OUR DAUGHTER, WHO ART IN AMERICA

An anthology of stories from Mukana Press featuring African authors, characters, and settings.

In this collection, the short stories are broken into two parts, the first being generally more lighthearted and colorful and the second focusing more on some of the harsher realities of the world. In the Chioma Iwunze Ibiam short story that gives the anthology its title, Lolo Ezigbo haggles over the prices of goods in a market while telling the seller about the exploits of her daughter, who has moved to America (“My dear, she hung up the phone before I could ask her what happiness had to do with marriage”). The following story, Favour Ahuchaogo’s “Little Woman,” focuses on the strength and perseverance of a short-statured woman and her daughter in a male-dominated culture after her husband dies. In other stories, readers see the maturing of a young woman through the eyes of her youngest daughter (Gloria Mwaniga Odary’s “The Ripening”), unhoused people being kidnapped and having their organs harvested (Christine Coates’ “Body Parts”), and a doctorate-holding, highly qualified woman from Zimbabwe landing a job in an American company only to be called the “diversity hire” (Munashe Kaseke’s “Tsoro”). A family deals with the public murder of the oldest daughter in Okoronkwo Chisom’s “She Lingers,” while in “Half Portraits Underwater,” by Dennis Mugaa,,Olioma loses her twin sister and travels to the beach to find a fitting memorial on the one-year anniversary. In “The Way We Bend,” by Milred Barya, a Black American woman travels to Africa to attend school and finds that while she’s not white enough for America, she’s also not Black enough for Africa. The 10 stories in this anthology will give readers a glimpse into cultures woefully underrepresented in modern literature. Each author has a distinct style, and each tale has some element that will stick with readers.

A captivating anthology with a mix of fun and heart-wrenching stories of the African experience.