An African Rigmarole - An Excerpt:

The month of March, two thousand and two in Sierra Leone was a dry season of splendid and temperate weather. In football, it was the season when the legendary footballer, Mohamed Kallon, of Internazionale and AEK Athens FC fame bought Sierra Fisheries football club for US$30,000. It was the period of colossal gluttony, an audacity of gluttony, when peace, which had supplanted war as the predominant menace to Sierra Leone’s economic viability, was ousted by He-goat-like office sugar daddies and reckless, infatuated young girls hungry for profit and pleasure; a season prodigal of hustlers and hypocrites. In the civil service, in the private sector, the conscientious egocentrics, scoundrels, anxious to criticize, sing the blues, and incarcerate, were omnipresent. They sermonized to the greatest possible extent: the whole clique in a planned hysteria with what Ngugi wa Thiong’o referred to as “Draculan”; meaning the cabal who persecuted their own people in order to join the class of golfing, hunting, country-clubbing British settlers. Truly, if you haven’t lived through 2002, you wouldn’t know how it felt to be persecuted. The Westside Boys might propose that the infidelity of the sugar daddies might best be mitigated with nothing so murderous as forced resignation but, rather, by publicly beating Adama Gbankoro-Ashawo to death for sleeping with a dozen men. Unlike ECOMOG Major General Dogonyaro’s hunt for Maskita, the Westside Boys’ proposal for retributive justice carried with it no career promotion for any likely wrongdoer. It was motivated by an attitude no less demanding than the Major General’s, however, and in the interest of no less scared moral beliefs. It was the dry season in Sierra Leone when the abomination returned, when the jesting didn’t discontinue, when the uncertainty, the conjecturing, and the exaggeration didn’t discontinue. It was the period when the responsibility to teach sexual education in secondary schools was rescinded to the advantage of cultivating in pupils every misconception about sex, and when the pettiness of Sierra Leoneans was clearly disturbing.

Excerpt on witchcraft

A Pentacle for Jebbeh The clay pentacle and the black-handled double-edged dagger showed up on Jebbeh’s doorstep that morning. Massa, the woman with the jewelled eyes, showed up that evening. The two appearances jolted her all the way through. Jebbeh, a petty trader, found the two items lying side-by-side as she opened the door to walk to the foothills. Her darker skin portrayed angelic beauty, even at age forty, and her full set of delicate lips matched her natural curly, jet-black hair that gave her an air of superiority. Her full-figure, partially hidden by a black flowing gown, hardly reflected her strength. Frightened and then slightly unconcerned, she walked past the two items. Not until she returned at sunset, when she saw the tip of the dagger stuck into the center of the five-pointed star pentacle, did she become concerned. She knew a pentacle and a dagger to be two of the most recognized symbols of witches and witchcraft. Jebbeh froze at the thought. She stood still, staring at the mysterious act of violence, and tried to contain the sudden strong feeling of fear that gripped her body. Then she remembered Massa, her next-door neighbour, whom she last saw three days ago. The image of her roughly cleaved features and the glistening jewelled extents of her outlandishly impelling eyes recurred with exploding force in her mind. Her stare never leaving the dagger in the pentacle, Jebbeh reached out a trembling hand, grasped the door handle, and quickly entered the house. The house itself was simply built with sticks, mud, and thatched roof. It stood apart from two other similarly-built houses. She tried to imagine who would have played such a spellbound trick on her. There was the quiet little man, her landlord. Then there was Massa. But she couldn’t see the little man doing something like this. And why would Massa do such a thing either?

Footprints of a Migrant: Excerpt from the Horn of Africa

Hundreds of miles to the last Haba city south of the border with Mare and Nub, a taxi cab sped along the dusty plains toward Hum. In the backseat, Meb had replaced his red toque with a safari bush hat, taking pleasure from a feeling of liberty as he sat back and thought about his getaway from the man in the patrol hat. All but instantly once inside the taxi cab, Meb had unleashed his knife and held it against the throat of the shivering chauffeur. At Meb’s request, the chauffeur had switched off his cellphone thereby disconnecting all contacts with the outside world. Then Meb had searched the man’s pocketbook, learning by heart his residential address and the name of his child. Obey my orders, Meb had told him, or your child will die. The man’s face had shown panic, and Meb concluded that he had a cooperative chauffeur for the evening. I am safe now from the man in the patrol hat, Meb thought as a couple of vehicles galloped by on the other side of the road. As the taxi raced onwards, Meb made himself comfortable for the journey, enjoying the feeling of his high-sensation experience. I have served the military diligently, he thought. He glanced at the scar of a bayonet wound on the back of his right palm. Being convinced that his frightened chauffeur would obey orders, Meb lowered his knife. As the vehicle sped toward Hum, he gazed at a symbol on the car’s dashboard. It could only have been a political one. A photo of the presidents of Mare and Haba shaking hands. The symbol was everywhere nowadays---people around the northern Tigblack region of Haba showing unanimity with the two presidents, endorsing their peace treaty agreement. Amusingly, Meb’s recognition that his chauffeur was a fan of the peace treaty, which he believed was a failure, had made pulling a knife on the man an almost gratifying feeling. Meb was disheartened at how ignorant people allowed the politicians to play on their intelligence. Footprints of migrants, like himself, could still be seen heading out of the country. Fear of the Mare government, human rights abuses and years of military service still existed. Restrictions at the border crossing remained a daily hustle. Absolutely nothing seemed to have changed in Mare.

Titbits from the Sahel

For the past decade, Bobo-Dioulasso’s Maison des martyrs had been one of the headquarters of the IWA, an armed group of political activists who are against the influence of Western countries in West Africa. Recently, however, at the request of the current ailing leader of this armed group, Saye Zoubga, the Maison des martyrs had become the living quarters for Hawa Sawadogo, the thirty-one-year-old masked figure, and future leader of the group. Zoubga, a charismatic man, had been disabled for several months with a strange incurable wound on his left thigh. A wound that he sustained after his group seized control of a town near Sikasso in Mali and were stopped from overrunning Korhogo, in Côte d’Ivoire. Between August 1960 and January 1966, Saye Zoubga was a well-known personality in Upper Volta, present day Burkina Faso. Once the name Zoubga was mentioned, most senior Upper Voltian would quickly associate it with Maurice Yaméogo, the first president of Upper Volta. During Yaméogo’s rule, Zoubga was one of his staunch henchmen. The regime was equivalent to a single political party tyranny that silenced all forms of opposition. Kangaroo courts mushroomed in which accused persons had no right to be defended by attorneys. Theft, misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, and corruption were the watchwords of Yaméogo’s era. His entourage consisted of people like Zoubga had a field day as their lavish taste for fancy lifestyle was embraced by merchants in Paris and Brussels. As strikes and mass demonstrations by students, labour unions, and civil servants marred Yaméogo’s one-party regime, he was overthrown by General Aboubakar Sangoulé Lamizana. Those within the age group of Zoubga would never forget the days of Maurice Yaméogo. For many Upper Voltians, the name Yaméogo could still implore dread in their hearts. Up to the present time, prudent folks hinted that the topmost offices of Burkina Faso administration still maintained some diehard sympathisers, like Zoubga, of the Yaméogo regime. With the command reshuffle now looming, members of the IWA were looking forward to Sawadogo, wondering what type of leadership she will bring. Moreover, Zoubga had always been very forceful in his display of leadership, leaving Sawadogo less opportunity to engage in decision-making.

Why I Wrote the Stories ‘Online Dating Comes to Accra’ & ‘Virginia’s Triple Cocktail’

This is in response to students at Tampa University, USA, who are writing a comparative or thematic essay on some of the stories in my book entitled 'A Suitcase Full of Dried Fish and other stories'. They have been assigned one story from either my collection or that of Chimamanda Adichie's.Being my first book publication, the collection took me a considerable amount of time to compile. With the encouragement of some family members and friends, I was able to complete a work that might have ended up in the dusty pile of life's unfinished tasks. This is especially true in the light of the fact that I was born and raised in an environment where the culture of reading and writing wasn't common. So trying to write stories that might never be read by people was itself frustrating. It was like getting a training in a profession for which there was no employment. Nevertheless, the mere fact that I get mind-satisfaction from reading and writing kept me motivated to complete the writing of a book that has now been translated into Kiswahili, the lingua franca of East Africa, as 'Sanduku lililojaa samaki waliokaushwa na hadithi nyingine'. I wrote the story entitled ‘Online Dating Comes to Accra’ for three main reasons. Firstly, I wanted to show my readers the extent to which desperation can lead one to become vulnerable to deceit and infidelity. Secondly, I wanted to remind my readers that the charming looks of someone isn’t a predictable sign of his or her true character. Thirdly, and most-importantly, I wrote the story in order to emphasize the power of forgiveness. The protagonist, Afua, was desperate to find love, and probably revenge, after her husband, Agymah, abandoned her for another woman. The charming looks of deceitful and treacherous characters like Kofi, Mensah, Ted and Simba led her to believe that she could find true love, escape and solace in online dating. Instead, after her new-found exploit led to disappointments, she finally decided to forgive her husband. In the case of the story entitled ‘Virginia’s Triple Cocktail’, I wrote it in order to make four points. Firstly, I wanted to encourage my readers to be steadfast and to believe that in the midst of adversity, much could be achieved. Secondly, I wanted to highlight some of the consequences of prostitution and promiscuity. Thirdly, I tried to bring out the challenges being faced by those contending with the societal stigma associated with HIV and AIDS and the fact that the diseases can be cured. Lastly, I wanted to paint a picture of the poor environmental condition in a sprawling urban centre. The protagonist, Virginia, having being caught in the vicious circle of prostitution, and being HIV-positive, kept reminding herself and us all that in the midst of adversity, much could be achieved through righteousness and dedication. Even though she lived in an environment polluted by noise, filth, overcrowding, piracy, gambling, drug abuse, and insensitive characters like Mama Ehga and the pharmacist, yet Virginia emerged victorious.