Say+You're+One+of+Them

I recently finished the book, //Say You’re One of Them,// which is a collection of short stories following the lives of children throughout Africa. This book had many situations and events that we had learned about in class earlier this year. Reading the stories, which were narrated from the viewpoint of children, really helped me understand major historical issues more and helped me to learn more about everyday life for African families, both poor and well-off. The first story follows a young, poor boy named Jigana living with his family inside a tent in an alley way. This family and their lifestyle struck me as the type most Americans would picture when they think of Africa. In class we had learned about so many alternatives to this kind of lifestyle that I had almost forgotten that this stereotypical African family exists. Jigana’s parents had no jobs, which left his older sister, a prostitute, to be the family’s main source of income. While reading, I thought Jigana had a pretty bright future ahead of him, seeing how his sister was so determined to earn enough money for his school tuition through her job as a prostitute. Therefore, I was surprised at how quickly he agreed to throw his future away by joining a gang after he learned that his sister had decided to leave home in order to make more money to support him and his schooling. The fact that he did this out of frustration and guilt for allowing his family to be broken up seemingly on his account showed me just how important family must be in many African societies. The story shed light on how much family is valued in parts of Africa, but also how hard it can be keep family together. The second story is about a brother and sister, Kotchikpa and Yewa, who live with their uncle, Fofo Kpee. In this story, Fofo Kpee tries to sell these two children into slavery after one of his new “friends” convinces him to do so. A lot of this story was confusing and hard for me to understand because Kotchikpa was the one narrating the events, and he, being a child and being constantly lied to, had little knowledge of what was happening and what he was being told by his uncle and said friend, “Big Guy”. While reading, I was surprised to learn that slavery could be instituted the way it was in this story: through trickery. Whenever I thought of the slave trade in African countries I imagined thugs invading villages and homes and stealing children through force. It never occurred to me that it could be a discreet, well-planned, manipulative, and very slow process. Big Guy convinced the children that they were going to move to Gabon to live with their new godparents, where they would have a much better-even luxurious- life. Although I realized that this was a lie, I was still confused about what the strange “lessons” Big Guy told Fofo Kpee to give the kids to prepare them for Gabon could mean. I was very surprised at first that Fofo Kpee was even willing to cooperate in this horrible process, considering he treated Yewa and Kotchikpa as his own children and seemed to be a very loving caretaker. Big Guy paid him with a motorcycle, which Fofo Kpee treated with extreme care and protected obsessively. I thought at first that this might be the reason he agreed to sell the children and I felt disturbed that he seemed to treat the motorcycle with more care and protection than his own niece and nephew. However, as the story went on it seemed to me as if the real reason he agreed to sell the kids was because he had been tricked himself into thinking they would have a brighter future. After learning this, I realized that a lot of this story was not just about the children being tricked by the adults, but also about the adults trying to trick themselves into thinking that this was a good thing. Towards the end of the story, Fofo Kpee had second thoughts about selling the kids, most likely because he finally realized that the whole process of brainwashing the children into wanting to leave for Gabon through lies was a bad idea. When I read this part, I almost felt relieved because I thought the kids would finally be told the truth and that he might be able to back out of the deal. However, Big Guy would not let Fofo Kpee escape the deal and later killed him after he tried to run away with the kids in the middle of the night. The story allowed me to see just how manipulative slave catching can be sometimes, and how dangerous and risky it is for anyone to be involved in the trade. The third short story was about two small girls who live across the street from each other and are best friends. One day, the parents of the first girl tell her that they do not want her to see her best friend, Selam, anymore because her family is Muslim. I was surprised that her parents could suddenly change their minds about Selam’s family like that, considering that the day just before they told their daughter this they were happy that the two were friends and the father even told them that he liked Selam’s father because he was a nice man. The fact that the parents were willing to forget about their past relationship with Selam’s parents and villainize them were disturbing enough, but I found it especially disgusting that they were forcing a ban on their child from meeting her friend, without even explaining why they felt they had to do it. This whole incident happened not because the parents hated Muslims to begin with, but because the rise of religious conflict in the country made them feel forced to think that way. This situation reminded me of the Holocaust, many families under Nazi rule would cut ties with their Jewish friends, whether it was out of fear of being suspected by the police to be involved in supporting the Jewish faith and going against Hitler, or out of honestly believing that Nazi propaganda about the Jews was true. The last story that I read was about a nine year-old girl who was living in Rwanda during the time when the Hutus and Tutsis were fighting each other. The story followed this girl, Monique, and her baby brother, Jean, as they experienced the violence first hand due to the fact that their father was Hutu while their mother was Tutsi. Monique described how close her Hutu uncle was to her parents, and how much she trusted him, which is why it came as a shock to me when he came angrily into her house with a mob of men who trashed and looted the place in search of her parents. I could not believe that Monique’s uncle threatened her even though she did not know where her parents were and was therefore, innocent and undeserving of the violence he purposefully exposed her to. Like the previous short story, I was surprised that Monique’s own relatives could turn against her family so easily and suddenly and with no reasons other than that the rest of society was doing it. When the Hutus finally found her parents later in the story, they forced her father to kill his Tutsi wife in front of the mob and his kids, threatening to kill his children if he refused. This showed me how many families were split apart or killed because of their ties with the opposite tribe, and how there were many people who did not agree with the violence or hate against the tribes, but were still dragged into it. I did not think about the fact that there were some Tutsis and Hutus who continued to be peaceful and merciful like Monique’s parents until I read this story. This, mixed with the fact that Monique’s family was helping to hide wounded Tutsis in their roof throughout the story, made me frustrated at how many innocent and peaceful people were victims of this violence. This story was very gruesome and I was able to understand more fully the violence and intense fear people experienced that was the result of the Hutus’ and Tutsis’ conflict.

9/ 10

I wish you had made a few generalizations about Africa based on what you read.