Benin: Say You're One of Them

Say You're One of Them

by Uwem Akpan

Benin was really challenging.  A tiny country in West Africa, Benin has not produced many writers whose works have been translated into English, nor has it apparently inspired many to write stories set in its landscape.  Ann Morgan, whose blog "A Year of Reading the World" has provided much inspiration and useful suggestions for me, made the same realization when she struggled to find a book for Benin.  Like Morgan, I picked up a number of books that actually turned out to be set in Benin City, Nigeria rather than the country of Benin.  I finally settled on Uwem Akpan's short story collection, Say You're One of Them.  Only one of the stories was actually set in Benin, but all took place somewhere in West Africa.  I was reluctant to make this one count, but I suppose it's no different than choosing a book for Belize where it's mostly set in California.

I want so badly to like short stories, but I just don't.  I feel there just isn't enough time to get to know any of the characters or to develop plot lines deeply enough.  It's kind of like small talk at a party.  Not very satisfying, at least not to me.  I do appreciate the art form, and I recognize that short stories are probably extremely difficult to write well because of the condensed space in which the writer has to do his or her work.  But I'd rather not read them most of the time. 

These stories though are richly compelling.  Uwem wrote them specifically to call attention to what is happening to children every day across the continent of Africa.  They are the stories of children who are suffering, children who have to grow up too fast, to earn income for their families, to make decision no one should ever have to make, to sell their bodies or be sold, to witness death and abuse and cruelty.  There is a lot of pain in these pages.  These stories take readers to a reality that is rather unbelievable if only we could be so naïve as to pretend we didn't know the truth of what exists out there in the world beyond our comfortable homes and privileged lives.  We are forced, through reading this collection, to look, hold our eyes wide open, and resist the urge to deny their truth.  And that makes them good in a difficult sort of way.