Short Excepts from Chadian authors

[Sylvia]

https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/a...
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/a...
Above are two short works by well-known Chadian author and playwright Koulsy Lamko.

This website also has some short works in translation, including a poem (scroll down to the bottom of the page), and a collection of transcribed folk tales (click on the link for Folk Tales and Legends of Chad). http://www.tchad.org/research/literat...

Happy reading!

[Elizabeth]

Great finds Sylvia, thanks!

[Becki]

Thanks Sylvia, these are awesome!

[Cait]

Trigger warning! "A Butterfly in the Hills" is a graphic account of rape. Plus some genocide.

[Becki]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Cait]

So I can't say that I liked A Butterfly in the Hills at all. Perhaps if I read the entire thing, and not just the excerpt we have access to, I might feel differently. In fact I think there is a good chance I would, because part of what I disliked is that a woman - supposedly a 'Queen of the Middleworld' - is reduced to one (admittedly beyond horrible) event. This quote "It is the story of a queen and, above all, the story of a vagina: a vagina with a tree thrust up into it" pretty much explains why I didn't like this excerpt - I think it's important to face horrible things that have happened, to acknowledge atrocities and hold one another accountable - but I also think that if something horrible happened to me, that would not be the "above all" of my life. This woman had a life beyond what happened to her, and while it would be wrong to ignore the trauma, it's also wrong to act like that's all there was to her.

However, I did like On the Fourth Day - I really enjoyed his style and imagery and I also thought the themes of exile really meshed with other things we've read so far. Again, it's possible I liked this a lot better because it was also a complete short story, which manages to accomplish a lot in very little space, versus a short excerpt from a book.

I'm also always down for reading myths and stories, but I feel like I need someone to sit me down and explain the moral of the alligator story... is it just about the suspicion of the villagers with him being so generous? Is it just a story to make us ask questions? I want someone to drop some knowledge, because I know folk tales often have a lot to unravel in a simple tale.