I read a book of Ghanaian short stories called, "The Prophet of Zongo Street" by Mohammed Nassehu Ali. It contained 10 short stories that focused on individuals from or living in the city of Kumasi (which is near the village of Wiamoase). I really enjoyed reading this book, there are a few stories I would not recommend someone read and there are a handful I would highly suggest to anyone to read. I learned a good number of Twi vocabulary words reading these stories and feel I gained a better understanding of some of the values in Ghanaian culture. I will spend the rest of this review discussing my two favorite stories.
1. "The Story of Day and Night": This was the first story I read and I loved it because it was a what folklorist would label a marchen story. It began with a recognizable beginning "Manymany years ago..." and ended with "the meaningless phrase "Khulungus kan gus". It was "the mother of all stories," a myth about the cosmology of day and night. The story was told within a story, so the story of night and day was told by an old wise woman in Kumasi that the children had heckled into coming out to tell them stories.
The story is intricate and involved but basically involves a woman who was unable to have children and so she went to the priest at the farthest part of the world to ask for assistance in receiving a child. He had only one child to give and advised her to wait til a different one became available because this child was no good. But she was desperate and begged for the child no matter how horrible them might be. Well as the child grew up it proved to be a problem, eventually beheading every animal in the entire village and hypnotizing people to conspire in his evil deeds. Eventually humanity was in peril because of this boy Mewuya, and he wanted the greatest power so he went to battle the priest who had given him to his mother. And they dueled, and with each charm of attack Mewuya and the priest turned the sky from Day to Night and they are still dueling today and when someone finally wins the duel that will be the end of our universe.
This was a fantastic read. I good item of folklore and it gave me a good idea into some of the stories I might hear while living in Ghana. It also pointed towards a social situation in which I might be able to find in Wiamoase to here these cultural myths and folk narratives.
2. "Mallam Sile": This is a story about a legally blind, short, tea seller on Zongo Street in Kumasi. Mallam Sile left home, in another region of Ghana, at the age of 12 to find work to support his sick parents. When he received news his parents had died he did not attend the funeral but began to save his money to allow for better business opportunities, which turned out to be selling tea in Kumasi.
Mallam Sile was not treated with respect in Kumasi. People would take advantage of his blindness shuffling him fake money when ordering or taking advantage of his kindness by claiming to be famished and poor. Mallam Sile vowed to Allah never to turn anyone away, he was a peacemaker and treated everyone with utmost kindness. He knew people didn't want to hear him speak so he remained silent in his shop most of the time.
Mallam Sile could be heard singing heart wrenching romantic love songs at night. He ached for a woman of his own and sang of how woman from where he came from didn't care about your size or occupation. One day a city official took compassion on him and offered him a new space to put up shop in town. Mallam Sile took this opportunity to rebuild his shop on a grander scale and to take a journey home. When he returned home everyone was grateful he was back, not because they missed him but they were annoyed they had to travel so far to get tea elsewhere and because the other nearest tea shop was run by a stingy business man who chased people out of his shop when he was even suspicious of any foul play our loitering in his shop.
Mallam Sile returned to Kumasi with a wife. She was big and round, twice his size. She did not share the same opinion of peace and long suffering that Mallam Sile did. She believed the deceitful activity of customers had to stop and that he could not just keep giving tea to anyone unless they paid or accepted a debt that would have to be paid before they could ever get tea again. Because he loved his wife he allowed the rules to be changed. But then the "tough guy" in town (every town has one) took a debt from the shop and did not return it for quite sometime. This upset Mallam Sile's wife and she wanted something to be done about it. Mallam Sile warned her she should not mess with him, no one messes with him. She didn't agree to stay out of his way but she said she'd take care of it and Mallam Sile charitably decided to argue no further. So his wife went and to make a long story short blew the whole town out of the water by pulling the "tough guy" out of his own bed, into the compound, and beating him in a wrestling match until one of his family members took pity on him and paid his debt for him.
After this incidence people began to respect Mallam Sile. They were friendlier when they came into the shop and people started paying back their debts. The story ends with Mallam Sile's internal dialogue about how blessed he feels for all the gifts that Allah has given him, such as respect from the community and a good wife. She never did tell him, nor did the villagers, what happened with her and the "tough guy".
This story was a kick-butt story. It totally reminded me of my roommate and I. She has commented before that she doesn't really want to be a "superduperpeacemaker chick" and that she wants to fight for what she believes to be right. I on the other hand am more like Mallam Sile. But they happen to be the perfect couple for each other, and my roommate and I well the same could be said about us. It was just so fun to read with this comparison.
A lot of the stories that were written in this book were about Muslim characters like Mallam Sile. I am not very familiar with the cultural of the Islamic faith so reading these stories helped me gain a broader vision about what they value and how they see their place in a community. I feel this knowledge will help me as I study spirituality in Wiamoase. I will be visiting and entering different religious circles, hopefully Muslim being one of them. This background information will be extremely helpful. Some things I learned about this religious culture through these stories is: Their fear and loyalty to Allah, their beliefs on judgment and the afterlife, the being to whom they worship and connect spiritually too, and how they feel they are spiritually dictated to treat others with forgiveness and respect.
Overall this book was a really great informative and entertaining read. I want to read another book similar to it and just had one recommended to me by the folklorist professor I am working with. I will post my review of this book in the future.
