A Collection from African Women Writers
African Love Stories
frican Love Stories: An Anthology, a collection of twenty-one stories, brings together new and established writers, most of whom are from the African continent. In her introduction renowned Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo (reviewed in Africa, November 2005) remarks that Africa, like all other regions of this earth, has been and is full of great love stories. Because, traditionally, these stories are not written down, or if written are not in a language or form accessible to a large audience, they arent as well known as western love stories such as Romeo and Juliet or Anthony and Cleopatra. While each African country has one or many distinct cultures, a common theme across all the stories is the impact loving has; not just on those who love but on the entire society in which they live and love. Across the African continent the extended family is the norm and actions are perceived in relation to their impact on family and society.
Helen Fallon
us? Eventually the head of Tolas family, an uncle, relents, I know that once we send our children abroad to study, there is no way we can stop them from making such choices. Led by his example, the family comes to an acceptance of this step outside of what is perceived as the norm. Inter-cultural marriage is also the subject of Sudanese writer Leila Aboulelas (Africa, September/October 2004), beautifully crafted Something Old, Something New. A young Scottish man arrives in Sudan to meet the family of his future bride. While there, he begins to experience himself as the outsider, the one who is different. He became aware that everyone looked like her, shared her colour, the women were dressed like her and they walked with the same slowness which had seemed to him exotic when he had seen her walking in Edinburgh. Forbidden love is the topic of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies (Africa, June 2005) Transition to Glory. Ozioma returns to her mothers house to recover from the blow of the death of the married man she had fallen in love with. Questioned by her mothers friends about her ill-health, Ozioma tells them the man she was engaged to has died. 'Ewooooo, the women moan, 'your mother did not even tell us you were engaged. She knows her mother has offered endless Masses for her to find a husband and she knows her mothers friends have given up on her. Now for her to have come so close to being married she has their sympathy and much more now.
Not surprisingly inter-cultural love and marriage presents challenges. In Nigerian Tomi Adeagas Marriage and Other Impediments, twenty-seven year old Tola, a student in Germany, tells her father that she is going to get married. He asks eagerly, Whose child is he? Do we know the family? Later her uncle asks, If you couldnt find a Nigerian to marry there, why didnt you come back home to choose a husband? Must you bring such shame to 24
LoVe, FamilY AND SoCietY
WheN We Were YouNg
Uganda is well represented in the collection by Doreen Baingana (Africa, January/February 2006), Mildred Kiconco Barya and Monica Arac de Nyeko. Arac De Nyeko's Jambula Tree describes the relationship between two teenage girls, a story set against the backdrop of an urban slum with over one thousand families on an acre of land where secondhand clothes are in vogueTommy Hilfiger and Versace labels are the 'in thing for the young boys and girls who like to hang around the estates at night Mummy used to say these second-hand clothes were stripped off corpses in London. That is why they had slogans written on them, such as 'You went to London and all you brought me was this lousy T-shirt. Mildred Kiconco Baryas Scars of Earth tells of Namas return to the place of my first loveMy mother was the first person to hug me when I reached home. She felt my flesh, my bones, my heart. Back on the family farm Nama takes consolation in the love of her parents and the familiar landscape. The sun is setting behind the hills. The sky wraps around herself a beautiful purple hue; it makes me want to weep. In our dreams, thats the colour we had chosen for the wedding clothes. In Nigerian Chike Unigwes Possessing the Secret of Joy seventeen year old Uju is forced to marry an elderly man by her widowed mother who, on the death of her husband, had to borrow money from a womens cooperative to start a petty business, selling chewing gum, sachets of milk and Omo detergent. She (Uju) could never forget the day her mother told her she had to quit school as she could no longer pay her school fees. Helping her mother, Uju knows that at the back of her mothers mind lurked the hope that, one day, one of their richer clients would notice her daughter and ask for her hand in marriage. To Ujus dismay her mothers dream comes true and Uju is forced to marry an elderly man known as Chief. The story concludes with her giving birth to a baby boy. She felt its heartbeat, tat tat tat, like a tam-tam being beaten by a practised hand. She brought her face down to meet the babys and then she felt something else. It
African Love Stories is an inspirational collection of short stories from African authors such as Doreen Baingana from Uganda, Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria and Leila Aboulela from Sudan (clockwise from top left).
started from the middle of her stomach like a tiny dot of warmth, and then it fanned out like an angels wings spread vertically and touched her chestShe closed her eyes and savoured the feeling; of being there, of smelling her baby. And then she knew that this was love.
In her introduction to this superb collection Ama Ata Aidoo remarks that if a piece of writing is described as a love story, readers and audiences begin to look for the frivolous and sentimental. These stories are neither. Beautifully crafted, the stories are complex; both heartbreaking and heart-warming. Aidoo recommends that the reader takes each story separately to savour the rich writing and to meet these African women properly and individually. n
HeartbreakiNg AND Heart-WarmiNg
Helen Fallon is Deputy Librarian at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. She has taught at the University of Sierra Leone. African Love Stories is published by Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd (www.ayebia.co.uk).
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