Book: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

These are stories from Africa, full of the sadness and horror that are components of recent African history. The author was born in Nigeria, is an ordained Jesuit priest and has a MFA from University of Michigan.

The stories are told by kids or young adults and come from Nigeria, Gabon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. They are told in the patois of modern Africans and shine a harsh light on the chaotic, imperfect, ongoing evolution of older colonial Africa into newer independent countries. The longest story is "Luxurious Hearses" about the anxiety of a young Muslim boy who is fleeing the violence in the north and who is trying to get the oil-rich delta region of southern Nigeria, his natal land, where he believes he will find refuge. The entire story takes place on a bus as various small human dramas play out between the passengers. Through it all, the boy fears discovery by his mostly Christian fellow travelers.

The last story is "My Parent's Bedroom" and is a tale of specifics in the general bloody mayhem between the Hutus and Tutsis.

These books from Africa, and there are more and more of them, educate in a way that almost nothing else can. They are full of passion, color, spirit, humanity and goodness along with the utter malevolence of raw greed and power ungoverned by any morality.