Say You're One of Them
SynopsisPlot
The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord.
Story
About this book
Say You're One of Them gathers short fiction by Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian writer and Jesuit priest. Each story is told from the point of view of a child, and the settings move across Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia. Poverty, ethnic conflict, and the daily work of survival shape what these young narrators notice and are able to describe.
In An Ex-Mas Feast, an eight-year-old boy living in a Nairobi street shanty wants only enough money for school fees and books. Food comes first in his household, and even when his twelve-year-old sister goes out onto the streets to earn, the sum never stretches far enough. Affection and exploitation sit side by side within the same family.
A second story, set against the conflict in Rwanda, is narrated by a young girl who, with her small brother, watches their parents face a decision no family should have to weigh. Other stories move to West Africa and the Horn of Africa. Two of them first appeared in a special fiction issue of The New Yorker, and the ebook edition adds an interview, author photographs, and discussion questions.
