Different people and animals really can get along

   The most fascinating thing about this graphic novel, The Rabbi's Cat, is that Sfar presents the reader with some brilliant thoughts about how we are all capable of coexisting together.  Sfar shows us several different ways in which this is true.  In the picture above from the book, these two men are talking and although they think that because one is an Arab and the other is a Rabbi they are so very different from one another, it is actually not the case.  The cat and the ass also get into a fight before this picture I have included.  They fight about whether Sfar is a Jewish or an Arab name.  It is actually the case that it is both a Jewish and an Arab name, which is quite ironic in my eyes.  Another way in which Sfar shows the reader that although everyone is different we are really a lot closer to one another than we realize is the kitty and the dog being friends and helping each other out.  The dog is a christian and the cat is a jew, yet they still coexist peacefully.  They talk about their differences just like the Arab and the Rabbi do, and it seems that both of these couples are good friends by the time they depart with one another.

Another thing that I loved about this graphic novel was the artwork.  My favorite part about this artwork in particular was the switch from Africa to Paris.  I absolutely loved how Sfar did not depict the colonial lifestyle as superior to his own.  By the way in which he depicts Paris Sfar shows the reader that he much prefers Africa to this large, loud city.  Sfar and Dangaremba certainly share some similar views about the colonial lifestyle which I find particularly interesting.  I think it is much better to stay true to who you are than to conform to the colonial lifestyle.  From what I can understand in the little African literature that I have read, colonialism strips humans of their identity.  Once colonialism is embedded into someone's mind it appears to be nearly impossible to forget.  Because Sfar does not present the colonial life as better than his native Africa life I enjoy the story a lot more.  I think that this trait about the Rabbi/ Sfar makes him/ them more likable to the reader.

Nyasha and Tambu

Nervous Conditions is a book that has truly opened my mind in ways I never thought it would.  I really did now know what to think of this book before we started reading it, I had obviously never heard of it or Tsitsi Dangaremba before.  But, this has turned out to be one of my favorite books I have read in quite a while.  For me, the characters are what make this book as profound as it is.  Dangaremba does a fantastic job of unraveling her "autobiography" in the most interesting of fashions, by truly telling about her life through two characters rather than the traditional way of doing so with just one.  I find her technique fascinating, and for me, it simply makes reading her book a lot more interesting.  The idea that she is telling about herself through two characters is such a new way to go about teaching the reader a lot of new lessons!  In this instance it works very well for me.

Because Nichole and I did our presentation on education in Africa I found the conundrum of education in Africa to be puzzling to say the least.  I am certainly glad that I do not have to deal with some of the things that they do on a daily basis just to go to school and make a better life for themselves.  After the little research that we did for our presentation, it made me realize just how lucky we are in America that we don't really have to worry about being about to go to school in most parts of our country.  Obviously this does not go for every single American, but it is safe to say that for the vast majority of people in our country, education is a given at least up to the high school level.  In Africa though it is a struggle for children to even go to school at all, let alone graduate from high school.  This problem with education in Africa is quite heartbreaking to me.  Education is something that is very important to me, and to every person in my family.  It is seen by us as a way to make something of yourself.  Just as it is seen by Babamukuru, Nysasha and Tambu.

The brilliant duo of Nyasha and Tambu are, in my eyes, the most important characters in this story.  Although we can take a lot of other things from some of the other women in this book, these two characters are the most important of all.  Both of these girls give unique perspectives on how they see things that really help me understand what it was like to be in their shoes more than I think I would have had I read a "normal" interpretation of this.  Because Tambu gives us Nyasha's perspective in much more detail than she should seemingly be able to, we learn a lot more about the intricacies of this family. I think the interactions between both of these girls and Babamukuru are fascinating.  Tambu, for the most part, will hardly look at him, while Babamukur's daughter, Nyasha, is consistently defiant.  By showing the reader both of these sides of these girls Dangaremba attempts to let the reader understand a little bit more about colonization, and what it really means.  I can say with certainty; I had no idea what colonization really meant until I read this book.  A lot of the other stories spelled it out in a very understandable fashion, but Nervous Conditions truly makes me gain a greater understanding of the effects of colonization.

Ngugi and the colonization of the mind

In The Language of African Literature, Ngugi brings to light a few interesting points about African Literature as a whole.  One of his most interesting points was that those that are responsible for the literature that is created in Africa, and write in any African language, are completely discredited as legitimate African insight, or literature.  The idea that something that is written in a native tongue would be considered non legitimate is ridiculous.  Even Ngugi thinks the same.  As he stated in this excerpt, he qualified for the conference, while many of the great African writers, who wrote in African languages, were not invited to this conference.  To me, this is a great insult to those writers, and really to the entire continent of Africa.  It is as if they are saying that Africa's history is not important unless it is written in a language that the "elite" can comprehend.  To me, this is like if there was a conference being held on American literature, but they refused to allow anyone who wrote in English to this conference.  The only people that were allowed to attend were those writers that encapsulated the essence of America in Russian. This is absurd.  Plain and simple, this makes no sense.  The language which we use for our ideas is the most powerful one we possess.  Therefore, sharing literature that has no cultural significance to those being told about makes little to no sense.  If the people that the stories are written about cannot even understand what the writer has written, then what good does it really do? Also, how much does it actually show about the culture?  To me, it does little good for the people reading it, and shows how little the author cares about making an accurate portrayal of what these experiences described are like.

"Wedding at the Cross" brings to light the idea of synchretism.  I had never heard a lot about this idea before, and I think that it is fascinating.  I think that this idea must come from a mix of the forced colonization of the minds of the natural citizens, and their contrasting belief systems which existed long before the colonization of their lands.  But rather than keep the two distant from one another, over time, they have melded together in sort of a melting pot of spirituality.  I can venture to say, that is America were colonized today, something very similar would most likely occur.  Today, in class when we were talking about the royal wedding on Friday, and I brought up the point about why anyone in America, who this has no actual significance to, be in any way excited or entertained.  To which you had a rather clever response, the colonization of our minds, as we are originally a British colony.  Although Americans are very aware that we have no royalty in our political system, we continue to hold on to the idea of royalty being something of elegance and beauty.  My own daughter's grandmother is waking up at four in the morning just to watch this silly wedding.  I mean, really?  Why does she care?  But, now I know.  Her mind is colonized!

"Minutes of Glory" is a fantastic story once done with and in the process of discussing it.  After reading this story, I was fairly baffled at what to make of this one.  I can usually come up with some themes that we may discuss in class, however, this one just confused me.  But once we actually started breaking it down, I was interested and fascinated with Ngugi's criticisms of colonization.  I thought that the end of the story sort of sums up everything that Ngugi's relays to the reader in one short finale.  As Nyaguthu wept, Ngugi expresses her resentment for colonization for the effects it has on your mind.  Nyaguthu had resisted the natural urge to change her ways, but she found it so utterly reprehensible that Beatrice had let her mind be colonized.  Wanjiru, had long since been dead.  It was a tragedy  that this was the case, but it was the truth.  When our minds our colonized, and we change our way of thinking, the people that we once were die.  And that is a tragedy unlike any other.  It is as though colonization creates a country full of zombies hardly resembling anything they once were.

Apartheid and Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer brings the realities of Apartheid to her readers attention with these three short stories we have read.  For me, these stories helped to point out the horrible realities of Apartheid.  I was not aware of all of the difficulties and hardships that come from Apartheid and the long struggle the people of South Africa were subjected to.  I thought that Gordimer's writing was even more fascinating through the eyes of a white person who clearly has major issues with Apartheid and the way it causes her fellow South African's to be treated.  Gordimer uses characters with no name in all of her stories to show us how a group of people would react in everyday situations in South Africa.

To be honest, I was completely disgusted in every sense of the word by all three of these stories.  In "Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants," we are shown how nothing in Apartheid makes sense not only to those not involved, but to those that are involved.  I found this point to be fascinating.  Before this class, I had certainly heard of Apartheid, but had never studied the true intricacies of this difficult subject.  After learning about it, I am not sure that I understand Apartheid any better than before.  This is an unbelievably complex topic, and seems to be near impossible to fully comprehend, especially for those of us who aren't African, or South African for that matter.  In my opinion, this short story does a great job of attempting to teach an outsider just how hard Apartheid is to get a grasp on.

"Amnesty" brings to light a different side of Apartheid.  Political prisoners like Nelson Mandela spent years upon years sharing radical ideas with each other on Robin's Island.  An unintended consequence of this was the forming of "the movement" by the imprisoned men once released from their island of seclusion.  These men, once released, work for the betterment of his people by joining/starting "the movement."  I had never thought of the politics of Apartheid in this fashion.  I was in awe of the sheer magnitude of everything(i.e. emotions, politics, way of life) to do with Apartheid.  Because this brought to my mind such different ideas about something that I thought I knew a little about, it has really changed the way I view any conflict in general.  It is hard to keep up on global issues for me as it is.  But when you really take the time to examine things that we briefly discussed in high school history classes, it really makes me think just how little America/Americans understands about other cultures; or try to understand for that matter (I say from my corner in the room).  To relate this to something that is current and has been for the past 10 or so years.  I would say that Americans clearly cannot grasp the ideals of the middle east which is why it seems that the two wars in which our country are involved in seem to be endless.  We want to change something that we do not understand.  That seems to be root of a lot of our problems with the middle east.
Anyway, back to "Amnesty," Gordimer made a very interesting point that although the men are the ones that are credited with all of the glory for their fighting for the people, the women are the ones that actually do all of the domestic work, and therefore cannot do anything but that.  The men sort of leave the women high and dry so to speak.  The women of South Africa seem to be speaking through this story and Gordimer, yelling "If you gave us a chance, we could do it better than you!"  It seems that Gordimer asserts that no one deserves more praise or recognition than the women in this so called "movement."

"Six Feet of the Country" was a horribly tragic story, that points out just how faceless the institution of Apartheid is.  There is no way to control the monster that is Apartheid.  It is essentially an untamable beast.  Once created, the evil that Apartheid represents takes over everyone around it, and envelops them in its evil.  This is seen clearly through this short story.  When the baas man tries to get the body back after several failed attempts, even he is not capable of doing so.  I think that this was a very strong statement from Gordimer.  She asserts that not only is the system impossibly hard to deal with for black people as is obvious to those that know anything about Apartheid, but also being white is not an easy thing to do.  Basically, she seems to point out that no one listens to anyone.  I think this is mostly because she is saying that no one cares in any way shape or form.  I mean, to me, if I was burying my brother and when I looked at him one last time before I buried him forever, and it wasn't him, not only would I be devastated, but I would have such an unbelievable amount of anger I would find it difficult not to go on a killing spree.  Especially if prior to all of this, I not only had the body, but then had to pay $20,000 to get it back...  Obviously Gordimer expresses her discontent for the system of Apartheid.  I think it is fair to say that overall Gordimer expressed herself very clearly in her short stories and he points get across very effectively.  As an American reading Gordimer, I feel as I have a much better understanding of what Apartheid actually meant for the people that were apart of it.

Achebe and Colonialism

Chinua Achebe uses a unique writing style in "Girls at War" and "The Madman" to make his views of the colonization of Africa clear to the educated reader.  Personally, I found both of these stories to be some of my favorite short stories purely based on what they say about an entire continent.  From "Girls at War" I very much enjoyed how Achebe uses a contradiction as a character to get his point about his nation across. By using Nwankwo who is a member of the government or an authority figure as a contradiction to what someone in his governmental status should really be doing, Achebe blatantly points out how horribly twisted the entire system really is.  A perfect example of this from the reading was when Nwankwo refuses to help all of the people that are literally starving while he is filling his car with food for his family and his immediate neighbors.  Because Nwankwo is the antithesis of what Achebe actually believes we should do as good people is help everyone in need.  Even if this results in being spread very thin so to speak with our resources, it seems to me that Achebe believes that just a little bit of food for everyone, is much a much better way to live in a society, than to plentifully feed only a few.  I felt a big connection with this idea, and that is why I enjoyed this story so much.  Achebe, in my opinion, makes a valid point not only for Africa as a whole, but for America as well.  I think that a lot of people in America, mainly those of "extreme wealth" (i.e. the top 1% who also not so coincidentally control almost all of the money) have a big problem with "sharing" their money with everyone else.  Although they clearly have more than enough to go around, they are continually fighting for less taxes which go to help those in need.  I have a major problem with this idea in general and that is why this story aroused so much emotion in me.

"The Madman" also made a great personal connection with me.  I think that this short story is brilliant in the way that everything "changes" so quickly when Nwimbe simply is confused while chasing the madman who stole his loin cloth.  It is fascinating that due to the perception of others Nwimbe's life was forever changed from a few minutes of "insanity."  In reality, nothing changed in the least bit in Nwimbe's life.  He was simply momentarily angry about a silly prank so to speak.  However, because he was seen in one of the most populous places in the area in which he lived, acting the way he did, his reputation was forever changed.  Metaphorically, after reading this story a second time, I found an immediate connection to colonialism and the colonization of Africa.  Achebe's words spoke loudly through this short story in my opinion.  When dealing with colonization, we are not only dealing with the colonization of the natural resources of the land, but also the colonization of the human mind, which is the most dangerous thing of all.  Treating a group of people as if nothing in their history mattered or, by their standards, would even be considered wrong is the most dangerous thing of all; because after long, enough of the people whose land is being colonized eventually start to believe what they are being told.  This destroys the uniqueness of Africa, and is detrimental to the future understanding of cultures that are different from our own.  Achebe does a fantastic job of relaying his seemingly radical ideas at the time in a fashion that makes even the biggest skeptic, a believer in his logic.

Mnthali and the Stranglehold of English Lit.

First of all let me say, poetry generally perplexes me, and even tends to go right over my head.  It certainly helped that you (professor Benander) read the poem to us in class.  I found that reading interesting as it was not likely the way I would have read it.  I was a little bit uncertain of what to make of this poem at first, but after reading through it a few times I think I have begun to understand it.  I think that this quarter learning about African literature as opposed to last quarter with the Latin American literature will be much more difficult for myself, and I would think most of the class.  I suppose this is because I feel very distant from the past of Africa, as opposed to Latin American history, which I was more familiar with.  Because I am not as familiar with the history, it will take me a bit longer to catch on to some of the things we read, I think.  Felix Mnthali, who was a well educated the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, did a fantastic job of showing discontent and seeming approval at the same time.  He seems to be frustrated in a sense with the learning system in Africa, which seems to focus on literature that is not written in native African languages or about things that are really relevant to Africa.  Although it seems Mnthali is for the spreading of knowledge period from what I can tell, he is certainly frustrated with this fact that education in Africa is based on other countries literature.  I can certainly relate to his frustrations.  Putting myself in his position, and being someone who clearly has great pride for his country, I would find it difficult to be fine with one side or the other.  I think that Mnthali is advocating the sharing of knowledge in all forms in this poem.  Which I would think most professors would do.  I can certainly sympathize with his concerns about his country and its education though.

Like Water For Chocolate: A novel by Laura Esquivel

Despite this novel being written by a woman for the audience of a woman, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The unique style in which Esquivel makes her point that food is the equivalent of love, and can also reflect other emotions we may feel when making this food.  The incorporation of recipes throughout the novel was the main thing I found so unique about this novel.  Personally, I love to cook and always have.  Being the oldest of two, my mother, a fantastic cook, has always used me as a helping hand in the kitchen.  I think that this ia large part of the reason that I enjoyed this novel so much.  Now, put this book in my brother's hands who may be compared to Gertrudis in the kitchen, and I doubt he would enjoy it as much as myself. The reason that I say that someone who may not be as in tune with their culinary skills as many wish to be would not enjoy this book as much as someone who is highly skilled in the culinary arts is simple.  People who cook understand that love is as big and as necessary an ingredient as any other you may use in a particular recipe.  Through Esquivel's various forms of magical realism her point is relayed to the reader in a sometimes humorous manner than I found to be highly entertaining.  One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Tita has been sent to the insane asylum by Mama Elena and she is grabbing her quilt that she knits every night due to her insomnia.  When she goes to grab the quilt it is so unbelievably large that it simply cannot fit inside of the carriage that is taking the Doctor and Tita to the Doctor's house.  The quilt, in an unrealistic fashion, drags behind the carriage for all to see Tita's many many colors.  I think that Tita's quilt of never ending colors serves as a metaphor for her life in some ways.  Because of the unpredictability of available yarn Tita encountered while making this quilt, Tita's quilt is a random mess of colors (at least that is the sense I got from reading about it), which when made into one gigantic quilt looks unique and amazing.  This ceaseless quilt also represents the length of someones life.  Every night when Tita should have been sleeping, she knitted her quilt in an obsessive manner.  She knitted so much that when she died, the quilt covered 3 hectares if my memory serves correct and was sent into a ball of flames.  Tita never knew what color she would work with next in her quilt, much as she never knew what insane obstacle would help to shape the person she became before she died.  But in the end, no matter what color Tita knitted into her beautiful gigantic quilt, or whatever soul grinding task Mama Elena put Tita through, what became of everything was beautiful and interesting.  The quilt, or the life of this lovely woman.  Both are beautiful no matter how they are shaped.  It is just important that they are shaped in some way.  Character's in life such as Rosaura are boring and self-centered.  Rosaura was so boring and obnoxious because she was not shaped at all.  She was more like a lifeless blob of a character, which seemed to be Esquivel's intention.  I think it is important that Esquivel hints that boring people are the people that follow rules(Rosaura).  Instead, be more like Gertrudis and make your own rules.  Although being a little shallow for her lack of cooking expertise, she is an interesting and unrepressed woman for the unique path she paved in her life.  Because she forged her own way, I see Gertrudis as a fascinating character although not a lot of the story revolves around her.  Not only did she ride away from her families ranch while making love on the back of a horse, she came back a refined woman and a general in the revolutionary army.  Although she worked in a brothel for an entire year after leaving the ranch, she turned out fine.  This is another important point that Esquivel brings up.  Here, I think she is telling us that if we enjoy ourselves and do what some others may perceive as crude, this can actually work out well for us in shaping who we become.  I can certainly relate to this in the very recent past.  I recently had a baby that was out of wedlock, which a lot of people in this country and many other countries around the world would consider an appalling thing.  But, since having Aslynne (my daughter) in my life, my life has done a one hundred and eighty degree turn.I seem to have found a new purpose to my everyday existence.  Although many people around the world, and even in our country would condemn me for having a child out of wedlock, I can honestly say that after only 16 weeks of being a parent it has started to shape me into the man that I hope to be for the rest of my life.  One that would do anything in his power to help his daughter.  In conclusion, not only did I enjoy this fascinating novel immensely, I also found the underlying themes that Esquivel brings to our attention to hold very true in my eyes.  The symbolism that Laura Esquivel uses with her intriguing style of writing makes her points a lot more apparent than she could have given another means of communication.  Esquivel uses magical realism to her advantage for the comprehension of the meaning of her novel.