have an organic structure: this is to say that there should be no extraneous material within it. ... To achieve such a perfect blend, however, to create such a perfect shape, short story writers must reach a mastery of which very few, like La Guma, prove to be capable. WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY? ... When it comes to the short story it is particularly difficult to give a fast-binding and all- embracing definition. Paradoxically, the best way to go about it is to look first at what the short story is not rather than what it is; in other words, to dwell on the differences between the short story and other genres, and in particular between the novel and the tale. The most obvious difference between the short story and the novel is one of length; some writers consider that it is the only one. Kingsley Amis calls his stories chips from a novelists workbench", while Stephen Dixon says that each novel Ive written started off as a short story, and when it got above 30 to 40 pages, I started calling it a novel". ... Is a short story nothing else than a telescoped novel"? ... While the novel is composed of intricate and interweaving plots, detailed characterisation, shifts in space and time, and has an ambitious scope, the short story keeps to a single narrative line, shows greater economy, merely sketches characters, and has a very small scope. While the ambition of the novel is to create a whole world, to exhibit the complexity and the beauty of life, the short story only wants to suggest" it. The attitude of the reader is different in each genre: a novel calls for him to identify with the theme, a short story only for his participation". ... The short story, on the contrary, models itself closely on reality (and therefore does not necessarily draw any moral), follows a well-defined pattern and sheds all superfluous elements. The difference between the tale and the short story is not therefore a matter of length but one of form and content. It would seem in the end that, to define the short story, there is no other choice but to fall back on Edgar Allan Poes rules and to agree with F. ... Green that the main attributes of the short story are a profound respect for form, an instinct for clarity and conciseness, and an unerring flair for the truly dramatic situation. A good short story is a miracle of condensation11;. THE SHORT STORY GENRE IN AFRICA For the past thirty years, the short story genre has been thriving in Africa, especially in African countries using English as a literary medium-". Yet critics have so far paid little attention to the production of the indigenous short story, dismissing it as of no real literary importance. Several factors can explain this dismissive attitude: in Africa, short stories appear mainly in the popular press and are therefore rated very low; they serve as a means of apprenticeship in creative writing for aspiring writers, consequently earning the disparaging label of beginners work; they seem to keep very much in line with the European or western model and can then be scorned as too derivative. Therefore, critics tend to treat the short story either as a footnote to the novel-1 or as an exercise in style with little relevance to the role that they assign to literature in Africa. It is true that, like their western counterparts, African writers often consider - quite fittingly - the short story purely as a literary challenge. ... It would be too restrictive, however, to look at the African short story only from the point of view of literary mastery. It must been seen in a wider perspective, as a thoroughly efficient tool for the presentation of modern life-", for the production of what Ulli Beier calls snapshots, revealing a terrible moment of truth2, and for the shaping of the social statement that, as much as the novelist, the African short story teller wishes to make. THE NEVER-ENDING CONFLICT BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY The needs, aspirations and anxieties of the present-day world loom very large in the African short story, and Ulli Beier is right to point out that by far the greatest number of African [short story] writers are interested in depicting present-day situations and problems. ... Indeed, there are very few stories in which the past is the only subject-matter of the narrative; and not very many (Ivory Bangles is an example - see pages 157 to 161) which centre only on traditional values. ... It should be noted that, in the African short story, the old and the new order of things never come to terms with each other; instead, they are locked in a perpetual conflict of which the outcome is always negative. ... In the same short story, modern values do not fare any better. ... 27 Other short story writers such as Abioseh Nicol, Kwabena Annan and Barbara Kimenye, bring their humour to bear mainly on the present-day world; tradition, however, does not remain unscathed. ... On the whole, in the African short story in English, neither the old nor the new order of things constitute a satisfactory solution to the heros dilemma. ... RESTLESS CITY The city is ever-present in African literature, especially in the short story. Is this any wonder considering the rate of urbanisation of the African continent in the last few decades? Ezekiel Mphahleles remark about South African writers can now also be applied to those of nearly any African country: they keep digging their feet into a urban culture of their own making29. ... It is not only in Glasgow, London or Paris but also in Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg that, as Gaston Bart-Williams puts it, the path of a poor and lonely African youth . ... In the African short story, with few exceptions such as Fwanyanga iM. ... Restless City is the title of one of Ekwensis short stories; it is typical of many African short stories in English. ... It is through this confrontation that the African short story shapes its own vision of the world. THEMES It is well beyond the limits of this introduction to catalogue all the themes which can be found in the African short story in English. However, the purpose of this anthology, through a selection of seventeen stories, is to bring out most of the recurrent themes: · Race-relations: R. ... TYPOLOGY In his preface to Modern African Stories, Charles Larson takes up the short story classification as set out by E. Mphahlele in The African Image. Short stories, according to the two critics, can be divided into three main groupings: the romantic-escapist story, the protest story, and the ironic short story, the last being a sort of meeting point between protest and acceptance32. This thematic typology (which was made with the South African short story in mind) remains unsatis- factory: themes certainly have a marked tendency to overlap and proliferate to such an extent that there is no end to possible sub- divisions. ... Richard Kostelanetz in Twelve from the Sixties looks at the short story from the point of view of structure and distinguishes between the arc story, which has a climax in the middle and then an unravelling, the epiphany story . ... r *-< v lorm, the purpose and design of the short story is to give order and meaning to experience35; and since experience varies in time and space, there is and there will always be short stories which are impossible to classify. THE AFRICAN SHORT STORY AND ORAL LITERATURE It is not possible to give whole hearted support either to Larsons state- ment that the modern short story in Africa belongs to an oral literary tradition centuries old and still very much alive in Africa today36, or to Gary Spackeys that the contact between oral literature and the short story has been - and must remain - minimal37. ... Before doing so, it is essential to keep in mind the distinction which has been made earlier38 between the short story and the tale. Otherwise the obvious relationship between the tale and folk (or oral) literature would pass wholesale to the African short story. The courtly tradition of the griot with his heroic tales and legends is hard to trace in the African short story. ... It is more tempting to try to establish a link between the form of the oral tale and that of the short story, using as an example In the Cutting of a Drink by Ama Ata Aidoo. ... The African short story strikes swiftly and drives home a point with economy of language and time39. Whatever the African short story borrows from the oral tale is mostly a matter of content; even that is an insignificant amount. To establish a valid relationship between oral literature and the short story, it would be necessary to explore and compare the respective narrative techniques of the story-teller and of the narrator of the short story. ... Then it might be said that both genres use the same telling gesture and speak with the same African evocative diction40. THE AFRICAN SHORT STORY WRITER There is one aspect, however, in which the two genres - oral tale and short story - are quite different. While the story-teller held, and still holds, an honoured place in traditional society, the short story writer has so far been given little recognition. It might no longer be true that the African short story writer remains - for the most part - almost unknown41, but he is yet to receive the due praise of literary critics. ... The short story is gaining more and more popularity, especially in African countries where English is spoken. An American critic put the case for the undoubted popularity of the short story by saying that people do not write short stories because they hope to get rich, or even make a living, from them - all things that a novel can achieve. ... a poem or a novel or a play and that the short story is often used as a short-cut to prose meaning43? Is this because there is something unsettled about African city life which makes the slice-of-life kind of short story more appropriate than the integrated and highly organised form of the novel? Or is this simply because the short story takes less time to write and to read, and is cheap to print and to buy? Whatever the answer may be, it is obvious that in Africa the short story has become one of the literary mediums whereby [writers] and their immediate audience can come to terms with a world of physical and mental violence and dispossession144, be it that of apartheid or class- struggle. ... THE COMPOSITION OF THE ANTHOLOGY Selection Seventeen African short stories written in English have been selected for the anthology. Some have already appeared in collections of short stories, anthologies or literary journals and magazines; others were written specially for this anthology. Their authors have either made their mark on African literature in general, and on the short story genre in particular, or show promise of doing so. It is hoped that this story can be said to represent the best of that authors work and illustrates one or more of the major themes found in the entire body of the African short story in English. The number of stories allocated to countries where English is used as a literary medium is related to the importance of the national production in the genre. ... It might be in order to explain here why famous short story writers such as Doris Lessing or Nadine Gordimer have not been included in the anthology. ... Mphahleles argument that white South African writers, in spite of their sympathy for the plight of blacks, depict a totally different reality from that lived by black writers. Sadly, research into the African short story in English has as yet not brought to light any stories from the Gambia, Liberia or Malawi; all other African countries using English as a literary medium are represented in this anthology. The over-riding priority has been to present stories of the highest stylistic quality. ... Richard Rive now teaches and writes in South Africa; he is essentially a short story writer. His major works include: African Songs (short stories, 1963), Emergency (novel, 1964), Selected Writings (essays, plays, short stories, 1977), Writing Black (essay, 1981). Richard Rive has also edited Modern African Prose (1964) and Quartet (short stories, 1963 from which this story is taken). ... A dazzling white-gabled farmhouse baking in the hot African sun, in the distance kopjes shimmering against a hazy blue sky. ... But only for a • short while. ... Her other works include a collection of short stories, No Sweetness Here, 1970 (from which this story is taken), and a novel. ... This story is taken from Modern African Stories, published by Faber and Faber in 1964. ... He has had four plays performed by Zambian theatre groups and several short stories published in Zambian literary magazines. ... After a short 270 period of disappearance, she came back with a tumbler and poured. ... 80 His works include novels like: People of the City (1954), Jagua Nona (1961) and Beautiful Feathers (1963) and collections of short stories: Restless City and Christmas Gold (1975) and Lokotown and Other Stories (1966) from which the present story is taken. ... Eji squinted his short-sighted eyes. ... He edits an annual review of African Literature, African Literature Today published by Heinemann. ... For while Prothero had never thought his relationship with African women came within his ordinary moral code, he knew that what he was doing was wrong. ... Marie, African, illiterate, soft and melting, was entirely devoted to Tullock - she lived only for him. ... Published: in 1968 Potent Ash, a book of short stories (with his brother S. ... Suddenly, sharp pangs from his navel tore into his body and for one short, tormenting moment he was paralysed. ... For it seemed to Mbane now as he slumped his youth in horror under the weight of closing death, that his short life had been one of retreat. ... Alex La Guma has written several novels: And a Threefold Cord, 1964, /»» the Fog of the Seasons End, 1972, The Stone Country, 1974; poems and short stories: A Walk in the Night and other Stories, 1968. ... Well-known, versatile and controversial Ugandan author who has built up a reputation for experimentation through the medium of writing stories, verse and articles. His major works are: The Last Word (literary criticism, 1969); short stories: Fixions 1969. ... He said that he had written plenty of short stories, on the average of four in a day. ... He left South Africa in 1957 for Nigeria where he taught at the University of Ibadan, and has until recently lived in the USA and Zambia where his writings have championed the African cause. ... But the stocky Donker kept coming in and slashing out with his short horns. ... Besides A Point of No Return (1967), a collection of short stories in which The Tender Crop appeared, Fwanyanga Mulikita has also published folk tales (A Wise Fool and Other Stories, 1974), a play in English (Shaka Zulu, 1967), and another one in Losi (Simbilingani Wa Libongani, 1975). ... My boy, that was how van Zyl addressed his African labourers. ... Reading the African Mail and admiring what the big political guns in African society were doing. ... Bwana, Chilufya was pumping their hands - these African politicians. ... He felt that the situation 131160 eyed Mary van Zyl so viciously that she -had to cut short the ceremonies and return to her bedroom after waving Chilufya goodbye. ... His real enemies were the political guns in the African society who were determined to upset the status quo, his comfortable life, his future. ... Long before the short-lived, unwanted, federation was thought of, Shikapite had become a well established farmer. ... There was African corn - nothing Kaffir about it! ... Im listening, Chilufya said in a characteristically African fashion. ... 600 He told them about the congested African beerhalls where even women with babies on their backs went, little caring for the welfare of their families. ... They laboured the whole day, except for a short break to stretch their backs and have a drink of water or some light beer in the polished brown calabashes. ... Charles Mungoshis major works are both in Shona (Makunun unu Maodzamwoyo, 1970, a novel; Inongova Njakenjake, 1981, a play); and, in English (Coming of the Dry Season, 1972, Some Kinds of Wounds, 1981, short stories; The Milkman Doesn t only Deliver Milk, 1980, poetry). Coming of the Dry Season appeared in the collection of short stories bearing the same title. ... Several of Eric NgMaryos poems have been anthologised in Summons and Second Summons, New Poetry/or Africa, have appeared in literary journals (Bananas, KiSwahili) or read on the BBC African Service. ... The present short story was specially written for this anthology. ... It was short. ... He has published several scholarly articles on scientific and medical topic, and his stories, poems, and essays appeared frequently in the 1960’s. his publications include; Africa, a Subjective View(London, Longmans, 1965; The Truly Married Woman and Other Stories (London Oxford University Press_ three crowns1965), Two African Tales, (London, Cambridge University Press) Ajayi stirred for a while and then sat up. ... It was six-fifteen, and light outside already; the African town was slowly waking to life. ... There were three white men sitting on chairs by the chief clerk, who was an ageing African dressed with severe respectability. ... Another consideration which added weight to the thought 170 was the snapshot Olsen took for his magazine, In some peculiar way Ajayi felt he and Ayo should marry, as millions of Americans would see their picture - Olsen had assured him of this - as one saved and happy African family. ... The only other flaw in a felicitous situation had been Ayos ^,210 neighbour Omo, who had always on urgent occasions at short notice loaned Ayo her wedding ring. ... No it was not this one they replied, this one was too short to be Ayo. ... Each was too short or too fat or too fair, as l the case was, to suit the description of the maiden they sought. ... Richard Rive now teaches and writes in South Africa; he is essentially a short story writer. His major works include: African Songs (short stories, 1963), Emergency (novel, 1964), Selected Writings (essays, plays, short stories, 1977), Writing Black (essay, 1981). Richard Rive has also edited Modern African Prose (1964) and Quartet (short stories, 1963 from which this story is taken). ... d) (lines 111 to 123); this short paragraph comes as a moment of grace when for once mother and daughter feel at one. ... As a mother, she has brought up her children according to the rules governing South African society, therefore bringing racial prejudice into the family itself. ... 7 Topics for discussion, essay and creative writing 1 Write a short paragraph on each mourner. ... 3 In which other stories in this anthology does racialism play a major role and what are the consequences? ... 373 In which other stories of the anthology is humour a major element of the narrative and how does it work? ... Her other works include a collection of short stories, No Sweetness Here, 1970 (from which this story is taken), and a novel. ... 6 Style The story is a very successful attempt to bridge the gap between the tale and the short story, and between oral and written literature, by using formal elements which belong to the two genres: a) a narrator and an audience in direct contact, reacting to each others presence, and both leaving their imprint on the narrative (therefore establishing the link with tale and oral tradition). b) a single narrative line leading direct to the bringing out of a pre-established effect (therefore, embodying the most specific feature of the short story). ... 3 In which other stories in this anthology does the narrator, speak in his own name and which role does he assume? ... This story is taken from Modern African Stories, published by Faber and Faber in 1964. ... Draw your examples from other stories in the anthology. ... He has had four plays performed by Zambian theatre groups and several short stories published in Zambian literary magazines. ... 3 List the words, expressions and comparisons which give the story an African flavour. ... 4 In which other stories in this anthology is urban life an element of the narrative and how is it described? ... 80 His works include novels like: People of the City (1954), Jagua Nona (1961) and Beautiful Feathers (1963) and collections of short stories: Restless City and Christmas Gold (1975) and Lokotown and Other Stories (1966) from which the present story is taken. ... d) Peters and Akunma: as dramatic as love-stories always are. ... 2 In which other stories in this anthology is love also doomed to failure? ... a) length of the text: very short. ... He edits an annual review of African Literature, African Literature Today published by Heinemann. ... He leaves behind the African woman with whom he has lived for eight years || and the little boy he had with her. | Through the parting and the journey back, the young man mentally ^| compares his African wife with his English wife-to-be, takes stock of himself | and ponders on his future married life in England now that he has been so deeply changed by Africa. ... Ill (lines 92 to 130); Love-life of colonial civil servants for whom an African woman is mere convenience to be used and discarded when necessary. ... Liverpool: English port used by shipping lines plying the West African route; Mersey: the river on which Liverpool stands. ... Published: in 1968 Potent Ash, a book of short stories (with his brother S. ... that his short life had been one of retreat, he thought about his new life, he remembered their religious mother, he saw no reason why he should believe in God. ... that his short life had been one of retreat. ... Alex La Guma has written several novels: And a Threefold Cord, 1964, /»» the Fog of the Seasons End, 1972, The Stone Country, 1974; poems and short stories: A Walk in the Night and other Stories, 1968. ... 4 Write a short paragraph describing the room in which you used to sleep as a child. ... Well-known, versatile and controversial Ugandan author who has built up a reputation for experimentation through the medium of writing stories, verse and articles. His major works are: The Last Word (literary criticism, 1969); short stories: Fixions 1969. ... b) a writer of short stories who finds no outlet for his production. ... stories which are so good that nobody wants to publish them! ... - Why can his stories not be published? ... II Second narrator (author of the NOTES) The following factors should be taken into account when deciding on the position of this narrator: a) he is explicitly described as a short-story writer b) the bulk of the narrative is his own writing (NOTES) c) the focus is on him d) the plot (if there is any) mainly concerns him , How, then, do we decide who is the real author of the story? ... Literary theme: the story of a writer who wants to kill those dead words which crowd the graveyard of dictionaries and who then wants to write short stories to bring words back to a new and more meaningful life. ... He left South Africa in 1957 for Nigeria where he taught at the University of Ibadan, and has until recently lived in the USA and Zambia where his writings have championed the African cause. ... 127Sarel Britz: typical of the South African Boers for whom apartheid is dogma; representative of the capitalist farmers who exploit their labour-force and refuse to adapt to economic changes, Sarel Britz sees nothing wrong with his own behaviour; on the contrary, he considers himself a just master whose hard work warrants the inhuman treatment to which he subjects workers. ... 128 The whole narrative can then be seen as a slow progression towards the liberation of South African blacks, and more generally of the oppressed masses. 7 Topics for discussion, essay and creative writing 1 Write a short paragraph on Sarel Britz: his life, his views of society. ... 3 Imagine what Tau Rathebe tells the farm-hands when he has secret meetings with them 4 Write a short commentary on this sentence: He didnt like the slime mixing with the sand: it looked as if Donker were invoking a mystic power in the earth to keep his forehoofs from slipping. ... 10 My boy, that was how van Zyl addressed his African labourers. ... Reading the African Mail and admiring what the big political guns in African society were doing. ... Bwana, Chilufya was pumping their hands - these African politicians. ... Besides A Point of No Return (1967), a collection of short stories in which The Tender Crop appeared, Fwanyanga Mulikita has also published folk tales (A Wise Fool and Other Stories, 1974), a play in English (Shaka Zulu, 1967), and another one in Losi (Simbilingani Wa Libongani, 1975). ... The two terms are now used as currency denominations in Zambia and Malawi, replacing pounds and shillings; the African Mail: newspaper run by Africans advocating independence; Azunga, amanga, ka: whiteman can arrest, beware, in Lingala; Northern Province: one of the eight provinces making up Northern Rhodesia at the time; Ndola: town in the Copperbelt; kraal: cattle enclosure in Afrikaans; herenvolkism: belief in the superiority of the Afrikaner people, in Afrikaans; baasskap: mastership in Afrikaans. II (lines 268 to 309): Life among African city-dwellers: Crowded living; loss of traditional values; but compassion towards the poor and the old. ... Kaffir: derogatory term used by whites to describe things African; Bemba: one of the main Zambian languages, often used as a lingua franca. ... In organising the villagers into a co-operative, he lays the foundations on which African socialism can be built once the country has achieved independence. ... ) which structured African society before colonisation. ... Interval: the focus is on the Mulengo family which is seen as symbolic of the new class of African city-dwellers. ... 2 Write a short description of a farm in your country. ... ") Which system seems to you best suited to rural African society: private or communal ownership of the land? ... Charles Mungoshis major works are both in Shona (Makunun unu Maodzamwoyo, 1970, a novel; Inongova Njakenjake, 1981, a play); and, in English (Coming of the Dry Season, 1972, Some Kinds of Wounds, 1981, short stories; The Milkman Doesn t only Deliver Milk, 1980, poetry). Coming of the Dry Season appeared in the collection of short stories bearing the same title. ... Several of Eric NgMaryos poems have been anthologised in Summons and Second Summons, New Poetry/or Africa, have appeared in literary journals (Bananas, KiSwahili) or read on the BBC African Service. ... The present short story was specially written for this anthology.