The book I am currently reading is Say Your One of Them by Uwem Akpan. It is a collection of stories that tells about the hardships in Africa and mostly Nigeria. The book shows that there are so many hardships going on in many African countries.
In the first story, An Ex-mas Feast, the daughter in the family if forced to become a "street girl" to make money for her brother to go to school. Her parents are okay with it, and they yell at her when she picks out cheep "customers". It made me see Africa in a different way because I never knew that an extreme of the situation over there is prostitution. I feel bad for the girl because she is so young yet feels this is the only option to show her family she is good and even considers becoming a full time street girl.
In the second story, Fattening for Gabon, a brother and sister are taken care of by their uncle because there parents cannot care for them anymore. He takes good care of them for a while but lies to them. Instead of telling them he's selling them into slavery, he says they are being adopted by their godparents. The kids are so excited to meet their Godparents that they have a whole debate on wether they should call them mom and dad. This is what makes me feel the worst because they have no idea what is coming. The author did a great job writing this story and he also uses some of the African languages and ways of speaking. The grammar in the dialogue is always wrong and I believe that is to show the lack of education in the countries. He also adds in paragraphs to summarize how the characters react to the problems. I am excited to finish this book and observe more about my author.
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