Say you're one of them

 
This is not the Africa I know....Akpan depicts an Africa of victims and oppressors...there is no in-between...children are left to fend for themselves and of course the Western world has lapped this up as it no doubt reinforces their one-dimensional view of Africa.
I have lived and travelled all over Africa - and been to all but one of the countries depicted in this book and what I take away time and again are stories of hope and ambition. Many years ago, I worked in Kenya with someone who lived in the Kibera slums, but to look at this well turned out young man with dreams bigger than mine, you would have no idea of his living conditions or that he was surviving on one basic meal a day and supporting a family of 8. Likewise I have heard many stories of national solidarity in Rwanda during and following the 1994 genocide. People who live in poverty in Africa in my experience have dreams and aspirations as big as anyone else's.

The story that carries the book's title and deals with the Rwandan genocide is over simplistic at best....the round dark faced Hutu versus the light Tutsi with fine features....the evil Hutu genocidaires, the apathetic UN soldiers and ofcourse the vengeful Tutsi RPF soldiers - again we find ourselves in a setting where African children have nowhere to turn, no one to save them.

Say you're one of them' depicts an Africa of victims, one where Africans cannot rescue one another because they are all either evil or poor and helpless. I suppose this presumes that we are a continent waiting to be rescued by the benevolent Western world. While I do not question Akpan's ability to write, I do find it sad that so many reviews have suggested that his stories are in some ways the 'true' Africa and I find it even sadder that Akpan himself sees no hope in his continent or his own people. Had this been a story of one country and one perspective it would be forgiving but to put it forward as in some ways depictive of Africa as a continent and African children's life is a shocking indictment of the continent and in my humble opinion one that is wholly inaccurate.
The following is a review from Amazon.com:
"This book [sic] is really opened my eyes to how children in Africa live and suffer. You always hear about how things are bad there generally, but this author really brings the point home. And that is why I could not finish the book - I felt like it's not really fiction, some variation of the short stories is happening right now to many African children."
How very sad ......as if the BBC and CNN have not done a brilliant enough job of depicting an Africa of wars, corruption, famine and suffering with not much else - here we have an African writer cementing their already skewed views of the continent - is it any wonder we're still dismissed as a basket case?

Say You're One of Them (Oprah's Book Club)