Say You're One of Them

I recently began reading Say You're One of Them, by Uwem Akpan.  The book contains several stories about children in Africa and the extreme troubles and difficulties they face on a daily basis. I just finished the first one which was about a kid growing up in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya.  His large family lives in a tiny shack made out of whatever materials they can find, and they all sniff glue to prevent themselves from being hungry.  It’s very sad, and there are many hard things going on in the text.  

    First of all, there are many obvious hard things going on in this book.  Some of them are poverty, hunger, homelessness, getting an education, street gangs, and child prostitution.  The main character’s family is practically homeless, they have no money, and they are constantly hungry.  They have many children, but can only afford to send one, the main character, to school.  Even paying for the education of this one boy is a great burden on the family.  This is also tough for everyone because all of their hope is relying on whether or not he can at least make it through enough school to get a job, and that he might make something out of this education that few people in their area are lucky enough to have.  Street gangs are an issue because most boys the main character’s age are not in school, but have just begun to join gangs, and participate in crime.  If the main character were not in school, he would be doing the same thing.  One of the main character’s older sister’s is a prostitute and that’s where that issue comes in.  His other sisters have a high chance of also becoming prostitutes, and that is another part of why his education is so valued, and he should appreciate it.  While the boys are in gangs and many of the girls are prostitutes, he gets to go to school.  In his family, only one of them gets to really have a chance at life through education.  

    Secondly, the seeing things through the perspective of this main character does not seem crucial to the story, although this perspective might be a bit more interesting than maybe that of the parents because he is still growing up and learning how to deal with his situation.  I have started reading the second story though, which is about two children (siblings, and older brother and his younger sister,) living with their uncle, and everything is very mysterious; I’m not entirely sure what’s going on.  I think perspective is important in this story because the older brother does not fully understand what is going on, but he is smarter than the sister and can figure things out more easily.  He does not see everything, but he sees a lot for a ten year old.  The fact that he is kind of in the middle makes his perspective interesting, but I am not even very far into that story yet, so I do not really know.  

    The text definitely made me think about justice and the world.  I do not think it is just for them to be living in the conditions that they are living in.  I did not see any specific people who brought or blocked justice, but their situation did not really change so I figured that justice probably had not been served.  

    I resisted quite a few points in the text.  When they refer to his sister and her job as a prostitute, or the fact that they have no food is mentioned.  I am aware of issues like these, but of course I cannot even imagine what being in a situation actually like this would be like.  Maybe I resist because I am uncomfortable with the issues.  

    In conclusion, I am really enjoying this book although I do find it very sad.  Absolutely terrible things are everyday life for these children, but I can’t wait to start reading the other stories the book contains.