Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Book


http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/assets/images/EAN/Large/9780349120645.jpgSay You’re One of Them

It’s a fiction novel about family, and different relationships and how life is affected by the different things that happen, both expected and unexpected.

The book has a collection of five stories, both showing struggles of different children in different parts of Africa. The eras presented in the stories range from the Rwandan genocide period up to today, hinting on certain life struggles that African children still undergo.
The reoccurring theme in the work or stories of Uwem Akpan is the idea of struggles that African children face. Child trafficking, poverty, genocide, violence, prostitution etc. the examples used in the short stories bring out or expose the harsh realities of African life on children. A girl forced into prostitution so as to feed her family, two friends forced to give up on their friendship because of their differing religions, a brother and a sister being sold, a teenage boy being murdered because of being a Muslim in a christian gathering and two children being forced to see their father kill their mother because of tribal clashes. This is not what a normal teenager is expected to go through, unfortunately, in Africa, it’s seems like the only life they know.