African Short Stories: Commentary on Style

All of the stories seem to be written in a very similar voice. It is a refined and clear voice, one that is very concise. They are very straightforwardly written, but have meaning woven into them. This worked quite well in Minutes of Glory, which is probably one of my favorite pieces in anthology. I liked how it causally and clearly brought up the conflicts that surround the 'Anglicizing' of women in beauty (i.e. lightening their skin, straightening their hair, etc) and men's reaction to it. I like how it explored the women who are often marginalized in society and their quest to reach noteriety. I also liked how she managed to become someone confident and in control through material things and then be arrested.

Another story I liked stylistically was Bossy. Apparently we weren't supposed to read it, but I did anyways. I liked how it was written in a series of letters that are sent to only one person. I think that is a very interesting device to use because the characters can be more vulnerable in a letter and writing a letter is more about them and their thoughts. It also lends itself to a little mystery, as you never know who is supposed to be receiving the letter and you don't know a lot of the backstory because it would not make sense for friends to provide information about their backstory to each other. It allows the reader to become fully immersed in the story quite quickly.

I felt that a lot of stories in the Northern Africa section were focused on seemingly innocuous situations but that really led to important revelations about the culture and the society. I liked reading them because they allowed for some thinking but they weren't overly dense.

Certain Winds from the South was also an interesting read as the story was very focused on the mother, even though the story was not happen to her. I liked how the daughter's words were omitted. It made reading a little difficult (this is experienced with the anecdotal story of Memunat) but it added a certain depth to the character of the daughter, while allowing the story to focus on the mother. It would be hard to write a portion of a story with only one person speaking, but I think that it is an effective way to establish who the character is and adds certain characteristics to the character that would be otherwise hard to place on them conventionally.